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  I get a great deal of satisfaction (and a cheap thrill) from cutting hay or plowing snow. Yup. I mean it.
Oh sure, it’s real work and requires both energy and gear; as well as consuming a fair amount of time.
But it also produces instant results and fulfillment allowing me to move on to the next bend in the road
Like I said, cheap thrills.
Well. For me, turning wood pretty much does the same thing, and here’s why.
 When you take a lump of sopping wet wood and mount it on a lathe wonderful things begin to happen. First and foremost, you get to make a huge mess without worrying about having to clean it up. But also because as you make that mess a transformation takes place right before your eyes when that irregular lump becomes rounder and rounder, and with a form that’s most pleasing. At least one hopes so.
The thing is - woodturning isn’t easy. It takes tons
of practice and perseverance, as well as no small measure of nerve just to get comfortable with the notion of standing in the line of fire as you spin an eighty pound chunk of wood at a gagillion rpms and jabbing at it with a very sharp and pointy spearlike tool. Again, umm, cheap thrills!
You can launch pieces into a sub-orbital trajectory and bounce them off the ceiling, the walls, or even your head. You can spend an eternity getting a piece tweaked just right, and then irreversibly ruin it in the blink of an eye. But you can also have a lot of great fun when it all goes well.
This journey is about those moments.
Click to view a sampling of some of my more favorite pieces.
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