Woodturning for the Holidays

While I have always been partial to woodcraft - I was into woodburning for a while, and still like it, but the business of having to trace the drawings onto the wood first can be kind of boring - I never really knew what woodturning was. Fortunately (perhaps, in terms of my wallet, unfortunately) we have a WoodCraft store nearby. WoodCraft stores are wonderful places. The one near us has very friendly people working in it, and they offer all sorts of classes in different types of woodwork - carving, turning, guitar-making, table-making, etc. It was during the holiday season of 2006, and my wife and I saw a listing for a class where you get to turn a holiday ornament. I thought this would be a pretty cool introduction to the whole woodturning process, and at the end of it I would get (if I did things well) a nice ornament to show off...something of which I could say "Hey, I made this".

Well, the class was a lot of fun. The ornament started as a cube-like block of wood with a hole drilled through it and a brass tube glued into the hole. At the time, I did not even think about the process of getting the hole drilled and the tube glued and such - I was happy that it was done, and we were able to start right in on the lathe.

The process of turning wood on a lathe, especially on a mandrel, is very relaxing. You are creating something that is aesthetically pleasing, as it always comes out symmetrically. You could make something that is very different from what you intended, but it will still come out symmetrical unless you deliberately did not want it to.

In addition to turning the wood on the lathe, I learned about the uses of CA glue, and about the ways to add colour to woodworking. We drilled small holes in the ornament, and filled them with coloured wood shavings and glue. It made for a nice effect.

I was hooked. I could imagine making ornaments for friends and wowing them with my craft. Somehow I forgot about what might be needed to get the wood to even the point that I started at in the class...and it is a good thing that I was naive, because if I thought about it too much I might never have gotten started!