Making a set of wood bowls on foot-powered lathe

From Llyod Kahn's blog:

Robin Wood makes a nesting set of bowls to commemorate the death of the 'last bowlturner' George Lailey who died 50 years ago. Inspired by Lailey's tools and lathe in the Museum of English Rural Life, Robin recreated the lost craft fifteen years ago and now makes his living as a bowlturner.

I like the satisfying "click" when Robin pops a smaller bowl out of the larger one.

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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OldRipbeak

Too bad he’s not located near British Columbia; he could get free feet to power his lathe.

http://boingboing.net/2008/02/18/severed-feet-washed.html
Dave Faris

If you like this, you’ll also probably like to watch back episodes of Roy Underhill’s The Woodwright’s Shop.
Anonymous

I married into the Weston Clan (Carmel area) years back, and saw Neil Weston’s workshop before he moved to Hawaii. He was very proud of his model T transmission case that he turned into a lathe to turn bowls as large as 4′ in diameter. He had the most wonderful woods and tools.

He was a master woodworker – he built sailboats (one racing sailboat for John Steinbeck in fact), houses, but loved his woodworking on the lathe, his bowls the best I believe. stunning work.

/john
OldRipbeak

Those bowls are gorgeous! I was thinking, “That looks like it wouldn’t be too hard to do.” And then I heard the bit about it taking him 5 years just to make the tools he needed. I think I won’t take up bowl turning just yet.
- flink
  
  It would take five years if you start from scratch. Robin built the lathe and made his turning tools by hand. You could, instead, buy the specialized tools for tuning nested bowls and buy a honking big lathe to start turning.
  
  Would it be as satisfying? I don’t know. Probably? Definitely? I’d love to spend the time to build a treadle lathe and do some turning, but I’m certain that that will remain a pipe dream.
  
  I’m happy making pens and small turnings. I have off-the-shelf turning turns and a small lathe.
  
  google “pen turning” or “bowl turning” there are a number of forums dedicated tot he craft. It’s fun.
Anonymous

That’s odd. I didn’t know the craft was lost. I make my living as a bowl turner.

I’m grateful for the coverage of what is a relatively uncommon craft, but it is far from lost.
cjp

Can’t watch, painful memory: Grade 7 shop class, a lathe, a chisel and a distractingly cute new boy. My thumb never fully recovered. My mom still has my bowl, though.
Anonymous

Really? Lost art? I have several recent books on it and there is a turning club at the local University that is about 1/2 bowl turners. You can take classes at Woodcraft stores just for this. Also there are many thriving turning communities around the world and modern tech has even been used to create a Lathe that can turn something like this.
http://www.youtube.com/user/freedomisbetter#p/a/u/0/-dEmCrBzkqY
The Bowl Master VB-36 lets you turn a 36″ wooden bowl without a tailstock!
gorilla

Dave #4: Even more specific is Tim Yoder’s “Woodturning Workshop” which has projects made (mainly) on the lathe. In fact, Tim did a program on turning bowls, which is is available on DVD
Midden

“The last bowel turner”? It’s far from a lost art. There are hundreds, if not thousands of people who turn the old-fashioned way. Yes, this guy is doing some cool work, but it’s not like he’s the guardian of the sacred flame. Making your own tools, turning nested bowels, or even using a treadle lathe are not the most common methods, but there are plenty of us who practice the old skills. There were something like 62 thousand hits on google when I did a search for “treadle lathe”.
- Lobster
  
  I just turned my bowels this very morning, matter of fact.
  - Midden
    
    Yes, I caught that too late! I think we all turn our bowels, almost every day, if we’re lucky.
    - Lobster
      
      Yes, and few of us need a lathe to do so. ;)
Midden

No, OldRipbeak. It doesn’t take five years. A few days with a propane torch and some bar stock, hammers and files is enough to make the cutters. Building the late takes a few weekends. Yes, it takes a lot of practice to get good at it. Five years? No. Don’t be intimidated. It’s not that hard, and it’s very satisfying.
RamonaLittle

The moment where wood chips were flying toward his eyes made me cringe. Shouldn’t he be wearing goggles?
- flink
  
  In that situation, I’d feel okay wearing only glasses, too. Using a powered lathe, the situation changes and I’d be looking for goggles, too. He wasn’t bringing out steady streams of high-speed chips like you’d get from a powered lathe. If I was running a powered lathe with a 20″ throw, I’d definitely want to be wearing something more than an open necked-shirt, too.
BastardNamban

Sir, you just made my YEAR!

My favorite show, ever, on any network ever was and is the Woodwright’s Shop. Roy Underhill always only using hand tools to do everything, including making wooden locks, is the sweetest thing ever.

I would kill for a complete DVD box set of the show’s 27 years or something on the air, but they’ve never offered it on DVD to my knowledge.

I can watch this on the internet thanks to you- THANK YOU!!!
Dave Faris

I just hope you don’t need the kind of tools the guy is using in the video.
Anonymous

There is a big difference between powered lathe turning (all in one direction) and pole lathe turning (revolves back and forth.)

I built one to try it out, and it was really tough to get right.

Robin is not really the “last turner” anymore, but for a time he was one of the very few. He’s been a champion of returning to a hand craft movement over in the UK.

badger
Anonymous

Nice to see me on boing boing.

This is my website which gives more info about the history and practice of this craft http://www.robin-wood.co.uk/index.htm
and blog http://greenwood-carving.blogspot.com/

As others have said Bowlturning is not dead but this technique is very different from turning on an electric lathe. This is the technique that was used for the 1000 years when most Eauropeans ate from wooden bowls every day that is 600AD to 1600AD. It is also remarkably fast and efficient.

You can see me racing against an electric lathe in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDgIGzw4VtA

For folks interested in the history of turning search for my book called “the wooden bowl” which is full of photos of 1000 year old bowls from excavations and details of how they were made.

It doesn’t take 5 years to learn to scratch a bowl out, it takes five years to become proficient.
dros

Last turner my arse!

There are loads of these videos on youtube ‘last clogmaker’, ‘last lovespoon carver’ etc etc – all rubbish. This stuff has been carrying on without fanfare for years. People make. They don’t necessarily make videos of themselves doing it and upload them to youtube but it still goes on.
- robin wood
  
  @ Dros
  
  The “last bowlturner” is in quotes referring to George Lailey because that is what he was known as.
  
  He was called that because he was the last man in England turning bowls on a pole lathe. The craft died with him in 1958 and for 30 years there was no one here doing it.
  
  There are 3 clog makers in Britain but lots of love spoon makers. Richard Sennett in his book “the Craftsman” suggests it takes 10,000 hours to master a craft. Many people make but few take the time to master difficult skills.
Anonymous

I learned this 20 years ago at Fort New Salem, in Salem, West Virginia, USA. I learned how to build the lathe and forge the cutters, too.

I guess us primitive colonials preserved the “lost craft” of Old Blighty…
the lurch

If you want to try making similar bowls, and don’t have handy access to tool steel, a forge, and grinders, you can order the McNaughton Center Saver system. These tools are basically a commercial version of the made tools you see here.

Lee Valley Tools sells them. Pricey, but good!

http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=49128&cat=1,330,49232&ap=1
Anonymous

What Robin Wood’s website makes clear that Lloyd Kahn’s blog post does not is this:

“When George Lailey died in 1958 a craft going back more than 2000 years died with him. He was the last person in England to make a living turning wooden bowls on a pole lathe.”

In other words, the whole “lost art” aspect of this is a misquote.

That doesn’t make bowl turning (or building your own lathe & forging your own tools) any less cool.