Woodturner--Les Roberts The Pen Turners Corner A Terrible Tool ...

Continued from Previous Pagement from his friends he started to develop as he calledit “a crude technique with his wrong hand”.and I think the most amazing accomplishment is theJohannes Michelson style hats. His turning techniqueand control puts most two handed turners, includingme, to the test. He’s also blessed with a wonderful eyefor form.Device that Guilo developed for Les to help himhold the tool handle.In 2000 he met and befriended the famed GuiloMarcolongo who offered a continuous source of encouragement.Then in 2001 Les spent three days in Guilo’sworkshop. During that time Guilo developed a verysimple but effective device that fits onto Les’ forearmto support the handle of the turning tool. It only takesa minute for Judy to fit the device to his arm. Whenworking with a gouge, he holds it on the tool rest at therequired cutting angle. Using his elbow and the rotatingaction of the body, Les can then cut the requiredarc. He says that it has taken a bit of practice, but histechnique and tool control are improving all the time.He now achieves a nice clean cut.Les doing hollowing with a stabalized boring bar.Les isn’t afraid of working on deep vessels, either.Using the boring bar, he has great control and isas skilled at turning these natural-edge deep vessels aswell as any two handed turners. I’ve always said that ourboring bar system is so easy to use that you can operateit with one hand, and Les has proven that point.Les turning a large salad bowl with one hand.I’m not only amazed at the fact that Les hasachieved the tool control that he has on small turneditems but I was absolutely awed by the fact that he turnsout huge salad bowls, beautiful large natural edge piecesA number of natural edge hollow forms turned byLes Roberts.Page 6 More Woodturning July 2012