I have just been looking for other woodturners around my local area and there are very few!
I didn’t realise just how rare we are indeed!
Are woodturners more common in the States? I get the impression they are much more plentiful there.
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I know a handful of people who do. Not sure the actual rarity though.
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It probably depends on the region. We have this place called the Workbench in town that offers a wide variety of woodworking classes from fine woodworking to bowl turning to chair/table making.
I’ve been saying I should go check it out and try a class, maybe when the stars align and their course schedule matches my free time and money schedule lol.
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For the folks that might be unfamiliar…woodturning is an expensive hobby if you own all the equipment. Lathe’s aren’t cheap, and cheap lathes aren’t worth it. Tools aren’t cheap and cheap tools aren’t worth it. Wood can be pricey if you buy new stock, but you can get creative and find lots of sources if you spend a little time looking. And frankly it’s one of those hobbies that takes a lot of time to get good at and after a while you end up with a “scrap bin” of good wood to pick from. But often you’ll start to require other things to go along with the hobby, like a band saw, drill press, router, planer…and so on…and so on. It can get pretty deep and has a pretty steep curve.
Like playing an instrument, or learning to paint, and I think it’s a bit more rare than either of those. This I think is the main reason why they’re pretty hard to come by. I’ve lived in many parts of the U.S. and there aren’t many that I’ve found in any of the regions I’ve lived.
I do it, but I don’t own the gear yet, I just have a local shop that I can go to when I want to work on a project. But shared tools are…interesting…
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