Day spent with my nephew!

[Jeff Nicol]

Good afternoon all!

My 17 year old nephew Nate is spending a few days with me learning the ropes of the lathe. He has been sucked deep into the vortex! He is a drummer so we had to make some drumsticks and is going to be a senior in highschool this year so a nice pen was needed and of course a small bowl to collect junk on his dresser! We got them done and I am worn out and ready for a nap! He says that Christmas is coming and maybe Santa would have enough room in the sleigh for a nice new lathe for him!

The pen is a slimline made from spalted maple, drumsticks hard maple and the bowl is wormy butternut with tung oil finish. We are going out for dinner tonight as we are to lazy to cook, my wife is at our daughters getting the grandbabies room ready for the December arrival, so no one to cook for us tonight!

Thanks and have a great night all!

Jeff

[Steve Schlumpf]

Jeff - that had to have been a lot of fun! Let Nate know he did a great job on everything! Love the pen!

[Skip Spaulding]

Nice looking work, also very nice to see young people finding a worthwhile hobby. Maybe the "OLD GUY" and the "YOUNG GUY" should learn to cook!!;)

[William Payer]

Jeff,

Let Nate know he did a fine job! Its very nice to see a young person doing any form of woodworking. I hope he has discovered a new found sense of accomplishment.

[Jeff Nicol]

Thanks for the comments. Nate is a very intelligent young man who is being pursued by a couple of colleges for his computer skills. He writes programs and can do just about anything you can think of that is computer related. When the computers go haywire at school the teachers call Nate to get things fixed, so I think he likes to get away from the technical stuff and have some fun doing something completely different. He has always shown an attraction to the wood lathe so now he is hooked! If the computer stuff and wood working fail, he is one heck of a fantastic drummer!

Normally I do all the cooking in the house anyway, so this is just a good excuse for us to go to Harbor Freight and us my 20% of coupon and then go out for dinner, special treats for special days with a great young man!

Thanks again,

Jeff :D

[Pete Jordan]

Congrats to both of you! And it is very nice to buy him a Mustard Monster for Christmas!

Very good mentoring.

[Cyril Griesbach]

Great job, Jeff and the turnings turned out very will indeed. Nate is surely talented and no doubt a joy to have around.

[Dolan Brown]

Good for you Jeff - taking time to pass on your skills to the younger generation. Having worked in the computer field for 40 years - some long days and nights - having a hobby is a good thing to get the mind clear of all the bits and bytes. Looks like your nephew has a bright future.

[Tony Greenway]

Jeff, Nate will remember this time you have given him forever. I think about fish'in and coon hunt'in with my uncles all the time and that happened over 30years ago.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Congrats to both. That time is priceless. Tell Nate he did well.

[Ken Glass]

Jeff,
I think his smile says it all. I am sure he is very happy with the items he's turned and his uncle has to be as happy as he is to see what a fine young man he has turned out to be. Wish him luck in college, it sounds like he is very well rounded at such a young age.

[Dan Forman]

Looks like a day well spent, and he sure looks happy with the results.

Dan

[Jeff Nicol]

Hey all, Nate and I sent some of the pictures to his Mom yesterday and she is now bragging to the whole neighborhood about all the things Nate learned from "Uncle Jeff". We went to a Red Robin restaraunt and had a big hamburger each and the bottomless fries that come with it, he said that was better than ramen noodles for sure!! Now he thinks the rest of the family will want to stay with me too!! Next time it will be his younger sister, as she shows some interest also, good thing I have lots of extra bedrooms in the house!

Thanks for all your support and it gives me great joy to see the smiles of the youngsters that I share my shop and skills with, even some of the older crowd too when they stop in for a chat!

Have a great weekend all,

Jeff

[Nate Howard]

Hello everyone, I'm Jeff's nephew :)

Thanks for all the comments and I guess it all turned out very well thanks to Uncle Jeff's help and I learned a bit about the lathe and how to use the tools to carve shapes in the wood. We made another little dish today and it is one of my favorites as it is dark wood and we used fine sandpaper and some types of oil and wax to make it very smooth and it shines.

I hope I can do some more of this in the future and maybe be able to do it myself one day.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Congrats to you Nate and Uncle Jeff!

Excellent first turnings Nate!

Turning is an addictive craft!

[Harlan Coverdale]

Good stuff Nate. The drum sticks look especially nice.

[Chris Hayes]

Jeff --

This will have an affect that lives far longer than you might know. My grandfather took me out into his shop many years ago and the smell of wood addicted me back then. Although he didn't turn, it was the whole process that hooked me.

Hopefully, someday, you'll walk into his shop and say "Wow, you win!"...my grandmother told me that she thought my shop was a couple of steps ahead of my granddad's. To me, that was an ultimate compliment...hopefully you'll get the same down the road.

[Jeff Nicol]

Well I told him about the posts on SMC and he got himself signed up! He thought it was too cool to see all his stuff online! We made one more pices yesterday before I had to take him home, it was a very pretty little coin dish made from quilted black walnut. I forgot to get a picture of it as my bum shoulders were out of it and I needed a break, besides Nate needed a computer fix anyway! When I dropped him off he talked non stop about all the things we did, his mom was thrilled with his excitement and the things he made! His dad and I talked more about the drumsticks, as he goes through quite a few so maybe we can get a duplicator set up to get them made faster!

Thanks for all your support and I love to share my knowledge to anyone who wants it. One of my best friends young son who has type 2 diabetes and does a fine job of maintaining his health,( I think he is 10 years old) wants to come spend some time with me soon! He asks his dad when can he go to Uncle Jeff's house so I can work in the shop a couple times a week, so I think I will be mentoring some more young turners soon! It is a lot of fun!

Take care and share the wealth of knowledge,

Jeff

[Barry Elder]

Brings to mind the old saw, give a man a fish and he has a meal....teach a man to fish and he can feed his family. (liberally paraphrased) When you are a woodturner and you teach a youngster the ins and outs, you have given a gift that will last a lifetime.