Home About this siteThe aimThe intention of this site is to provide newcomers to woodturning, and those who are still developing their skills, with useful information. It may be thought of as an on-line magazine. There are four main types of information:
The site is still under development. I expect to go on adding material for some time. The section of the "Introduction To Woodturning" on spindle turning has just been completed; now all I have to do is the same for bowl turning. I also have more ideas for projects, gadgets and other things. Most of the information has been prepared for a British audience. It is not practical to try rewrite it for an international audience so I hope that visitors from other parts of the world take this into account and bear with me. When suggesting suitable material, for instance, I can only recommend English woods. This can be misleading. American readers, in particular, should note that common terms do not always relate to the same species. American sycamore (Platanus accidentalis) , for instance, is known as plane in Britain. Conversely European sycamore (Acer speudoplatanus) is, I think, known as plane in the US. Similarly, basswood (Tilia americana) belongs to the Lime family (Tiliaceae) and is known as American lime (or just Lime) in Britain. Butternut (Juglans cinerea) which is a member of the Walnut family is very rare in Britain; but if it was available here from local sources it would probably be described simply as walnut. Confusing, isn't it?The presentation of the informationBecause my aim is to provide information I have made little attempt to provide a jazzy Internet experience. Most of the information is in the form of articles which need to be read with some care. All of them can be read on screen but it will probably be easier to print out those of particular interest and file the pages in a four ring binder. The "Introduction To Woodturning" can now be downloaded in Portable Document Format (ie pdf files, see Home page) for printing out. Other documents will be converted to this format in the near future.When printing in Internet Explorer make sure Medium is selected in theView/Text Size menu. In other browsers it may be necessary to experiment a little to find the optimum size of type for printing.
Screen resolutionThe majority of my visitors use a screen resolution of 800 by 600. It makes sense, therefore to design the pages with that in mind. I hope users with their screens set to other displays will not find that too irksome.
Copyright noticeBefore making use of these files please read the copyright notice. Failure to read this notice does not exempt the user from the conditions of useThe question of genderIn all of the texts I have decided to refer to the turner as a male in order to avoid the tedious form of 'he or she' or some awkward circumlocution. I have noticed that many writers now use the term 'she' (where relevant) to avoid being branded as sexist. This is a neat way around this problem; however, because the great majority of turners are men it would be dishonest to use that device in these documents. I would be very sorry if this was to discourage any woman from taking up woodturning. I have taught a number of woman in my classes and I have no doubts whatsoever that women are just as capable, if not more so, of becoming good turners as men. It may also be noted that, In relation to the overall number of men and women turners, there is a disproportionately large number of women in the top flight. I hope that, in time, far more women will come to appreciate the pleasure that woodturning can provide. I would like to think that those women who come across these pages will find them a source of interest and encouragement. Brian Clifford Lincolnshire, England |