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Thread: Blind woodturning

  1. #1

    Blind woodturning

    https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p06t5...eyesight-back-

    "... listened to 600 hours of youtube videos ..."

    If you can survive listening to 600 hours of youtube blabber you can overcome anything.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2018
    Location
    Cookeville TN
    Posts
    338
    Wow That's cool. I've worked with 2 blind wood turners and it's fascinating watching them work. I'm super impressed. George Wurtzel was one of them. You may have seen him in the Subaru commercial. I just found out he is moving to Tennessee so we may get to meet again. I will do my best to make it happen. He is such a cool guy.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    E TN, near Knoxville
    Posts
    12,298

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Minneapolis
    Posts
    6
    Before moving to California, George was a member of our club. He is a great individual and is an asset to the Woodturning and Woodworking Community. His turnings set a very "high bar."

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Missouri
    Posts
    939
    We have a blind gentleman in our turning club who is nothing short of amazing. He gave a demonstration last month on coring and a couple of years ago a demo on ornaments. At this months meeting he had a large segmented lidded hollow form some called a "cookie jar", made of walnut. A beautiful piece indeed. I was fortunate to get an ornament from him at our anual ornament exchange several years back. It sits on a bookshelf year round. At the other end of that shelf is an ornament I made, and his puts mine to shame.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Inver Grove Heights, MN
    Posts
    798
    I received my first woodturning lesson from my father who was blind. He went to public schools at a time when that wasn't normal for blind people. His mother rewrote textbooks in braille for him, and he practiced law for 50 years before retiring. He also had to try everything. He was very good at waterskiing. Not so good at woodturning. I don't think I was a teenager yet when my cousin received a lathe for Christmas. All the men and boys were in the basement checking it out. My dad had to try it. He stuck the gouge into the spinning wood. It caught. The tip went down. The handle flipped up. The gouge went sailing away from us, and right through a window that was behind the lathe. First lathe safety lesson 60 some years ago.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    E TN, near Knoxville
    Posts
    12,298
    Quote Originally Posted by Paul Williams View Post
    His mother rewrote textbooks in braille for him. ...
    Wow, that in in itself is impressive. My uncle was a Baptist minister - his braille copy of the Bible took up a large bookcase in his study.

    JKJ

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