<strong>Michael</strong> <strong>Mocho</strong> <strong>Demonstration</strong>by Fred Holder<strong>Michael</strong> <strong>Mocho</strong> did an all daydemonstration for <strong>the</strong> Seattle Chapter<strong>of</strong> <strong>AAW</strong> on October 8, 2008 atJack McDaniel’s wonderful shop.Although I’ve gone to many symposiumsboth <strong>AAW</strong> and Utah Woodturning<strong>Symposium</strong>s, I had neverencountered him demonstrating.First, I would like to tell you a littlebit about <strong>Michael</strong> <strong>Mocho</strong> before goinginto <strong>the</strong> demonstration.<strong>Michael</strong> <strong>Mocho</strong> is a self-employedwoodworker/turner fromAlbuquerque, New Mexico. He hadconsiderable involvement in <strong>the</strong><strong>AAW</strong> <strong>Symposium</strong> <strong>2009</strong>. He hasbeen a full-time craftsman sinceMore Woodturning is published monthlyexcept April and October for $35.00 peryear by Fred and Mildred Holder at 19805Fales Road, Snohomish, WA 98296. MailingAddress is P. O. Box 2168, Snohomish WA98291-2168. Telephone: (360) 668-0976.E-Mail: fred@morewoodturning.net, WEBPage URL: http://www.morewoodturning.net. Periodicals Postage paid at Snohomish,Washington and at additional mailing <strong>of</strong>fice.More Woodturning is sold by subscriptionat $35.00 for one year and at a singlecopy price <strong>of</strong> $4.00 plus $1.50 postageand handling. Editorial material submittedfor publication must be accompaniedby a stamped, self-addressed envelope toensure return if it is not accepted for use.More Woodtunring uses materials frommany sources and many authors, <strong>the</strong> viewsexpressed herein are, <strong>the</strong>refore, those <strong>of</strong><strong>the</strong> authors and not necessarily those <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>Publishers. More Woodturning receives anumber <strong>of</strong> products each year for evaluation,but accepts no responsibility for return <strong>of</strong>those products unless specifically requestedto do so, in advance!POSTMASTER: Send address changesto More Woodturning, P. O. Box 2168,Snohomish WA 98291-2168.USPS No. 0153871976 with extensive experiencein furniture design, woodturning,architectural millwork, patternmaking, and stringed musicalinstruments. He operates a smallshop in Albuquerque, New Mexicoproducing commissioned furniture,contract woodturning, and decorativecontainers for <strong>the</strong> gift market.He has completed residencies at <strong>the</strong>Arrowmont School <strong>of</strong> Craft, and<strong>the</strong> International Turning Exchangeprogram at <strong>the</strong> Woodturning Centerin Philadelphia. He teaches in <strong>the</strong>Fine Woodworking Program at <strong>the</strong>Santa Fe Community College. Hehas demonstrated at <strong>the</strong> <strong>AAW</strong> National<strong>Symposium</strong> and many localchapters, and also teaches at craftschools including Arrowmont and<strong>the</strong> John C. Campbell Folk School.He is known for his intricate containersthat <strong>of</strong>ten combine bentwood with turned, carved, and texturedcomponents, which have wonnumerous awards and are in manyprivate and public collections.Mildred and I attended hisdemonstration at Jack McDanielsshop and were impressed with hisskill and talent. He began <strong>the</strong> day’sdemonstration with <strong>the</strong> introduction<strong>of</strong> a number <strong>of</strong> techniques for texturing<strong>the</strong> surface <strong>of</strong> one’s work. Hetalked briefly before starting to turn.Meet <strong>Michael</strong> <strong>Mocho</strong> in Figure 1.<strong>The</strong> first thing that he turnedwas a piece <strong>of</strong> wood between centers,I believe this was hard maple orEastern maple. He turned <strong>the</strong> woodround and <strong>the</strong>n turned tenons onboth ends to be gripped by a chuck.He <strong>the</strong>n parted <strong>the</strong> wood into twopieces. One piece he mounted in achuck and trued up <strong>the</strong> face <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>wood by taking thin slices <strong>of</strong>f <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>end as shown in Figure 2. I’ve neverbeen able to slice <strong>of</strong>f a piece this thinwithout having it break up into smallpieces. This was impressive and wasearly in <strong>the</strong> demonstration.Figure 1. <strong>Michael</strong> <strong>Mocho</strong> at <strong>the</strong>beginning <strong>of</strong> his demonstration.Figure 2. Thin slice <strong>of</strong> woodtaken from <strong>the</strong> end <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> piecemounted in <strong>the</strong> chuck.Once <strong>the</strong> surface <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> end <strong>of</strong><strong>the</strong> piece was smooth. He <strong>the</strong>n laid<strong>the</strong> skew chisel on its side and using<strong>the</strong> tip <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> tool, he did chatterwork on <strong>the</strong> surface. (See Figure3) This was a nice technique usingonly a skew chisel. He <strong>the</strong>n parted<strong>the</strong> piece <strong>of</strong>f so that he could pass itaround while going to <strong>the</strong> next step.<strong>The</strong> piece is shown in Figure 4.Page 4 More Woodturning August <strong>2009</strong>
make an indention in <strong>the</strong> wood <strong>of</strong><strong>the</strong> shape <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> tip <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> punchportion.la<strong>the</strong> rotating, he <strong>the</strong>n used an outsidethread chaser to make a number <strong>of</strong>concentric grooves in <strong>the</strong> surface <strong>of</strong><strong>the</strong> wood as shown in Figure 7.Figure 3. Doing chatter workwith <strong>the</strong> skew chisel lying on itside.<strong>Michael</strong> <strong>the</strong>n introduced ano<strong>the</strong>rgadget that he uses to dotexturing on endgrain wood. Thisgadget is shown in Figure 5. Itmounts in <strong>the</strong> tool rest banjo and isaligned with <strong>the</strong> wood and <strong>the</strong>n <strong>the</strong>punch in <strong>the</strong> piece is tapped on <strong>the</strong>end with something (a small hammeror <strong>the</strong> end <strong>of</strong> a turning tool) toFigure 4. Chatter work doneon <strong>the</strong> surface <strong>of</strong> a piece <strong>of</strong> endgrain wood with a skew chiselon its side.He <strong>the</strong>n mounted a chuckthat had two <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> jaws removedso that he could grip a rectangularpiece <strong>of</strong> wood. (Figure 6) With <strong>the</strong>Figure 5. Ano<strong>the</strong>r form <strong>of</strong>texturing tool that he introducedfor texturing endgrain wood.[Continued on Next Page]More Woodturning August <strong>2009</strong> Page 5
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