Up a Lathe-y River ...

that was then Shop class. Grade 8. I made this bowl. I’m still kind of weirded out that they let 12 year olds play with a lathe back in the day, but my bowl turned out pretty nicely. Thank you, shop teacher at Ryerson Public School! That was the first and until recently last time I ever touched a lathe, but I’ve always wanted to try it again. this is now Lee Valley Tools, Turn a Pen Seminar. I made this pen. For 50 years I’ve been impressed by this idea that you could magically convert square things, like this hunka wood (a pen blank) - into round things, like the pen shown above. It’s the magic of the lathe! Square things become Round things! Our local Lee Valley Tools occasionally runs seminars as a way of persuading you to buy more tools from Lee Valley, so I signed up for their Pen Turning Seminar last weekend. For $50, you got a hunk of wood, and a bag of parts, and, fortunately, a competent instructor (Thomas) to lead you through making a pen. You get to toss around words like…