I am an expert woodworker … I just am. I have a natural talent for the craft, and I have dedicated myself to it for over 40 years. It is exacting work about which I am serious, and while I do get satisfaction from a well-made project, I would not describe making furniture as a good time. On the other hand, I do woodturning for fun. I am decidedly not an expert turner, as the letters I get from real turning experts demonstrate every time there is a picture of me at the lathe in the print magazine. (“Rob, your form is really terrible!” “Rob, it just hurt to see you using that scraper when you should be using a so-and-so gouge.” All of those comments are appreciated, have come to be expected and are taken to heart.)
Even so, while I do give it my best to come up with a great woodturning project, I have not let this one area of woodworking migrate from a release to a regimen — I want it to be my shop fun time.
Recently, we have done some surveying around the topic of woodturning, and have discovered that many of you have joined the woodturning gang, and that even more of you are thinking of giving it a go. If you want my opinion, I say make it happen sooner rather than later. I don’t think you will regret it. (And, to read even more about woodturning, click on over to this week’s Woodworker’s Journal eZine — it’s a special themed issue, dedicated to the theme of woodturning.)
Rob Johnstone
Editor in Chief
