Saturday was the Keith Gotschall demo at the Arizona Woodturners Association. We had about 90 people in attendance, 75% of which were AWA members. We usually do 2 of these all day demonstrations each year, one in the spring and another in the fall.
Keith was a very good demonstrator. He was informative and very knowledgable but also didn't talk down to the audience. He did 4 projects over the course of the day and flowed easily from one project to the next. Short of a lathe, a chuck, a grinder, and a turning smock he was fully prepared and well supplied.
His first project was a multi axis bowl. It's started as a spindle project and was used to demonstrate basic turning technique (beads, coves, skew, rubbing the bevel).
The blank was prepared in such a way that after the spindle portion was complete it was split in 2 pieces and then oriented in side grain orientation and the wings and bowl portion turned. The whole project was also used to demonstrate the proper way to cut with the grain direction.
The next project was a small salt shaker. It's turned end grain in 2 pieces. The body was hollowed with a spindle gouge in a technique called back-cutting, I'll have to give it a try sometime.
The unique part of this project is the use of the finished project. It doesn't have holes in the top like a normal salt shaker. It also doesn't have a mechanism like a normal pepper grinder. The hole in the bottom is at the top of an inverted cone. As the salt shaker is shaken up and down a small amount of salt manages to fall through the hole in the bottom and onto the plate.
Third was an off center plate with a series of beads on the top and the bottom. The grooves were highlighted by pressing a small piece of Purpleheart into the groove while it was spinning. The friction and heat darkened each of the grooves slightly.
The back side also has some offset beads as well as some decorative beads that help disguise the final chucking method. I'm not a big fan of the final form but I think the technique is interesting and is something I can see myself playing with in the future.
Last up was a best perfect sphere. I've turned my share of spheres but the technique he used was different than my method. You can't argue with his results. It's very nearly perfect, 30 seconds of sanding would have made it absolutely perfect.
While there a fellow club member gifted me with some Desert Ironwood. I don't have any projects in mind at the moment but in grateful that he thought of me.
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