Thank you all for your kind and encouraging comments. It is especially rewarding coming from such a group of knowledgeable and talented craftspeople. I will try to respond to all of your questions and comments in this one post.
Robin, Thanks for posting the photos and referring me to the other post on how to do it. I much admire your work and the way you have helped to educate people and share your skills and knowledge. Your comments on the difference between Britain and America/Scandinavia/Eastern Europe helped me to understand the predominance of turned items in Britain. From a historical perspective I find this fascinating. Factors such as peopleÂ’s proximity to urban areas and markets, strength of guilds, and traditions all play a part I guess.
After reading your comments, I pulled down I book I hadn’t looked at in awhile, The Colonial Craftsman by Carl Bridenbaugh. He discusses some of these differences: “In the seventeenth century, craftsmen and husbandmen who came to America faced the compelling problem of hewing a living out of the forest; they had little time and less energy for fashioning artifacts beyond absolute necessities. These each individual made for himself.” However, he also cites a quote from the late 17th century by Robert Beverly assaulting his fellow Virginians. I thought it might interest you woodworkers and bowlturners in England: “Nay, they are such abominable Ill-husbands, that tho’ their Country be overrun with Wood, yet they have all their Wooden-Ware from England; their Cabinets, Chairs, Tables, Stools, Chests, Boxes, Cart-Wheels, and all other things, even so much as their Bowls, and Birchen Brooms, to the Eternal Reproach of their Laziness.”
I think there was also an expectation in America, as maybe there was in Scandinavia, that every man be able to handle an axe, and was judged in the eyes of other men by this ability. Abe Lincoln was often pictured wielding an axe and was known as “the rail splitter.” Robert Frost wrote a poem in the early 20th century called Two Tramps in Mud-Time. In it he is being watched from the woods by two guys while he is splitting wood. I like this stanza:
Men of the woods and lumber-jacks,
They judged me by their appropriate tool.
Except as a fellow handled an ax,
They had no way of knowing a fool.
Ok, sorry for rambling on a bit there, but I donÂ’t get much of a chance to share this kind of stuff with anybody that might be even remotely interested!
Regarding the question of where I learned to carve bowls: Mostly through the read-and-try method. Several years ago, I discovered books by Mike Abbot, Drew Langsner, John Alexander and others to add to my Underhill library. They sort of took it more beyond the neat-old-stuff category for me, and it made a lot of sense. I got rid of any power tools that I had and found all of the books and tools I could find about this stuff. There’s always something else to try – like Robin Fawcett’s Rebec (I’ve got to see more about that!). I’ve had fun making a pole lathe, chairs, greenwood boxes (inspired by Peter Follansbee), a small timber frame building, shrinkboxes, etc. I learned the basics of bowlcarving through a tutorial article by Drew Langsner, a video by Jogge Sundquist, another featuring Bengt Lidstrom, and a few pieces here and there from other things – and just developing my own preferences and ideas and methods as I work. I do particularly admire Scandinavian design in the bowls, but other cultures too. Endlessly fascinating.
Goldsmithexile asked about the workbench. Basically it has evolved a bit over the years. I built it secured to the wall at the back and on legs at the front, so it takes a lot of pounding without moving. You are correct on the Roubo influence. I read an article a couple years ago about RouboÂ’s bench and added the whole apron front with the hook. I like it a lot, but I use my end vice and the many dog holes on the top much more, as I do more carving than planing or joinery. Holdfasts are great. IÂ’ll put a better photo of it here.
Yes, Robin F., it is relaxing to take an adze to a log after a day of teaching world history to 150 sixteen-year-olds. Actually, the English make my job much easier with characters like Henry VIII and all those Roundheads and Cavaliers running around – easy to make it interesting.
Regarding the sharing of tips and techniques, I would be happy to share anything folks are interested in. I have submitted an article to Wade Muggleton for inclusion in the Gazette about a shaving horse variation I designed to facilitate the use of a drawknife on the exterior of bowls. Unlike a traditional horse, it squeezes the workpiece from end-to-end, allowing large pieces to be held securely but instantly repositioned. It is really an essential device for the way I work. In the shop I use my original log version, and at demonstrations I use a more portable version made from dimensional timber. I’ll post a photo of each here. I would also like to make a short video sequence sometime of making a bowl similar to some of the things on Robin Wood’s site and others. Better yet – maybe I’ll make it to the Bodger’s Ball one day. How long do you suppose that would take in a coracle?
2sheds mentioned using cherry. Is this the same thing as black cherry here in the U.S.?