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Alan Batty, Saturday, 15 October 2005
The sad news first – this may be Alan’s last visit as a demonstrator.
He says he is retiring and was
even selling of most of his tools.
We can only hope that he reconsiders and treats us to more demos
in the future.
As always the day was a mixture of wit, skill and stories from his days as a production turner.
We started with a discussion about the shape of columns and how they are tapered and also curved
to look more pleasing to the eye. Apparently if a column has straight sides it will appear to be
concave and so look wrong. Alan explained how to calculate the correct curve and taper. This is
called ‘entasis’ and is quite an involved subject. I looked it up on the web and in the woodturning
design book of Mike Darlow (and now I have a headache). The method that Alan showed us is only
one of the many for producing the correct form. The ancient Greeks obviously knew a thing or two.
(I can recommend the Mike Darlow series of books for woodturning – they are probably the most
comprehensive on the market).
Throughout the day Alan entertained and instructed us and his subjects included chasing threads
(how does he make it look so easy?) and turning spheres.
Turning a perfect sphere is something that most of us dream about and then wake up! Using
Alan’s method it is quite a straightforward procedure and you should be able to make a sphere
of your own. Believe me it really does work. (I will produce a sheet showing Alan’s method in the
near future)
Whilst turning a bowl Alan explained the different grinds he uses on his gouges. Although most
of us have our gouges in the usual ‘finger nail’ profile Alan uses a gouge with a straight across
grind for much of his bowl work. He explained the advantages of this grind and how it allowed
easier hollowing of the bowl.
Interestingly Alan has a low opinion of jigs for grinding tools and how they limit the way tools
can be shaped. Unfortunately most of us have a limited time to practice free hand grinding and
jigs can give us more consistency and more turning time.
The demonstration was up to Alan’s usual high standard
and he once again showed us that
you can’t beat a good old’un.
Thanks Alan.
Martin Payne
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