Retirement is being good to me and my explorations of woodturning and working have been giving me a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction. I've been working with woods like Apple, Pine, Red & White Oak, African Teak, South African Mahogany, Maple, Cherry, Elm, Aromatic Cedar, Ebony and many others.

A lot of the pleasure in turning wood on the lathe has been experiencing the different turning characteristics of each material. Pine feels almost spongy and tries to grab the tools as it spins while Birch has proven to be harder and comes off the piece in the form of a fine dust rather than shavings. Maple is rock hard yet the shavings are long and slender coming off the edge of the cutters in a stream that reaches for the ceiling. Zebrawood is easy to turn and the beautiful patterns in the wood are revealed in smooth surfaces requiring little sanding.

It seems like most of a year has gone by and yet I am still taking the early steps in woodturning. I'm trying to appreciate the steps and what I learn at each of them.

Scrolling through the Gallery page on the site I can see that I am now exploring new forms beyond the usual turned bowl shape. While there is always more to learn about the simple bowl, it is also fun to see what you can do with the same tools to create slopes, curves, ridges, grooves and other design elements. I currently have a piece of Pine on the lathe which has had epoxy resin added to create black & terracotta lines into the curves of the form.

The pictures, journal entries and other aspects of this website are allowing me to observe my own progress. It is proving very satisfying.