Australian Wood Review – June 2019

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70 Australian Wood Review

WOODTURNING

as your body guides the tool into the

cut with the down stroke and then

relaxes on the up stroke.

Mike Abbott, an English green

woodworker who is largely responsible

for rekindling a love of these peculiar

contraptions, had a setup that used

this forward and backward motion to

gently rock his children to sleep when

they were young and in a pram; not

something you would try with a three

phase lathe!

A speedy machine

But while sleeping children are bliss, a

lathe that only works for half the time

you are using it is surely inefficient.

Not so.

The secret of how a pole lathe ploughs

through wood so easily is down to the

type of tools used and a technique

that relies on slicing across the grain,

releasing flying ribbons of wood.

I remember seeing Mike Abbott

releasing such ribbons from his lathe just

over 20 years ago, and my jaw dropped

at the speed and efficiency of a pole

lathe and bodger in action. Mike told

us of a curious contest held regularly in

the UK: the Log-to-Leg race in which

competitors would start with a green

log, split out a billet, roughly shape with

an axe and drawknife before mounting it

on a pole lathe to turn a perfect Windsor

chair leg. Mike could do this whole

process in eight minutes.

1. A closer view of
   the workings of
   some traditional and
   minimalistic technology
   which is still highly
   efficient.


2. The axe is an important
   tool for bodging – use it
   to fell, split and shape
   blanks, and to access
   the bowl of a lathe
   made spoon.


3. Cranking the poppet
   centre into the blank.


4. Grab a straight log
   (green hardwood is
   best), and mark it into
   four pieces.