Bowl Turning Masterclass

welcome to Charleston South Carolina this is where I teach my classes at my own personal studio and this is my Bowl turning masterclass it's a three day class where students can build on and hone their Bowl turning techniques they make a whole lot of shavings and leave with a few bowls of their own a lot goes into my classes from cutting up wood to cleaning the studio that you're preparing lunch here we're going to take an in-depth look at what it's like to teach and to attend one of my classes I [Music] love living in Charleston it has so much to explore with a rich history beautiful coastline and waterways creative culture and world-class restaurants it's no wonder we're named Conde Nast traveler's number one u.s. tourist destination eight years and Counting and no wonder that many of my students bring their families when they come for a class this class has students from Illinois New York Pennsylvania and Texas while they're making their way here I'm busy cutting up fresh Bowl blind a whole lot of them this class will go through at least 30 bulb lengths in three days I've got to make sure my chainsaw blade and my bandsaw blade are sharp it takes almost a full day of cutting for me to prepare this wood I like to give my students good-sized Bowl blanks to turn on these three horsepower lathe so there's a lot of lifting to [Music] [Music] and cleaning I often joke that I teach classes to make myself clean the studio things get pretty messy around here very quickly so having other people in my space of the good motivation for me to tidy up I've got to position the lathe to sharpen tools set up the chucks clean the face shield and do just a little dusting and that brings us to the first day of class I like to let everyone briefly introduce themselves when they arrive I'm here it's a really worth as much as I can about anything again I just started a furniture business in January so I do custom furniture I've been turning I think I bought my first [Music] class for six months now but so I go and [Music] [Laughter] so I'm self-taught know myself and like someone else mentioned blow tear out a lot of sanding but I think that point though is a really important one that there are a lot of ways to make one round some of them you're working harder than others now we head out to the studio which is just behind my house we're gonna put our first bowl blank on the lathe and everyone is going to start practicing that push cuts this is the style of cutting I use it's one where the gouge is pushed through the wood as opposed to being pulled through the wood it can only travel through the wood as fast as it's cutting so it doesn't tear the fibers it's also a style that puts very little strain on your body when you get it right so you should be able to turn for several hours at a time without causing yourself harm or creating any sore muscles but it takes practice to get the feel of it so the first blank that we put on the lathe will become a pile of shavings I think this takes off a little pressure as opposed to diving right into making a bowl [Music] lunch time I really enjoy cooking and eating I like to eat healthy well-balanced meals to keep my energy up so that's what I prepare for my students and it's fun to make it look nice too normally I do all the cooking myself but with this class I've got a little help from Dan before he heads back to Oregon today we're having oven roasted chicken cumin spiced quinoa and a salad of spinach baby peppers avocado and red cabbage I think having lunches together here really builds camaraderie for the class and gives the students a nice break off of your feet after lunch we get back to the lathe and start working on our bowls as I mentioned it takes practice to get the feel of the push cutter it requires more finesse than muscle which is counterintuitive I like to use the assisted cut in my classroom there are so many subtle tweaks and adjustments that are easy for me to show my students by putting my hands on the tool while they're cutting it helps to teach that finesse and for them to feel how little muscle goes into removing a whole lot of wood [Music] is it an ordinarily gratifying to pass on it's still like returning and see that sense of accomplishment my students feel when they finish a bowl this technique is not something that I made up on my own I am NOT self-talk I had a mentor and Stuart batty who learned from his dad who learned from his dad through the trade in England as a craftsperson I have a strong conviction in learning from others whose experience is greater than mine through my apprenticeship I was able to learn in a year what might have taken me 20 years to figure out on my own while I picked up the concepts in that year of apprenticeship I continue to build my skills and speed afterwards and I still do when I signed up I had done a handful of bowls not too long maybe a couple months into turning I decided it was time to invest in myself I hadn't worked on a lathe once ever safeco for several years and doing it all wrong it's only by her patience and her guiding hand that I'm doing it watch - lead a couple of shows and then Waco SWAT and by the way watched her beat Stuart was a highlight a lot of turning on the lathe quite a bit one of the main things I wanted to do was learn the push cut with 40 40 grind so that I don't have to spend as much time sanding had turned for several years and I wind up using scrapers because I just gotten frustrated with gouges and she's more than fulfil my expectations I recommend it to everybody all in everyone there is just so much to learn and she is a fantastic teacher I've been interested in this 40 40 grind with the gouge and the methodology that Ashley teaches and yes I learned a lot about it and I think it's just a matter of going back in practicing it's definitely worth it to just find someone who knows how to do it and then teach you how to do it the right way it's a lot harder if you learn one way the wrong way or teach yourself you don't know what you're doing it's definitely better to invest some money upfront in yourself learning from an expert certainly gives you a jump on things though and there's nothing like an immersive hands-on class I frequently teach people who are trying woodturning for the first time and I also teach many men and women who have been turning for 20 or 30 years with a different set of techniques by keeping my classes small I'm able to teach to a variety of experience levels so give it a try what are you waiting for [Music]

Channel: Ashley Harwood

Views: 132,873

Rating: 4.9400401 out of 5

Keywords: ashley harwood, ashleyharwoodturning, woodturning, wood turning, stuart batty, lathe, lathes, bowl turning, gamut, finial, spindle, turning, turner, wako, texas, race, charleston, south carolina, class, teaching, teacher, instructing, instructor, laguna tools, vicmarc, sorby, revo, revo 24 36, dan tilden, maker, making, diy, builder

Id: AoAuNyHOn5M

Length: 9min 34sec (574 seconds)

Published: Thu May 23 2019