Thursday evenings, alternate weeks, are SHEFFIELD Woodturning Club nights, which I always enjoy. We have two sorts of session: either “hands on”, when lathes and other euipment are set out, and senior members tutor less experienced members; or a demonstration, usually by an invited expert, when we sit in rows and watch an expert actually making a particular piece, and may also have examples of finished work.

Tonight I took along with me most of my chisels, hoping that Graham, who had been tutoring me for the two previous hands on sessions, would be able to show me how best to sharpen my tools. He was, and I now have blades not only sharp, but shaped like Graham’s own tools, which I had used previously. He had taught me to angle the gouge quite differently from the way I had done it before, and which did lead to “snatching” and unintended cutting.

I shall now return to the piece I was working on, to try and recover a useful shape, using properly shaped and sharpened bowl gouges. I also have the task of buying a “jig” which holds the gouge in a suitable fixed position against the grindig wheel, and is really essential for accurate grinding.