Phil Irons 12 March 2022

Phil made a shallow bowl as shown to demonstrate his professional approach to woodturning. During the demonstration he emphasized the following fundamental points:

• Tools must be very sharp. He used a Tormec grinder with a diamond faced wheel.
• He used moderate speeds when turning, e.g. for the irregular blank shown on the photos he turned at some 450 rpm.
• He only took very gentle cuts.
• When making  spigot for mounting on the chuck he made sure that the chuck jaws when holding the wood were 100% circular with only small gaps between jaws.  This meant that only 1 mm spigot was needed and only slight tightening of the chuck was required thus preventing marking the wood by the jaws.
• He recommended that the spigot if used as a foot should be finished as soon as the spigot was cut, including any desired decoration. No sanding should be needed.
• To finish the bowl he used shear scraping rather than sanding. To achieve a tactile surface he used a stiff nylon brush.
• Generally, form and finish were important and all work should be signed and dated.

Yes, Phil brought his assistant with him!