I"ve just had a thought?

[Alan Ryalls]

hi, just had a look at john"s first turning which looks really nice and it set me wondering,my first turning was a bowl in spalted beech,which i still have,i did put it up for sale but no takers,which thinking back i"m glad it didn"t.
my question is this, what was your first turning,was it a bowl?,can you remember it? have you still got it,have you a picture of it?
share your turnings and thought with us.
regards alan......................

[Fred LeBail]

My first turnings were File handles for my Dad. I was about 8-9 years old. They were turned out of Mahonany that he had salvaged from a Pulpit that he had made for our Church .
He has since passed on but the handles,some, are still going.
Also first lesson in duplicate turnings using measurements and calipers.
Thanks for jogging my memory this morning!
Fred

[Jim Becker]

My first was a pen back in about 1995 or 1996 in a class taught by the inimitable Bill Grumbine. Yes, I still have it and it's still about the best pen I even turned. Then, I went about 4 years without any additional turning activity. Bought my first lathe in mid 2001, upgraded 6 months later and am on my third (and hopefully final) lathe today! I shoulda bought the big one up front...

[Kurt Aebi]

The first item(s) I turned was a set of candlesticks for my mother in woodshop class back in high school (1981). My mother passed in 1994, but my father still has them set out on the dining room table - they are nothing special, just stained poplar - but I guess it is the sentiment that gave them such a high honored place.

I hadn't really turned anything again until I turned the legs for the breakfast bar in our new kitchen in 1995. This past summer I bought a mini lathe to turn pens for the Freedom Pen Project and now I've been re-hooked and am presentyly looking for a good larger lathe for bowls, etc.

[John Shuk]

My first was a simple spindle made from a piece of old pine taken from a pile of garbage at a remodel. I have it somewhere just don't know where. My son grabbed it and it is in the mix somewhere. Now if I could turn beads like I did on that one every day.......How does one get worse at turning with time?

[Andy London]

My first turning was a baseball bat, man was that thing heavy!....That was over 25 years ago and had it up until a flood hit my mom's house back in the early 90's.

My first WW project though was a little white Cedar chest shaped like a treasure chest I made for my sister using only hand tools. She still has it to this day, a bit crude but it stayed together :D

My son's first turning was when he was about 9, he made a minature baseball bat and I will never forget it as it broke my elbow by mistake :eek: we laugh about it now but at the time I was doing a lot of grinning an bearing.

Andy

[Michael Stafford]

My first turnings were a kitchen table pedestal, chair legs, rungs and back posts that I did for my wife as a wedding present almost 34 years ago. My father was my tutor and looking at them, we still use them daily, they are fairly crude, resemble each other and were rather poorly finished. :o

That said my wife would not trade them for the finest furniture available. Several times I have suggested replacing them with "decent" furniture which always draws a remark like, "I love my kitchen table". :)

The next time I did any turning was for toy train parts some 12 or so years later. I didn't really try to learn how to turn until the last 3 or 4 years.

[Steve Ash]

Mine was 8th grade woodshop class (1972) I made a bowl, gave it to my mom...I'm sure she tossed it a long time ago.

[Lloyd Frisbee]

Since I have only been turning for a short time, I still all my first projects.

http://www.frisbee.org/wood/projects.html

[Charles McKinley]

My first turning was a pen under the watchful eye and sharp tounge of Ken S. at the End of Pond Picnic in Indiana. My first bowl was at a Woodcraft class this fall.