A few photos from the Harrogate Power Tool Show, it is a show I enjoy immensely. It often seems that Greenwood workers view power tool users with suspicion and vice versa and I don’t deny I get great pleasure from wheeling large logs into the event then spending three days reducing them to bowls with only hand tools. I was next to a CNC carving stand, you scan or program your design into a Laptool and the software drives a mill that does the carving for you. However there is never any hint of animosity or friction and I had a fantastic time, my only regret was that I did the three days by myself and didn’t have time to go around the show properly, not many photos either. Here is the poplar bowl I roughed out over the three days.
When I cut scalloped the ends of the bowl with an axe I was amazed to find the the chipping came away almost intact despite it being endgrain, here is a section.
Generally though all the work was done with adzes, I used a two handed one for the roughing it was surprisingly quick to do this way, and I had time to put a handle on a lighter adze that was then used for finer shaping although the finishing cuts will be done after it has dried. The one in the picture is a bit of a beast at 1.3kg ; I use much heavier hammers but for an adze this seems to be right at the limit of what I can use comfortably single handed.
I also had time to finish off and fit the handles on a set of Gouges that I have been wanting to make for a while, hopefully they will prove strong enough to be struck, although increasingly I am being won over by adzes, I can’t imaging using gouges to remove large quantities of material any more.
And finally, on the first day, before I had started the Sales director from the Robert Sorby stand came over, and said that I should really watch these great videos on carving that he has seen on you tube, apparently there is a guy in America that carves bowls and cups just with handtools, Alexander Yerks, it is a small world.
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