Thread: Which one of these woodturning books would you choose?

i'll throw in my vote for keith rowley's foundation book. I'd been turning for a few years before reading it but found it corrected all the mistakes i'd been making would have been a good book to read before i did anything else.

Originally Posted by KenW

Jeff, I hope the DVDs didn't bore you too much. You will find that any ten woodturners will show you ten different ways of doing the same job. Try a few and choose whats best for you.

Ken, as I've posted elsewhere, the DVDs where fantastic. If and when I send them back, please send me a copy. Time for you to go OS with a good supply of Dead Finish and test some of the other master turners.

Jeff

Thanks for all of the responses everyone.

There was one other general turning book that I forgot to list in the topic post ;
- Creating In Wood With The Lathe by Ragnar Gustavsson (1967)
and a few speciality turning books ( Woodturning Projects for Dining by John Sainsbury (1981) and Woodturning Music Boxes by James A. Jacobson (1983) )

but I think I'll just skip the older turning books altogether, for now, until I get a chance to pick up one of the more modern books first - that have been recommended to me here, such as Rowley, Raffan and Darlow books, etc.

There are still so many older non-turning woodworking related books that this seller has left - I really don't have a clue if I'm missing out on some real gems or not, beyond the few really well known books amongst the rest.

When I check for reviews on Amazon and other well known book review sites - most of the books haven't been reviewed yet at all, and most of them are not mentioned in any of the dozens of "favorite woodworking books" lists I've scoured the internet for, so far. I guess there are just too many darn books out there to expect people to have the time/ money/opportunity to be able to compare and contrast them all in a comprehensive manner - especially when it comes to these older more obscure/ out of print publications.

I don't know if I should make another topic in the general woodworking section and post the list of the other remaining non-turning books there, or if I should just make do with the small bunch of books which I've already committed to buying at this point. As I said earlier, I really don't want to start a woodworking book collection at this point in my life, and definitely not one that is full books that I don't even really like/ want.

I may have said it before but will repeat again:

Books are good for instruction at a base level. Learn the "rules" - bevel rubbing etc.

DVDs are better, depending on who is presenting. (PM me if you want my opinion on Darlow and others).

Better still, watch a pro doing a demo. I know it's hard to capture it all, but live is good. Entertaining too.

First preference though is having a pro teach you. (Thanks especially to and more recently Ken W. )

If I had my time again..... I'd have wasted less money, got on the right track earlier etc by spending some time with a turner what knows his / her stuff. Spend for $ up front and you'll save heaps on chisels.

(Until you run into and Ken W. and then you really, really start to spend.

Jeff

Sawtomaticman,

Watching demonstrations and getting instruction is very helpful, but you must have done at least a bit of turning to understand what a demonstrator is doing and talking about.

I vote Rowley & Raffan & 2 to 4 hours at the lathe every day with wood pulled out of the firewood pile. With that much practice, you soon learn, ops we don't want to do that, and ooooh look at the way the wood comes slicing off the tool. Then it is just a matter of making the oooh part happen 99% of the time.

For bowls you need a bowl gouge and a scraper, a grinder, sandpaper, and tung oil, in addition to whatever kind of lathe you buy or make. With carbon tools you will sharpen more often, high speed steel tools only cut longer between sharpening, not any better.

I make tool handles and long skinny weed pots with a bowl gouge and a scraper. Yes, I can and do use a skew. Over time I have acquired from auctions and yard sales and also made about 30 various chisels & gouges. I have one good $$$ bowl gouge from Christmas money. I use them interchangeably, except no big wide roughing gouges or skews inside of bowls. With a foot powered lathe you are not likely to be hurt doing that, and you will quickly find why it is not a good idea.

On this site I have seen a reference to videos of a guy making bowls with a spring pole lathe. That would help your construction.

It makes me smile to see him roughing out bowls using an all wood lath with what looks like a couple of RR spikes for centers, using tools that look as though they have been heated in a campfire and beaten out over a hunk of well pipe, and handles hewed out with a dull ax.

Google: foot powered lathe, and spring pole lathe.

One damn fools opinion.

Originally Posted by Paul39

Sawtomaticman,

Watching demonstrations and getting instruction is very helpful, but you must have done at least a bit of turning to understand what a demonstrator is doing and talking about.

I vote Rowley & Raffan & 2 to 4 hours at the lathe every day with wood pulled out of the firewood pile. With that much practice, you soon learn, ops we don't want to do that, and ooooh look at the way the wood comes slicing off the tool. Then it is just a matter of making the oooh part happen 99% of the time.

Paul, I agree with your thoughts on spending hours at the lathe.

But better still, have a good educator there with you for those hours until you gain some good habits.

You American guys make me smile, truly. Your hardwoods are our softwoods, believe me! Our inland and desert stuff makes American cherry look like soft butter. Not too many curlies - at least not for too long. And lots of dust too.

As for the books.... I have the Raffan book/DVD collection. Great material for the most part. But dare I say it, Richard turns bowls mostly, not boxes, these days. So if that's your bent, look elsewhere. I have with Ken W. and my eyes are now almost wide open.

Jeff

Originally Posted by jefferson

DVDs are better, depending on who is presenting. (PM me if you want my opinion on Darlow and others).

For some reason I rarely remember anything after about the 15min. mark (except, perhaps, an occasional nudge in the ribs.) Raffan's the worst for this, but I've found it true of most, if not all, DVD's.

Give me a book or a live demo any time!

Originally Posted by Paul39

On this site I have seen a reference to videos of a guy making bowls with a spring pole lathe. That would help your construction.

It makes me smile to see him roughing out bowls using an all wood lath with what looks like a couple of RR spikes for centers, using tools that look as though they have been heated in a campfire and beaten out over a hunk of well pipe, and handles hewed out with a dull ax.

Google: foot powered lathe, and spring pole lathe.

That would be Robin Wood over at http://www.robin-wood.co.uk

He's quite skilled at what he does, but he mainly uses traditional English timbers. Soft stuff... and usually still green at that. I'd LOVE to see him have a go at a large chunk of well dried Cooktown Ironwood on his pole lathe.

Not that I'm belittling him... when a bloke can compete against a powered lathe using the same wood and finish earlier with a better result, he certainly demands some respect!

I would recommend the Gordon Stokes books. I did a three day turning course with him back in the mid eighties and his down to earth approach was great. Three days of spindle turning and no piece to take home. Everything was on technique including the best way to copy turn by eye. Incidently we only did a half day " tack on" devoted to bowl turning.

Equally Fred Pain's work is a great starter.

Jerry

Skew,

Thanks for the Robin Wood web site. Watching him rough out the Robin Hood bowl with an ax, and adjusting the lathe with a cudgel, again makes me smile.

I have been obsessed with making bowls for about 4 years, and more recently weed pots.

I use partly dried wood from the wood pile so it is easier than your hard, dry, slow growth timber. Dry locust is quite hard, the tree takes up silica and cutting it with a chain saw makes sparks. It takes the edge off a tool quickly.

Recently I'm working on a bowl of red oak that has been drying in the house about 6 years. Slow hollowing even with the Crown HSS gouge.

I agree about video instruction. I can't fathom how one can work on a car using a step by step video.

Sawtomaticman,

The Robin Wood site provided above by Skew should be inspiring and helpful to you.

Hi All,

A problem I have with a lot of the older books is that they are simply not up to date with current practice - with use of carbon steel tool and HSS only being optional, and use of long obsolete chucking methods, like the old engineers three jaw knuckle-busting chucks.

It is unusual to find any reference to a modern scroll chuck, though some do cover collet chucks, yet the scroll check is now in standard use.

One the other side, the classics do have all of the good stuff on what hasn't changed much - use of various chisel types, centrework versus facework and timber basics.

I also find DVDs useful but even then many are dated in terms of use of modern chucks, etc.

Cheers,

Geoff from 7Hill

G'day All,

For green woodworking and poles lathes there is an excellent little forum at:

http://www.bodgers.org.uk/bb/phpBB2/index.php

Robin and Nicola Wood are frequent contributors and there are lots of offbeat sites to explore.

Hope this is helpful, Trevor

Once you're past the basics I'd recommend Darlow The Fundamentals of Woodturning - the book that is. While you have to invest some time in grasping the tech language there's a good deal of interesting stuff on the mechanics of cutting, and the series of photos that illustrate techniques like turning a bead are second to none.

Originally Posted by Paul39

Skew,

Thanks for the Robin Wood web site. Watching him rough out the Robin Hood bowl with an ax, and adjusting the lathe with a cudgel, again makes me smile.

I have been obsessed with making bowls for about 4 years, and more recently weed pots.

I use partly dried wood from the wood pile so it is easier than your hard, dry, slow growth timber. Dry locust is quite hard, the tree takes up silica and cutting it with a chain saw makes sparks. It takes the edge off a tool quickly.

Recently I'm working on a bowl of red oak that has been drying in the house about 6 years. Slow hollowing even with the Crown HSS gouge.

I agree about video instruction. I can't fathom how one can work on a car using a step by step video.

Sawtomaticman,

The Robin Wood site provided above by Skew should be inspiring and helpful to you.

Car how do you work on a car buy a step buy step video . Easy get a hammer , then get a bigger hammer , if that doesn't work reach for the sledge hammer , if all else fails go get the gas axe ( oxy acetaline ) torch .