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Stuart King

Craftsman, artist, woodturner, and photojournalist

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Woodturning

History of the Lathe: part four – the machine takes over

Man has always tried to find ways of making manual tasks easier and the businessman methods to reduce manpower, speed production and lower operating costs. A good illustration of this was the manufacture of rifle butts. Hand held firearms have existed since the Middle Ages and virtually all these weapons incorporated a hand fashioned wooden […]

Bone up on Bobbins : the craft of lace bobbin making

Most lace designs required the use of dozens of bobbins at any one time. This need kept many specialist bobbin turners busy through nearly five centuries.

Samuel Rockall: last of the chair bodgers

In the early years of the 20th Century there were 30 chair bodgers in the vicinity of Sam’s home, serving the demands of the High Wycombe furniture trade.

The International Turning Exchange

There is nothing parochial about the International Turning Exchange (ITE); this is born out by the number of residents who have participated from many parts of the globe over the last ten years. For me an indicator of the programme’s great success was the number of past residents who chose to return to Philadelphia to […]

How I built Leonardo Da Vinci’s lathe

A simple sketch by the Italian genius Leonardo Da Vinci C.1480 gives us our first glimpse of what an early treadle wheel lathe might have looked like.

Chair Turnings

Woodturning has played more than a supporting role in the history of chair making. From the ancient Egyptians, who used the lathe for turning chair parts, to the latest computer-controlled copy lathes man has endeavored to decorate his furniture and solve the practical turning problems that arise. Some of the earliest evidence of turned work […]

The Toy-Making Village of Seiffen, Germany

The toy-making village of Seiffen in Germany is a must-visit for anyone interested in the history of woodturning and toy making.

Making a Wassail Bowl

Stuart King with his much used two gallon Wassail bowl

The height of wassailing could be said to have occurred during the 17th century, at a period when magnificent bowls elevated on a stemmed foot graced many a magnificent table. Wassail bowls were traditionally turned from Lignum Vitea, a newly discovered timber from South America. The function of a wassail bowl is to hold ‘wassail’, […]

Tunbridge ware

Segmented turned work has had its devotees amongst woodturners both amateur and professional since the 1930s (who remembers those two toned, brick-like biscuit barrels and fruit bowls?). In recent years some remarkable three-dimensional work has been produced, much of it pushing the boundaries of what would seem possible, some of it appearing in the pages […]

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Fisherman automaton

I built an Automaton

An automaton can amuse and entertain using the simplest of mechanical technology and can be made by anyone using basic woodworking skills.

Wildwood Archaeology

The Wildwood is still giving up its secrets, albeit slowly. Exploration started rather late due to a wet spring but continued well into the autumn with each carefully dug and recorded trench revealing a little more of life from prehistory to the medieval period.

Mystery of the Moor—4000 years of woodturning

A Bronze Age burial chamber was discovered on Dartmoor, with the remains of a woman, and four lathe-turned ear studs. So began an archaeological experiment.

  • The BBC TV news visits the Wildwood
  • The Romans were here!
  • Beech Nuts in the wild
  • The Speckled Wood Butterfly
  • Hidden Wildwood Camera
  • Mary Rose — making a sailor’s boxwood hair comb
  • Spirit of the Wildwood
  • Wildwood flowers
  • The Wildwood Blog
  • Tree Felling in the Wildwood

New Book for Sale—The Chair Bodgers

The Chair Bodger—Book by Stuart King

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Recent Posts

  • I built an Automaton
  • Wildwood Archaeology
  • Mystery of the Moor—4000 years of woodturning
  • The BBC TV news visits the Wildwood
  • The Romans were here!

Blog

  • Archaeology
  • Automata
  • Folk art
  • Lacemaking
  • Local history
  • Marquetry
  • Wildwood Blog
  • Woodturning
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Contact Stuart

Email: stuart@stuartking.co.uk
Phone: 01494 712027

Buy my Book—The Chair Bodgers

The Chair Bodger—Book by Stuart King

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