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Discuss - Technique or end result?

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john taylor:
The end result is important, especially if you want to sell the items.

Good technique is also important as it makes things easier, quicker and cheaper to do.

So my thoughts are that they are both important but the end result is more important than technique, just, how you arrive at the end result is up to you and as long as you are happy with the way you did it.

I am always trying to improve my technique so getting a good end product is easier so the circular argument continues.

Finally I would say they are equally important.

john

Jacktownhill:
I always remember Andy Coates saying -

"If a hobbyist takes a week to finish working a roughly tooled bowl & in doing so,works down from 60 Grit to 1000 Grit & is satisfied with the result - Then I as a Professional make a similar object in an hour or so using 99% tooling & barely finishing with sanding.

The Two finished items standing side by side may not look so dissimilar? But - Who is entitled to judge which is the better??"

Surely this Association of ours is set up to encourage all. Be they Amateur or professional. We all join the association to gain benefit & knowledge from other more experienced people.

My own turning has improved in leaps & bounds after being guided by more experienced Turners & then understanding the need & subsequently receiving tuition from Professionals.

Thank goodness that our Organisation as a whole has a membership that is pleased to pass on good advice & the benefits of experience - Be that either from Professional or well meaning amateurs.

I also confess to occasionally still reaching for a Scraper instead of a Gouge or Skew. I still cover up the occasional gaff with a bit of unspoken heavy sanding.
But i love woodturning & am quietly satisfied with a few of my results.

I still aim to get better & love watching "THE FEW" who inspire me to achieve better !!

Andy Coates:
I can't NOT wade in to this one...especially as Jack's already cited me! :)

The answer rather depends on what you want to be: 1) a woodturner, or 2) a maker who uses a lathe as a carpenter uses a saw.

If 1) then tool technique is everything. It's what allows us to produce the shape we are aiming at with safety, ease, and certainty.

If 2) then it matters not. You can happily hack a rough shape and take it from there.

My own opinion is that tool technique (which includes sharpening, presentation, and the process of shaping) is all. The skills are not, relatively, difficult to achieve, provide for a healthy does of self satisfaction when acquired, and will stand you in good stead no matter where you take your craft thereafter. And at the same time can save you untold Mtrs of 80grit cloth at £3.95M.

When I have heard tool technique belittled as unimportant it is usually by makers who do not produce pure turnings (such as myself), but who then go on to apply other surface texture or applications. That's all well and good. But those applications and treatments are just the "techniques" of another craft/art...so why are those techniques worthy of keeping and developing and not those of the turner?

If we don't practice the techniques they will eventually be lost and then we'll be incapable of passing them on.

In Mark's statement (not here) I understand him to be asking a slightly different question...not so much denigrating technique, but rather those turners who are sticklers for technique yet show little (or no) interest in development, exploration, progression, or "difference".

I know a turner with tool technique that would give Mike Darlow a run for his money, but his work is all copied, and as a result, DULL DULL DULL. Why master the skills and then fail to use them to their fullest advantage?

In the real world "the end justifies the means" may well be the mantra, but for me (and by association the association) preserving tool technique is as much about preserving the craft as it is about the production of clean shapes and features.

I've often said in demonstrations that once you've learnt the "rules" and acquired the skills you'll then find a dozen ways to use the tool "wrongly" to achieve your aims, but this is only a safe practice when you understand the tool, the material, and the way the two interact.

And anyway...if I'd wanted to achieve shapes and forms with abrasive I wouldn't have bought a lathe.

My advice as always is, learn the techniques, master them, and then use your imagination and fly!

Paul Disdle:
Achieving a good end result is very important and we should all strive for the best results we can achieve.

Good technique is going to be the most effective / effcient way of achieving the end result.

I am discovering as I turn more and witness more demos that tool technique is continuing to evolve as people discover new ways to present tools and new ways to shape tool profiles. So technique is always being learnt.

Just my thoughts

Paul

bodrighywood:
Sounds like we are all saying the same thing using different words. Perfecting your technique will make you a good wood turner but if you aspire to produce things that have artistic merit (can apply to chair legs and stair finials as well as more dramatic things) then you need to develop other skills alongside them. Bottom line what do you, as a wood turner, want to achieve? To achieve certain designs you need to develope new texhnique skills so it is definitely catch 22. You can't really have one without the other

Pete

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