Carving and texturing

[Trevor Mills]

Can anyone point me towards good in depth videos or publications on carving and texturing turnings? I haven’t found much of interest on youtube.Thanks!

[John K Jordan]

Can anyone point me towards good in depth videos or publications on carving and texturing turnings? I haven’t found much of interest on youtube.Thanks!


Yikes, that subject is so incredibly deep and wide!

Lots of people here on SMC carve on turnings. Most people I know that do it well learned by jumping in and experimenting. I don't watch videos much so I can't help there.

Are you interested in texturing any specific types of turnings? spindles, hollow forms, bowl rims?

What kind of texturing strikes you? Are you familiar with the sorby texturing tools? I use the pointed star tools a lot on spindles:
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Don't know of books or videos about this but I can easily tell you how I use them.

The sorby "spiraling tools" are great for a variety of quick and intricate textures on curved and flatter surfaces, such as bottoms or lids of turned boxes. I have a bunch of examples I've turned but no photos at the moment. Again, I don't know of any teaching resources but experimenting for a few days will provide lots of ideas.

Do you want to carve to add decoration/detail for interest? Don't know about specific videos but there are zillions of books on general carving, tools, techniques but most seem to be on how to carve a thing (bird, person, etc), not for texturing.
For textures carved by hand, I just use small hand gouges and make it up as I go:
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Carving/texturing with power tools? You can do a lot with a dremel. These use a small carbide egg-shaped bit, hundreds of random dimples.
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I turned then carved this for shape then textured the band for detail with the same dimpling technique mentioned:
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Texturing by woodburning?
Have you seen the work of Graeme Priddle and Melissa? Woodburning, carving, coloring. Things like this? http://graemepriddle.com/?page_id=51&album=2&photo=27&cover=0&occur=1
They offer private classes which may be a great way learn from the best. (They're in Asheville, NC)

The craft schools (J.C.Campbell, Arrowmont, etc) offer carving courses which might be an excellent way to learn techniques. Far better than a book or video, I think.

How about chip carving on turnings? I find it pretty easy compared to some other techniques.
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There are lots of chip carving books available. If interested in that direction I can look at my books and give you some titles.

Maybe indicate the directions you would like to explore and someone will know some videos. I don't watch videos much but I have a lot of books.


JK

[Trevor Mills]

Thanks John, you're right, it’s a big subject so I should have been a bit more specific. I admire the work of turners like Al Stirt, Liam Flynn, Benoit Avery, among others. Like you, I’m happy to jump in and start experimenting so I’m really just looking for a few starting pointers on the carving and beautiful textures they produce.

[Richard Coers]

There are some turning clubs that shoot video of those turners when they do a demo. Here's an example; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucge2PtkrK4