David Ellsworth Class

[Herebrooks]

Hello all: I'm excited to report that I'm taking a three day class with "the Man" this weekend. He moved to my area a while ago and I believe this is is first class in his new studio. I became aware of his work sometime in the seventies, about the same time I began reading Krenov's books. Once I opened my shop being a furnituremaker I really didn't have time to explore turning the way I would have liked. Now my back is giving me troubles I have stopped slogging around big timbers and have traded it for slogging around logs....makes sense, right? BUT, with the help of my chainsaw I can whittle them down to moveable sizes to turn. I also have given in to sitting down at the lathe. It's really not that different but few people, that I know of, are doing it. Saves the back for sure.
Anyway, I'll try to give a play by play of what we will be covering at David class. Know this, he's one of the great turners of our time, yet remains gracious to a fault.

[MichaelS]

That sounds awesome. What an opportunity and a "bucket list" experience! Report back on the experience if you will? Would love to hear about it. Though, unlikely the stars will align for me to take a class from David, he has been an amazing influence on the turning community and rather tireless in his support of promoting it since the AAW's inception and more.

Best,
Michael

[Tim J. Chase]

I happened to meet David at Turn on Chicago a number of years ago.  David and Jacques Vesery were critiquing the instant Gallery they both  examined 3 pieces of mine and I listened to the remarks from both He was very positive with nothing but praise and Jacques was not as encouraging as he found a ridge within one of the pieces. He suggested improving tool control. Ok fast forward
I could only be there for the day and  as I was heading to my car I  walked right into David in the parking area and we spoke I thanked him for his input and he wondered what pieces I had done so I showed him again and he wanted to check his buddy's assessment, he couldn't find any missed ridge and he said I shouldn't be anything but proud of the work. I hope to reconnect In Colorado in a couple years as I will be retiring in the mountains and he spends a fair amount of time there each year. He was very inspiring I'm sure you'll get your best training ever. I'm jealous.
 
Tim

[Herebrooks]

Yes Tim, it as the best training I've had. David is a soft spoken gracious person who shares his experience generously. The weekend began on Friday morning with breakfast at his wonderful North Carolina home. He and his wife Wendy made breakfast while we all got to know each other thru  stories and rememberences of "turners we have known". David and I are roughly the same age so we shared our collective chronology from the woodworking world for the last 45 years. Only difference was that he knew my heros personally.
   The day began with a discussion of some of the basics, like why tools cut, sharp edges, and how to work the Robust lathes that fill his shop. By mid day we were making chips fly, concentrating on open bowls.
More later....

[Arlin Eastman]

Hello all: I'm excited to report that I'm taking a three day class with "the Man" this weekend. He moved to my area a while ago and I believe this is is first class in his new studio. I became aware of his work sometime in the seventies, about the same time I began reading Krenov's books. Once I opened my shop being a furnituremaker I really didn't have time to explore turning the way I would have liked. Now my back is giving me troubles I have stopped slogging around big timbers and have traded it for slogging around logs....makes sense, right? BUT, with the help of my chainsaw I can whittle them down to moveable sizes to turn. I also have given in to sitting down at the lathe. It's really not that different but few people, that I know of, are doing it. Saves the back for sure.
Anyway, I'll try to give a play by play of what we will be covering at David class. Know this, he's one of the great turners of our time, yet remains gracious to a fault.

Sounds great.

I was lucky enough that while Lyle Jamieson did his travels he stopped by my house three times and help me greatly and set up my grinding system which was 1.5" off which is why I never got a good grind.  I also had Rudy Lopez come to my house and spent 4 hours and shown me a lot of his turning techniques also.

[Herebrooks]

Tip from the class. Placing a wet bowl in a paper bag creates it's own atmosphere. Moisture from the thicker parts will migrate to the thinner parts allowing the bowl to dry out more evenly.

[Tim J. Chase]

Tip from the class. Placing a wet bowl in a paper bag creates it's own atmosphere. Moisture from the thicker parts will migrate to the thinner parts allowing the bowl to dry out more evenly.

I dry all my green turned bowls in a brown paper bag with the shavings from turning and I have never lost one to cracking in over ten years. This procedure likely needs tweaking depending on your climate and ability to keep the drying from occurring to fast. Slow and steady has worked for me.

[Herebrooks]

Another tip that was good advice. When hollowing the inside of an open bowl, change your focus when you reach the bottom from the gouge cutting to the center of the bowl. It smooths the transition.
My takeaways from the class are generally common knowledge among turners, but perhaps they might be helpful to some.

[MichaelMouse]

Tip from the class. Placing a wet bowl in a paper bag creates it's own atmosphere. Moisture from the thicker parts will migrate to the thinner parts allowing the bowl to dry out more evenly.

Well, not really.  It helps keep the relative humidity inside the bag higher.  Wood stills dries faster from endgrain than face than quarter, because of the way it's constructed.  True enough that the outside of the wood will lose faster than the inside, though.  Inside has to come out, which is why face and quarter, which is not vascular, dries slower.

The paper bag also buffers the rate of loss a bit on its own, because it's wood, and is governed by the same adsorb/desorb rules as the bowl it contains.  Higher RH inside maintained as it loses to the lower outside RH.  Put DRY shavings in as a buffer, not wet, as many suggest,  because they may foster mildew by slowing the rate of loss too much sometimes.  

Some of us don't bag at all, having basements with concrete floors where the RH is high.

[Arlin Eastman]

Hello all: I'm excited to report that I'm taking a three day class with "the Man" this weekend. He moved to my area a while ago and I believe this is is first class in his new studio. I became aware of his work sometime in the seventies, about the same time I began reading Krenov's books. Once I opened my shop being a furnituremaker I really didn't have time to explore turning the way I would have liked. Now my back is giving me troubles I have stopped slogging around big timbers and have traded it for slogging around logs....makes sense, right? BUT, with the help of my chainsaw I can whittle them down to moveable sizes to turn. I also have given in to sitting down at the lathe. It's really not that different but few people, that I know of, are doing it. Saves the back for sure.
Anyway, I'll try to give a play by play of what we will be covering at David class. Know this, he's one of the great turners of our time, yet remains gracious to a fault.

There are two people I wish I could have met that I believe made a difference in the wood working world.

1. Sam Maloof
2. Bob Stocksdale

Both are not with us any longer but I do believe they made what we have now.

Looking forward to hearing what you learn.   I was so lucky to have Lyle Jamieson stop at my house 3 times and he is about the same style as David and Jimmy Clewes who stopped by as well and also sent me and the vets all of his DVDs and his style is wonderful as well.