| The frazzled-haired, wizard-like person living in the | | | | as and bridge the communities of woodworkers |
| large body of a redwood tree stays awake day and | | | | across the globe. These people communicate, share |
| night working furiously to finish their latest creation, a | | | | ideas, jokes and news, organize symposiums and |
| bowl and goblet turned out of wood. The food eaten | | | | guard their site access from commercial interests. |
| from their bowls is the most delicious and the water | | | | Communicating online with these folks online is like |
| poured into their wooden goblets turns itself into the | | | | bellying up to your neighborhood bar and having a |
| finest wine. This, my friend, is the Woodturner. The | | | | virtual beer. Wayne C. in the forum at SawMillCreek |
| tools they use, woodworking lathes, are one of the | | | | introduced me to an old Woodworking Machinery |
| oldest known power tools. | | | | website: where I found an enormous amount of |
| The lathe is truly an ancient tool; the wordlathe even | | | | interesting information, photos and .pdf downloads |
| sounds primeval. This tool dates back at least to the | | | | about Woodworking Machinery from the past. He also |
| Egyptians and, was known and used in Assyria, | | | | found this book written in 1881 on Google. |
| Greece, the Roman and Byzantine Empires. Lathes | | | | I can truly appreciate how these ancient lathe |
| were used by artisans and craftsman, who were the | | | | machines and the spirit of the Woodworker have |
| dominant producers of goods before the Industrial | | | | merged with modern technology. You can purchase a |
| Revolution. | | | | lathe in a plethora of sizes for a variety of uses both |
| The oldest known record of woodturning dates back | | | | online and in stores. A JET Lathe starts at the mini size |
| to 1300BC and the Egyptians. They developed the two | | | | and moves up to a 3hp-3Geared Head Engine Lathe. |
| person lathe, one person turning and the other cutting | | | | For large jobs you can find a Powermatic heavy-duty |
| out shapes in the wood. As the years passed, | | | | caste iron lathe. What you purchase depends basically |
| improvements were made upon the lathe such as | | | | upon what your Woodturning craft is. |
| adding a turning bow by the Romans, and pedals | | | | It is strange sometimes for me to be sitting here at this |
| replacing the hand-operated turning in the Middle Ages. | | | | desk, typing on a computer, in an office in Lakewood, |
| It was the Industrial Revolution that motorized the lathe, | | | | Colorado and be time transported into the past of Old |
| taking the job of turning wood away from the | | | | Machines and Woodworking Wonders. It makes me |
| craftsman and giving it to the machines. This massive | | | | think of all the stuff that used to be made by hand, in |
| cultural change, over the span of a few decades, | | | | small shops. My grandfather built a boat by hand in his |
| brought the wizardly craftsman into the factories for | | | | attic and I remember as a kid, playing with all his hand |
| assembly line jobs. Like the end of Feudalism, the | | | | tools in the basement of his house in Buffalo, New |
| Industrial Revolution changed human social and | | | | York while the fire cheerfully burned the wood scraps |
| economic history. | | | | in stove. Today, we often chat online across an office |
| Time passes and lifestyles change. The art of | | | | room. Computers are a wonderful, modern tool and |
| Woodturning has managed to survive through the | | | | while I love my job as a writer, I have to say that |
| ages and continues to be a form in which craftsman | | | | nothing beats the satisfaction of making something |
| express themselves. Online woodworking forums such | | | | with your hands. |