Thread: Winter musings

Originally Posted by rsser

.
Is the world so short of pieces on the poetics of the lathe?

How Long Does It Take to Make One of Those? <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" width="600"><tbody><tr> <td colspan="2" align="center">by John A. Styer
http://lathe-meister.com/</td></tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="300">Do you mean....
not plant the tree, but find the wood,
just see the piece, (as if I could)?

To find a highly figured burl,
a crotch, an eye, or pearly curl?

And once I spy it, perhaps buy it,
inventory, store, and dry it?

Then saw or cut it, possibly I kiln it'
glue, imbue with fill, or drill it?

You mean that once I'm satisfied
it's stopped the warps, checks,
cracks, once dried?

And mounted on the lathe, to turn it,
(which takes much practice, just to
learn it); </td> <td valign="top" width="300">
and then employ a gouge, or two,
or use a skew, which I don't eschew,

to mold it, shape it (what's your pleasure?)
By all means, I'm sure to measure,

then sand it smooth, please wear your mitts,
from coarse to fine, 10,000 grits,

then braze, or burnish, paint, or polish,
(the goal: enhance, and don't demolish)?

Is that your question, start to end,
how long's that path, its way to wend?

Or do you merely want to know how long it turned?
Ten minutes or so.</td></tr></tbody></table>

That's poetry tha' is.

Hmmm, last winter I seem recall gathering chunks of timber and going to the timber show. All in all not the most busy time.

I've been to Ern's shed in the middle of July...
Good port... good cigar.... A/C on reverse..... swapping stories & bits of timber.

Here on the other side of the world I'm a in different season and a phase of wood piracy with the intent gearing up for more turning.
I just spent a few days on the bandsaw making blanks out firewood that looked like it had too much potential to burn.
Theres oak, pine, eucs, black acacia, walnut, avocado and some mystery wood.
During the process I killed many spiders and at least 3 black widows.
This year I'm planting corn so I'll have my brother rototill a truckload or so
of last winter's shavings into the soil.
I have been busy here at home with an add on/ remodel for the last 6 months
and finally its winding down.
We added a bath & bedroom and totally remodeled the kitchen.
I have a Husqvarna electric chainsaw & a brand new and very efficient woodburning stove.
It cut my energy consumption by 55% this winter.
I'm toying with the idea of some type of blower to
move warm air from the house into the insulated shop.
To do the add on we had to cut 4 or 5 pretty big trees down or
back so I have lots of wood
including a large elm of some type, mulberry, brazil pepper, sycamore and loquat.
The best part of course is I get to examine every single
log before it goes into the firebox for turning potential

Ern, theres a Czech film titled Kolya http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolya that has a scene involving turning and
turnery. The scene changes rapidly and suddenly a man is finish turning a
top and takes it off the lathe and spins it with a pull string...
much to the young boy character's delight.
I was viewing it in the wee hours and groped for the remote in disbelief.
I replayed it until it felt like my eyeballs were smoldering.

There is another one made in 1947 called Black Narcissus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Narcissus featuring Sabu the Elephant Boy and Deborah Kerr.
Kerr is a nun in India.
The lathe was gone in an instant but again, I was on the remote / replay...

It would be great to read or view other references.

Solstice is June 21 and something I usually celebrate by fishing.
If I'm not fishing I'll be in the shed with the fan roaring.
Interesting to learn Orwell was a spinner of wood as well as words and ideas.
tm

Orwell also writes of one here ;

'" In the bazaar huge families of Jews, all dressed in the long black robe
and little black skull-cap, are working in dark fly-infested booths that
look like caves. A carpenter sits cross-legged at a prehistoric lathe,
turning chair-legs at lightning speed. He works the lathe with a bow in
his right hand and guides the chisel with his left foot, and thanks to a
lifetime of sitting in this position his left leg is warped out of
shape. At his side his grandson, aged six, is already starting on the
simpler parts of the job. "

http://www.george-orwell.org/Marrakech/0.html

We have an exhibition of William Morris's work here at the Art Gallery .
Dose anyone know if he was a turner , or if he even made the furniture ?

Funny you should mention fires and mistakes ... I was splitting kindling earlier tonight, from a three-sides-flawless piece of Alpine Ash. The fourth side had a row of nail holes which, sadly, left deposits of metal in the holes to attack my planer blades.

That was the last of my abortive foray into reclaiming timber.

Nice pome underwood!

Well found Manuka Jock ... (just as a btw, that essay shows up in the Oz branch of Project Gutenburg but not from PG's main index). As for Morris, I think he had a workshop but not sure that he got his hands dirty.

'Lathe' turns up in Chaucer but appears to mean barn.

Thanks for the film tips TM - wonder if they're around as torrents

Ern, Google Eric Arthur Blair (Orwell's real name), and you might locate something about his lathework.

Originally Posted by Cliff Rogers

I've been to Ern's shed in the middle of July...
Good port... good cigar.... A/C on reverse..... swapping stories & bits of timber.

Cliff, does that mean it's cold in Oz in July? I was still ponderin' Ern's post about woodburnin' when I read yours. Hard to wrap my thoughts around the differences in living South of the Equator.

That time of year, we'll be rangin' around 95 to 110 degrees Farenheit, here in NW Texas.

Not real cold yet Al, and in Melb we don't get snow so it's all relative. Maybe 4 degrees C overnight is the worst.

Ta for the Blair search tip; nice one. It added one to the list. "Eric Blair" + lathe --->

he was prob a botcher on the late (lol, just like one of us) - http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...MGG5O8SDV1.DTL

Just a biographer's judgement mind. The Shelden biography would appear to be more sympathetic to Orwell's ww.

Here's another shot at the poetics of the lathe:

I had the long brown shaft
nestling in my hand
Let's put a thong about it said she
and spin it round and round.

With glee I rushed to do as bid
Coming closer with my tool.
This is the lathe of heaven said she
"And your 'inturnship' is so cool!"

Have another cigar Ern.