The Infinite Joys of Turning Materials

Timothy and Shelves

After walking through my very small turning shop area for months, Tim, out of his consistent generosity and kindness, decided that what I really needed was more shelving to be able to sort out, display, and readily find all my different turning materials.  Tim believes, pretty firmly, that what the world generally needs is more shelving, and in this case he may have been correct.

I had masterfully squirreled away a rather enormous amount of turning materials of different types and I seemed to consistently acquire more when a supplier had a sale or when my Dad would buy a large lot of wood and share it with me, or when he just happened to find some interesting pieces he thought I might like.  Really, it didn’t seem like I had that much material, but when it was all spaced out and shelved, well, you can see for yourself that it really was quite stupendous!  And I might as well confess here and now since most of you will figure this out anyway, that I am a tad bit, just a teeny-tiny bit, obsessive-compulsive about collecting things and this is no exception, but at least in this case it will make some sort of sense.

Wood As A Turning Material

One of the great joys of lathe turning as a craft, hobby, or even art form is the diversity of materials that one can employ.  The most obvious and familiar material is wood, but wood is incredibly diverse in terms of colors, textures, grains, hardness, workability, and place of origin.  There are woods that are red, orange, yellow, green, purple, white, black, blue, striped, solid, even pink!  Some woods smell wonderful, some sort of stink.  Some woods create toxic dust and some woods are used as medicines.  Some woods are hard enough to be used as cannon balls and others crumble into dust under the slightest pressure.  Some woods turn as easily as candle wax while others would try the patience and skill of any master craftsperson.  And of course wood comes from all over the world, from places familiar and exotic.  Personally, I organize my pens blanks by continent of origin and I am quite pleased to note that I have woods originating or native to every continent on the planet with the obvious exception of Antarctica which isn’t big in the wood business these days (although, of course, it once would have been).  For a lifelong geography buff like me, the ability to have and work with woods from literally every corner of the planet is a massive source of excitement and joy.

Plastic Anyone?

Shortly after beginning to turn pens and bowls, I discovered that wood wasn’t the limit of the turning materials universe.  There was also a huge variety of a plastic, or acrylic, that could also be turned on the lathe using standard tools.  Granted, wood is a diverse material in terms of its color and appearance, but really nothing can compete with acrylics for diversity of color and effect.  Working with acrylics may be less than thrilling, at least for me personally, but one cannot deny that using them opens up an entirely new universe of possibility.

Associated with acrylics are the embedded options that exist, whereby materials as diverse as computer circuit boards to sea shells to stamps to flower petals have been embedded in thick acrylic which can then be turned down to the required shape and size.  These types of materials offer almost unbelievable richness of possibility and personalization to suit literally anyone.

Corian – Not Just For Countertops Anymore!

A familiar type of acrylic is known commercially as Corian and most of us associate it, correctly of course, with countertops, which is its most common application.  But, small off cuts of Corian, usually about ½ inch square by 5-6 inches long, can easily be turned into pens!  Corian is by far the easiest of the plastics to work with, it turns for me almost like wax, and one of the great advantages of using it for pen making is the same advantage that it has for countertops: most of it is designed to look like stone which makes for a very striking pen design, again with practically infinite varieties as possibilities.  If you doubt it, so a simple search on EBay for “corian pen blanks” and be prepared to be amazed and perhaps surprised.

More Exotic and Unlikely Options

But it doesn’t end there.  Even large seed pods such as those from the Australian banksia shrubs can be turned into vases and other decorative objects.  I have also used corn cobs to make pens (after they were stabilized with wax) along with recycled and dyed newspaper and, believe it or not, sunflower seeds from the processing of shelled seeds and oils!  Much to my surprise, I have even recently seen an example of pine cone turning! And you might notice what appears to be a deer antler on the materials shelf.  It looks like an antler because it is and yes, antlers, horns from African or Asian buffalo (American “buffalo” are actually bison, not buffalo at all) which I also have can be turned on the lathe as well.  Some people even use spent bullet and shell casings but I have an ethical dilemma with using materials of violence, but some less squeamish folks make beautiful turnings with spent brass.  The possibilities truly are endless and that is part of the excitement of the variety of materials possibilities.

Reflections On The Source and Origin of the Obsession

I tend to be reflective in general and I can accept that part of the reason I likely have more materials in the forms of wood, plastic, Corian, and antler than I could reasonably use even if I did little else but turn for the rest of my life.  But I don’t think that is a bad thing since I can always share materials I find or buy with other turners, OK, that means my Dad, but turning materials make great gifts!  And finally, this obsession all wraps back up to a visit I made with my Dad at least some three decades ago to a gentleman who worked with in-lay work, parquetry (patterns or representative figures, usually as part of a piece of furniture), or marquetry (geometric patterns), I am not sure which or maybe he worked with a combination of the three forms and really it doesn’t matter.  I don’t even recall why Dad went to visit this man, but visit him he did for whatever reason and I was treated to a ride along.  At that young age I was perfectly familiar with wood and woodworking as a consequence of having grown up with a wood working father, but this man had pieces of woods that I had never imagined, but which I can now reliably name as bloodwood, purpleheart, and ebony.  As the names imply, these were woods of rich red, purple, and deepest black, all naturally those colors, not stained or dyed, and I was fascinated with the idea and reality that wood could look like that.  I remember those three species because the man we were visiting, noticing my fascination, generously gave me pieces of each, items which I treasured and displayed on the shelves above my desk in my room, faithfully dusted for years every week.  And as I reflect on my fascination with work turning materials of all types, shapes, and colors, I believe that that off-chance visit all those years ago is the root of, or at least a major contributing factor, to my fascination with, and joy in, the wealth of diversity to be found in the world of wood in particular and with turning materials in general.