Out from under the shavings

The thought had been that once retired from my primary career in Mechanical Engineering I would have unlimited time to work in my shop, and with the numerous tools that I had collected for just that purpose. Well, so much for the concept, for I do not know where the time does escape as most days turn into weeks and then pretty soon there is a year behind us all. What I can tell you is that the tasks are at a pace that can well tolerate a plan, some reasonable preparation, and a steady progress towards the goal, rather than a race to completion before conflicting schedules drew you away.

These days when I approach my shop, I do so with the concept of what can I do here today instead of what do I have to get done in the next hour and a half. On those days when everything goes smoothly, I am lost in sounds and aromas of fresh cut wood, but as we all know, there are many days that everything does not go as planned. When I knock something over and then bend to pick it up from the floor, only to dump the contents of a shirt pocket or cabinet apron , or on those days when you make a right and a left but mysteriously end up with, alas, two lefts, then I can now chose the wisest of all actions. I dust off the shirt, put down the tools, and head upstairs to the coffee pot and several decade old collections of woodworking magazines. Nothing ever seems to go wrong with the articles in these wonderful fictional reports of just how a project goes together right the very first time, nothing that is except for an occasional empty cup of coffee.

One of the things that has made my list of "To Do's" as a seemingly permanent resident was the update of my Web Page with an inventory of the woodturning items that I have in stock. Woodturning for me is a pastime, not to be scheduled or forced into those little cubicles of time that were allocated to it when I had a real 9 to 5. Sales is a necessary function, not only to ensure a continuum of materials and new tooling, but also to make room for more items to be made. Sales infers marketing, which again infers a public face to your craft, and as such the Internet is today's marketplace of choice for so many of us. I had never resisted buying new things on-line at every opportunity that rang of bargain or uniqueness, but had never really given equal thought to showing my creations on-line to others.

With the help of a best friend, I was urged into the breech of computer technology, grudgingly giving up time amongst my shavings to do so. His efforts were welcomed, his skills with a computer unmatched, and his energy to get my site up and running were far ahead of my own willingness to give the process the time that it needed. You see, this was his hobby, and at the end of the day he didn't have to clean up barrels of shavings and blow off the dust, an advantage that I had failed to think about as I would forgo the office for the shop.

Well it has been close to a year since my RumeryWoods site went live, and I am pleased to be able to thank my friend for his continued support and web design by getting my catalog pages built and loaded into the original framework that he had designed so eloquently for me. I did make it out from under all those loving wood shavings to make time to get some of my end results available for review. The process will be ongoing for certain, but I hope that today he can have the same satisfaction that something that he started has come to the type of completion as I do when I put another completed turning onto the shelf. I thank you Peter, for your support and your friendship, without either I would still be hidden under all that dust and debris that collects beneath by lathes.

If you have a moment please take a moment to look at Peter's craftsmanship and the ways that he makes my craftsmanship look so much better than I might otherwise deserve. His work, and a bit of my own, can be seen at http://www.rumerywoods.com/ .

Thank you for your time and for your interest,

Ralph

Overcoming intimidation

During a sabbatical to our Central Florida home over the holidays, I had the occasion to show some of my wood turning projects to the local community. I had a series of pens styles, several of my kaleidoscopes, and many styles of bottle toppers there, and had taken my Jet mini lathe with me for the trip so that I could work on some tool handles during the vacation.

The general consensus was that people were amazed that these types of projects could be turned out without massive amounts of heavy machinery and long periods of crafting. I had sold a good number of the pens and pen/pencil sets when it occurred to me that people might like the opportunity to create their own pen and that would give me a chance to practice my teaching methods with a different demographic. Having instructed a number of young people at the various turning events, I was prepared to discuss the safety issues, to begin the rough turning of the blank into a cylinder, and then back off to just verbally guide the new turner through the process of shaping the stock to the appropriate bushing diameters. With an older group, those of 4 to 6 decades or so, the attentiveness was terrific. Everyone was listening with great interest and observation, but unlike the kids, who couldn't wait to get the tool to the wood, as soon as the lathe spun up to speed the "student" backed away. The comments ranged from "Oh no, I couldn't ever do that." to others saying simply that I would better finish it for them while they observed. One gentleman who I know has building experience was so unsure of himself that his eagerness for a special pen of his very own was abandoned completely in favor of one that had already been made to stock.

I did, with a fair amount of cajoling and peer pressure, get a few of these fellow residents and house guests to actually turn themselves a fine pens, right through the finishing and assembly process with very fine results. Almost every one of the pens that they did turn though followed a straight line design style that followed the instructional example supplied with the component kit. Try as I might to suggest that they could do any shape that they wished, while still holding to the final bushing diameters, they formed the most traditional of contours. The wild creativity that still lived in the youth, giving forth designs that were bold and busy with questionable writing comfort, was lost somewhere with the parents and grandparents.

Those that were willing to step up to the task and sculpt the gem from the rough stock went away with much more than a pen, they had a story to tell to everyone that would amire their new possession, and it is my hope that they have also gone away with a feeling that there is one more thing that they can do.

Intimidation, rightly so, prevents us from jumping off from bridges, but alas it also prevents us from doing many of the things that we just observe from a distance. Knowing which of those fears to set aside may be the real trick, but I know a handful of people now that will have a great deal of pride in something that they created themselves in just an hours effort. The pens will mean so much more to them, and the experience of assisting them has given added meaning to me as well.

When a chance to try something new comes along, I hope that I can overcome my own reluctance as I have tried to help others do.

Ralph

Freedom Pens Project Participation

For a second year, I was part of the local Rockler Woodworking Store's (http://www.rockler.com/retail/index.cfm?store=32 Danvers, MA) effort to create custom woodturned pens that shall be sent to the military troops fighting to preserve our freedoms. This is a national program (http://www.freedompens.org/) and has had local participants from virtually every state of our country making many thousands of pens each year.

The idea of the program is to show support to the troops, making each recepient feel special in some small way as a result of this gift, and to advance the awareness of the wood turning craft within the local community. There were several members my local woodturning club, the Association of Revolutionary Turners (http://www.revolutionary-turners.com/) from Woburn, MA who helped instruct store customers on how to create a wood turned pen, while filling the periods between teaching by turning several pens each of their own designs and wood or color combinations. A total of some three dozen pens were made from this event, many by folks with no previous woodturning experience, and several of those were young people tagging along to the wood working store with a parent. What a wonderful feeling for them to perform a civic donation of time and effort while also gaining the confidence of being able to start and complete a woodturning project in less than an hours time. The joy in their faces was like that experienced from catching a first fish or a first score of a new sport for them, and that joy was shared by those of us instructing the craft to them. To pass along one's skills to others is a reward far exceeding the donation of the time and effort that it takes.

While I have taught a lot of people how to get started in wood turning projects, there are very few of those sessions from which I do not learn something myself, either in the manner that others approach a task or find a way to do it differently, or in differences that people's individual creativity can be expressed. I help the student to play the notes, as it were, but the music that is created is their own, and often exceeds the scope of the lessons taught, bringing smiles to student and instructor alike.

Ralph

RUMERY WOODS
Beverly, MA

Happy New Year - Rumery Woods Website work has started

Happy New Year !

Time to start a new year of woodturning.


If you check out www.rumerywoods.com , you will notice that construction has officially started.

Once I get a merchant account finalized, I will be adding a catalog of all the items that I presently have in inventory , along with the option to specify custom orders.

With the holidays and travel behind me, I can also concentrate on this blog. So keep checking in to see what might be happening during the new year.

Ralph

Welcome to Rumery Woods

Hello, as way of introduction to this new woodworking forum, I would first like to introduce myself to you. My name is Ralph Rumery, and my home and home shop are located in Beverly, Massachusetts, about 20 miles north of Boston and on the Northshore of Massachusetts Bay.

I am a Mechanical Engineer by training, and after a third of a century in the Machine Design and Integration field I have chosen to spend more time pursuing the woodworking that had only been an avocation for all those years. I first developed an interest in woodworking as a youngster while helping my Dad build cabinets and furniture items for the home. Since that time I have maintained a home shop and continued to stock it with hand an power tools in preparation for that Retirement Day when the rarest of all commodities, TIME, would be abundant.

With limited time, a reasonably equipped shop, and a lifetime of woodworking magazines and project clippings, I envisioned a time when completed projects would depart my shop portals every 28 minutes, just as our favorite TV idols do day in and day out in their sanitized shops. As this communication continues, the reality of my shop experiences shall be related, not because I see myself as the model for everyone else, but rather because we have all had projects and experiences that did not follow the plan, and have had to recover from these diversions. Sharing experiences, both positive and disruptive, helps us all to better understand the artistry of working with nature’s resource, Fine Woods.

Please follow this forum and share my appreciation of beautiful woods. If I inspire you to tackle new projects, to acquire and use a new species of wood, or simply to enjoy a finished product from wood then I will feel great about helping to expand our craft.

My first concentration will involve my recently renewed enjoyment of woodturning, describing the methods and woods used in making many different gift items and custom orders. Woodturning, as a craft segment of its own, can offer great satisfaction, and can be done in a very limited space, with little outside expense, and projects can be completed often in a single session for those of us that still never have enough time in the shop.

Thank you for your interest.


Ralph F. Rumery

RUMERY WOODS
http://www.rumerywoods.com/

Beverly, MA 01915-1811