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 […]
Woodturning
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
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 […]
