Gatting back to normal
Blog
As I'm writing this, on a warm Hawaiian evening, April 21st, 2021, I just thought that 2020 and part of 2021 are best to put them in the past, not to dwell on those hard Covid quarantines days. Hawaii was particularly hit hard. We depend on tourism so much that when the airport, hotels, and rental car companies, closed, we felt the isolation and showed us just how dependent we are on tourism. Before Covid, I used to average a visit a week from a turner, a family wanting to buy something, locals and visitors would come by the studio. I went 13 months without a single visitor. Last month I had my first class in over a year. It felt good to be back in action. Visitors are starting to come back. The silver lining of it all was if there is one that I did over 63 Interactive Remote Demonstrations! Some weeks I was doing 3 of them!
Blog 2021One of my favorite IRD's was one to 5 clubs that got together in England. Almost 150 attendees enjoyed learning about the history of the Hawaiian Calabash, how to turn one and how to apply pewa patches. I turned many pieces, rough turned and some to completion, but since the art gallery was closed, I did not do much sanding. I have over 200 bowls, calabashes, platters and more, ready to finish. Since many of us are getting vaccinated, we aim to restart the Maui Woodturners Association in-person meetings in July! And that is the best news I have heard in a long time! Don't forget to stop by and say hello when you come to Maui! I always have some time for a fellow woodturner. Last week I had the good fortune to spend the day with someone that now I can call my friend: Pat Simmons, founding member of the famous rock and roll band the Doobie Brothers. My good friend Wayne Omura helped removed an old Koa tree that was sadly past it's prime, infested by termites. We recover a lot of good wood!
Keep the shavings flying; stay safe. Aloha
Pat Simmons, yours truly and Wayne Omura. Look at the load of Koa!
Better late than never!
I have been working on my website lately. A lot of changes. Fewer links for more accessible and less confusing navigation, more pictures, updated pages everywhere. The most significant change you will notice is that now you can sign up and pay for my private remote interactive demos. I will be doing my first open to the public demo this Saturday, August 1st, 2020. the response has been great. It's keeping me busy, answering all the emails, and ensuring everybody get all the resources mailed. You will also notice that I have added some items to the online store. I can also add something there if you order something and want to pay me that way. I'm thankful that my studio is located here at home. The Island looks a bit empty without the tourism that we are used to having. Sadly, the Maui Crafts Guild, Maui's oldest owner/artist operated art gallery, had to shut down. That's where I have been selling my art for the last few years. At this moment, we do not know when they will reopen. Thankfully, I have been busy doing a lot of remote demos and selling quite a few pieces of art, directly from my studio. Who could have predicted that Maui's biggest industry, tourism was going to shut down for months due to a virus? I sure do hope that things get back to normal soon.
Meanwhile, if your club is looking for a remote demonstrator, send me a message. I have done over a dozen "The Hawaiian Calabash demo" these past few months, with lots more coming. The demo has evolved into a 3 part demo. I start with the history of the Hawaiian calabash. I then show how I turn a low sided, side grain, and round bottom calabash. I then finish applying some pewa patches to a bowl. I hope to see you on my next demo!
Stay safe, make lots of shavings. Aloha from Maui
Made the cover of the best Woodturning Magazine in the world! July 2020
A success story & tool review
A success story & Tool review
Maui Woodturners Association Secretary and treasurer Wayne Omura, Ann Trygstad, yours truly and Terry Murphy with their first completed project ever with the Mike Hunter Tools new "Viceroy" tool!!
A success story and new tool review
I’m a late comer to the world of carbide tools. I have watched closely with some curiosity thru out the years, their arrival, development, types and various manufacturers.
I’m very confortable with a bowl gouge, I can do 90 % of my work with it. Never felt the need for carbide. Then I was given an article assignment. It required the use of hand held hollowing tools. I contacted Mike Hunter, owner of Hunter Tools. He expertly advised me on tool selection. I purchased the ones needed to do the piece for the article, and a few other ones.
A few days later a box arrived. Upon opening the box and taking a look at the tools the first word that went thru my mind was: quality.
I successfully completed the project for the article. I was impressed by the ease of use of these tools, the quality of the cut, and what I like best: I didn’t have to stop once to sharpen, saving invaluable time.
The Viceroy
One of the tools that I purchased is the Viceroy tool. The tool has a square shank. This design takes the guessing out of what position or angle you are supposed to hold it. You simply slide it left to right on the tool rest. You can also tilt it at a 45 degrees for a bevel supported cut that produces a sheer cut that leaves an excellent surface, making it a versatile tool, one that a beginner can grow into. As you feel more confortable, you can start trying the more advanced cuts. The Viceroy comes with a 6mm round cupped carbide cutter. The 6mm is one of the most efficient cutters, a good compromise of size and aggressiveness. With little practice you can rough out a bowl as fast or faster than with a traditional bowl gouge. You can also take surprisingly good finishing cuts, and tilting it produces a beautiful sheer scrape that leaves a surface that needs little sanding, starting perhaps at 180 or 220 grit. I would not be excited about this tool if it wasn’t for one thing, without any practice, I did a small bowl, I didn’t have any catches, none. Granted, I’m an experienced woodturner with years of experience, so obviously I have the principles of turning down. Then, I had an idea. I wanted to try the tool with our group of new beginners club members. We were going to have a meeting soon, part of the meeting was already set up as a mentoring class.
The meeting
After dealing with some club issues, announcements and our popular wood raffle, we divided the 5 beginner turners into groups. Meetings for the Maui Woodturners Association are held at my studio. 4 lathes are available. I decide to mentor Ann.
She’s a retired nurse and decided to take up woodturning as a hobby, something to do in her new found extra time. She got very lucky and was offered an older, in great condition Vicmarc VL300. Not a lathe associated with a beginner, but one thing is for sure, she will never feel the need for an upgrade. At one of our past club meetings Ann won a gift certificate for a Carter & Sons turning tools Co. She chose to apply it to the purchase of a 5/8 bowl gouge with an Irish grind. I had mentored Ann before at other club meetings, some spindle turning, coves, beads etc, with a 1/2 in spindle gouge.
She was also being mentored by another club member in her small shop.
She tried turning a bowl, a big powerful motor on her Vicmark and a 5/8 bowl bowl gouge, a recipe for disaster if you are an unsupervised beginner, not ready for it the task, and only Youtube as your teacher on bowl turning. Not surprisingly, a few weeks ago she called me to see if I wanted to buy her lathe. I detected a lot of frustration, and a little bit of fear in her voice. I had just lost a new club member, a newly retired person, let’s call him Paul, due to frustration. Paul told me that he thought turning was easier, he didn’t want to put the time into it to get better, he would just purchase bowls from me when he needed some gifts, then added, cheaper and safer! Paul, against our advice, didn’t take the advantage of mentoring offered by the club, he said he had seen enough videos on youTube and he could do it.
I was determined not to loose Ann.
The club provided some simple projects for the class. Ann chose to make a tea light holder. I put a piece of wood on the lathe, gave all the beginners a quick lesson on how to use the Viceroy. Then it was Ann’s turn. She started hesitantly first, but with each passing minute confidence built up. Simply moving the Viceroy left to right, she quickly brought the square to a cylinder. I helped with the tenon, and we put the now round blank on a chuck. We measured the tea light, marked it, and now we needed to hollow out a recess, on the end grain. Without explaining to her the difficulties of doing this with a traditional tool, a spindle gouge, I let Ann do it. She slowly started, left to right, tool flat on the tool rest. A bonafide beginner successfully hollowed out a recess on end grain, in front of my eyes, without a catch! The surface left by the 6mm cutter was a glossy one on the Primavera wood, not that it needed it but I instructed her to start sanding at 220.
We drew some sketches of the possibilities on the design, she decided on one and proceded to finish it, with a huge smile on her face. I helped her part it off with a thin parting tool. She was in utter disbelief holding the precious little completed project in her hand, her very first one, success!
I wish I could take credit for her being able to complete a project, but the truth is, it was possible in such short time due to the ease of use and simplicity of the Viceroy tool. It is the perfect tool for the hobbyist woodturner that finds traditional tools intimidating or doesn’t have the time to learn how to use them. Another great advantage is that she doesn’t have to buy a bench grinder. Ann’s goal is to be able to turn things for herself, trinkets for her kitchen, a cereal bowl for breakfast, a gift for a friend’s birthday… With the Viceroy tool she will be able to accomplish all that. For Ann’s situation this is the right tool. We have decided to get new turners started on this tool. Get them turning, make a few projects, get them confortable on the lathe. Then decide if they want to try traditional tools, I always recommend a bowl gouge with an Ellsworth grind as the first traditional tool. After all, what matters is the final product. Does it matter what tool you used if what you bring to show us at the club meeting is a beautiful turned item?
The Viceroy tool helped me save a turner, one that was ready to call it quits. If you have a friend in the same situation, tell them you have a solution, then give them Hunter tools contact information. Till the next time, Aloha
Pros:
Ease of use.
Quality of the tool.
You do not need to sharpen, simply rotate the carbide
Cons:
None that I can see.
Some people might not want to pay for replacement cutters once they need to be replaced. In my opinion the amount of time saved due to that they do not requiere sharpening, they are well worth the price.
Seabury Hall Craft Fair
I had a great time with some great company at the Seabury Hall Craft Fair. May 7th, 2016
The Seabury Hall fair is the largest one in the state of Hawaii. Artists and crafters come from as far as Oahu to sell their art.
This year we decided to promote the Maui woodturners association, and go to the fair as a club. I was joined by Shaun Fleming, Vince Hogan and Wayne Omura. Shaun is the current first place winner at the Hawaii Forestry Wood show, where the most talented woodworkers in Hawaii display their art once a year. Vince is the Vice President of the club and one of Hawaii's most talented woodturners. He specializes in custom made Hawaiian Calabashes, his signature work are the really big umekes. And last, Master woodturner Wayne Omura, our club Treasurer, famous for his big translucent Island Norfolk Pine bowls. Wayne was the most succesfull seller of the our group at the fair!
His small items were selling like hot cakes! I learned a lot from him yesterday. I learned that I need a better, more profesisional display, I need some inexpensive but nice looking boxes and bags for my items, when they sell… I learned that along with big ticket items I need some small things for the casual looker than doesnt want to spend big money, but wants some nice Koa items…
Overall it was a great experience, had fun, met new customers, saw old friends and made some new ones…
That's me! Yous truly, Emiliano Achaval at the fair….