In this article I would like to share with you some of the joys we learning woodturners experience as we begin the long road to turning proficiency. As we all know we employ, and pay considerable amounts of money for certain tools in order to create a living article from the mental vision we see in the "rough diamond". But in order to create this article of beauty, (as so many of you do if the exhibits shown in various wood shows and magazine articles are any indication) we must first understand the uses of the various tools. So I listed four tools that I was shown how to use in a basic woodturning course I took and decided to look into their meaning as defined by Webster's Dictionary. This is what I discovered.

The Gouge: Now we don't have to be Einstein to conjure up a picture of what this tool does, do we? How do you think Webster Dictionary defines it? "A chisel with a convex cross section for cutting grooves." Yes, some of my work looks like this.

The Parting tool: A modification of Mr. Webster's definitions for this is: "A tool for separating into two or more parts." Yes this also had happened to me on occasion.

The Scraper: This tool, according to Webster, causes us to " bring it into contact with something hard or rough in such a way as to injure or graze it". On this basis, Mr. Webster has informed me that as soon as I introduce my scraper to my turning I am going to injure it, to say nothing of my ego. And what of my poor instructor's feelings who went to great lengths to show me how to sharpen a scraper. It must come as quite a shock him, to find out that all I had to do was use a "rough, hard" tool. Then there is my favorite tool, the one that strikes fear in my heart.

The Skew: I can hardly wait to see what Mr. Webster has to say about this. Oh nothing I haven't already experienced! "To lack symmetry or to deviate from a straight line." Isn't that the truth. I wonder how many times beginner such as myself have deviated from a straight line with this tool, and I wonder how many unusual terms we have invented to rename it.

So to summarize my findings, the art of turning seems to involve using:
a gouge to cut grooves,
a scraper to injure the wood,
a skew chisel to deviate from a straight line and,
a parting tool to separate the turning into several parts when I see how much damage the other tools have done to it.

Well as a learning turner, my feelings are somewhat comforted as, based on the results of some of my projects, I appear to be using my tools in the manner prescribed by Webster.

Julian Nicholas