Ashley Harwood Demo and Critique

[Hayes Rutherford]

In lieu of their monthly meeting, the Inland Northwest Woodturners hosted Ashley Harwood this weekend. Ashley gave an outstanding demo on Friday covering sharpening, spindle turning, and bowl turning. There were to be hands on workshops on Saturday and Sunday that I did not attend but would love to hear more from anyone that did. In addition to the wonderful bowls she turns, she makes delicate sea urchin ornaments and as part of the demo, turned a very delicate ebony finial. Thanks to Ashley and all those from the Spokane Woodturners that helped make it possible.

My wife, who also enjoyed the demo, got this photo of Ashley giving a very favorable critique to the piece I brought, using her own bowl for comparison.

[Brian Kent]

And yours is the one on the left or the right?

[John Altberg]

Hayes,

Awesome shot of you, Ashley and your respective bowls!

I took Ashley's class yesterday and was COMPLETELY blown away by what I learned. We focused on bowls, so I learned the 40/40 grind that she demonstrated on Friday as well as the oversized bottom gouge that she uses. I can now rough and turn a bowl without beating myelf up. Even better, I used no scraper and got a finish off of the bowl gouges like none that I had ever achieved before! I have owned a virgin Sorby 3/4" bowl gouge that I got on the cheap through the classifieds here on the Creek. She was kind enough to grind it for me, so I now have a bottom gouge that works! (Can you all tell that I am excited?)

As one of the organizers of the event, I will accept Hayes's thanks on behalf of the club. If any of you ever have the opportunity to host Ashley in your clubs, do not hesitate for a moment to bring her in. She is poised, professional, entertaining and highly skilled; all of the attributes of a good demonstrator.

[Chip Sutherland]

Ashley is one of the featured demonstrators at SWAT this year. I'm not familiar with her work so it will be nice to see her in August.

[Hayes Rutherford]

Brian, mine is the one in her left hand(rippled maple)

John, that is good to hear. When I got home I re-ground my Doug Thompson U shaped 5/8" to more resemble the bottom gouge she uses. Another light bulb that went off is the luxury of a large collet equipped handle and don't think I can make one myself. The ability to remove the steel on a heavy handled gouge makes for easy sharpening. That alone is enough to justify the collet system.

One more comment on something that I am an expert at: the pizza you guys brought in has to be the best in Spokane!

[Allan Ferguson]

Sounds like a great experience. I often wish that I were closer and could get involved. Thanks for posting. Allan

[Reed Gray]

The push cut style of turning bowls (Stuart Batty) is interesting. After taking a 3 day work shop with Stuart and Allen, I found it very strange. Finally figured out that is a method of dealing with turning bowls on a long bed lathe. I learned on a PM with the tailstock all the way down to the end so I could stand up straight and keep the tools in close to my body.

She does do a great demo.

robo hippy

[charlie knighton]

She does do a great demo.

i have seen her around a lot of symposiums, greensboro, nashville, and st. paul......she stands out in a crowd and adds enjoyment to others

i might add that she is the witness, in 30 or 40 years to regall others of the way it was in our woodturning community, so just go shake her hand and introduce yourself, tell her charlie said you should

[Dan Forman]

I also was lucky enough to have attended both the demo and the class, and wholeheartedly confirm what others have said - that Ashley is a very skillful turner and teacher, and charming to boot! The class proved quite challenging to me at the time, I can fully appreciate Reed's feeling it was strange, as everything, including the lathe I was using, seemed backward.

But back home, after a bit of a rest, I went down in the shop and gave it another go, and everything fell into place relatively quickly. There is definitely something to be said for familiar surroundings and equipment, and no pressure. Soon I was making long, clean cuts with no tear out, and was sharpening freehand with good results. I hope to get more practice in this week to solidify these gains, and work on tool control and fair curves.

These cuts, when they go well, require very little force - when not going well, no amount of force will get them back on track. It's all in the mechanics of how the steel meets the wood. There is instant feedback if things go awry.

Ashley is headed to Portland, OR for more demos and classes, so if you live up that way, drop by and see her. I think she said she will be meeting with both turning clubs in Portland, then moving on to Vancouver, BC before heading home. She lives and teaches in Charleston SC, here is a link to her website http://www.ashleyharwood.net/ashleyharwood/Home.html

Dan

[Hayes Rutherford]

Reed you make a good point about long bed lathe technique. Thats the amazing thing about woodturning where there really are different strokes for different folks.

[Reed Gray]

If you ever get a chance to see Stuart and Mike Mahoney do their '2 ways to turn a bowl' demo, it is really interesting. Mike does pull cuts, and Stuart does the push cut for outside cuts. Inside cuts are more similar.

I guess it is like some people prefer to drop their tool handles and some, like me prefer to keep the handles level. Lots of different ways to do it.

robo hippy

[Hayes Rutherford]

Reed, I have a woodturner friend that has that video so i have seen it. Not only interesting but very entertaining as well! It's nice to have knowledge of these different methods, it gives you alternatives when wood doesn't cooperate.

Part of Ashley's demo, and part of the "2 ways to turn a bowl" video was the making of a jamb chuck. While many, including myself use vacuum regularly, a good fitting jamb chuck enables you to not only turn the bottom, but re-work the sides of a vessel if need be since the piece acts like it is still solid.

[robert baccus]

It's interesting that "push" cutting is considered strange for an old goat here. That was the popular method for using bowl gouges 25 years ago. Irish grind cutting was considered sorta radical back then. The Brits which were way ahead of us, used a square cut( straight up wings) bowl gouge as standard. They used very ingeneous chucks. tools and techniques back then before turning almost exploded here. They still do fantastic turnings especially small items. I still leave a square wing on one side of many of my gouges???