Dan’s fourth lathe is the Powermatic lathe he has in his shop today. Here is Dan with a large maple blank in his previous shop. He calls this, “My Happy Place.”

Dan’s involvement with the SPSW grew over the years. Between 2010 and 2012, Dan served as club president. These days Dan looks forward to mentoring new woodturners and supporting charity causes by turning and donating wooden bowls.

Dan will be demonstrating Inside Out Turning a Christmas Ornament, timely subject giving you plenty of time to turn yours.

The real turning point was Eric giving me a rough turned Madrone burl bowl. That was so exciting to turn. Dave Schweitzer noticed my excitement and asked me to come and see him. He had no idea what he was in for. After a long day at Dave’s he finally got rid of me after six in the evening. This began a marathon of turning wet wood and learning and practicing the techniques that had been shown. Two hundred rough turned bowls later there were signs of hope in my finished bowls.

Back to Dave’s and now hollow forms started popping up at home. A day with Roy Lane helped that experience as well. So much to learn and so little time, with lots of practice happiness ensued. Urns, baby rattles and vases appeared, some with dyed and some natural finishes.

The many demonstrators at our club and others continued to teach techniques that were new to me. With practice these new methods became easier to use and led me to produce better results.

– Dan Stromstead

After seeing pens in a woodworking store in Port Townsend I said to my wife “I could make that!” Years later I wandered into a store and discovered pen kits and asked how to make them. The owner gave me a three minute lesson and after purchasing the needed extras for the lathe I began my current wood turning adventures.

The real turning point was Eric giving me a rough turned Madrone burl bowl. That was so exciting to turn. Dave Schweitzer noticed my excitement and asked me to come and see him. He had no idea what he was in for. After a long day at Dave’s he finally got rid of me after six in the evening. This began a marathon of turning wet wood and learning and practicing the techniques that had been shown. Two hundred rough turned bowls later there were signs of hope in my finished bowls.

Back to Dave’s and now hollow forms started popping up at home. A day with Roy Lane helped that experience as well. So much to learn and so little time, with lots of practice happiness ensued. Urns, baby rattles and vases appeared, some with dyed and some natural finishes.

The many demonstrators at our club and others continued to teach techniques that were new to me. With practice these new methods became easier to use and enabled me to produce better results.

I have always been told that by teaching you learn more than the student. So let’s all learn and keep turning.

A friendship strengthened through adversity, crafted with a lathe

The Inland Northwest Woodturners in Spokane Valley are meeting on November 5th. Members will have a chance to turn Christmas ornaments, tops, toys, and other Holiday related goodies.

The Woodturners of Olympia are meeting next on November 10th. SPSW past president Dan Stromstad will be demonstrating inside out turning.

The Fraser Valley Woodturners in Abbotsford, B.C. will be meeting on November 12th. Bruce Campbell will demonstrate how to turn a baseball bat. Also, SPSW member Eric Lofstrom will be presenting an all-day hands-on class on November 7th featuring tool sharpening and multi-axis turning, and an all-day demo on November 8th covering “Spindle, Endgrain & Facegrain Technique Building Treasures”.

The Seattle Woodturners are meeting on November 12th. Stephen Hatcher will be demonstrating new techniques.

The Willamette Valley Woodturners in Salem, Oregon will be meeting on November 12th. This month will be the annual auction.

The Southwest Washington Woodturners in Vancouver, WA will be meeting on November 15th. This will be a Christmas ornament workshop.

The Southwest Idaho Woodturners in Boise, ID are meeting on November 17th. The program for the evening has not been announced.

The Olympic Peninsula Woodturners are meeting next on November 18th. This meeting will be a tool and wood swap.

The Northwest Washington Woodturners in Mt. Vernon are meeting on November 19th. The chapter will be holding its annual holiday party.

The Cascade Woodturners in Portland, OR will be meeting on November 19th. Lloyd DeWerff will be demonstrating Christmas ornaments.

The Beaver State Woodturners in Eugene, Oregon are getting together on November 19th. Rick Mower will demonstrate bowl coring.

The Greater Vancouver Woodturners Guild in Vancouver, B.C. will be meeting on November 25th. The program for the evening has not been announced.

The Island Woodturners Guild on Vancouver Island will be meeting on November 28th. The demonstration for the afternoon has not been announced.

This month we are lucky enough to have Pat McCart, Dan Stromstad, Roy Lane, and Dick Noe demonstrating. And, who knows, perhaps a surprise demonstrator or two. So come on out and enjoy the camaraderie and maybe learn a new trick or two.

Delving into the many turnings that could be made on a small lathe with excitement growing a customer came to me for eyewear and I found that he rebuilds lathes as a hobby. We worked out a deal for a larger lathe. It was poor at best and eventually it was sold and a brand new General lathe came home. Borrowing a chuck from my friend Tom Bageant started me on the path to bowl turning.

The real turning point was Eric Lofstrom giving me a rough turned Madrone burl bowl. That was so exciting to turn. Dave Schweitzer noticed my excitement and asked me to come and see him. He had no idea what he was in for. After a long day at Dave’s he finally got rid of me after six in the evening. This began a marathon of turning wet wood and learning and practicing the techniques that had been shown. Two hundred rough turned bowls later there were signs of hope in my finished bowls. A need for a larger lathe became very important and so the General lathe was sold and a Powermatic came home.

Back to Dave’s and now hollow forms started popping up at home. A day with Roy Lane helped that experience as well. So much to learn and so little time, with lots of practice happiness ensued. Urns, baby rattles and vases appeared, some with dyed and some natural finishes.

The many demonstrators at our club and others continued to teach techniques that were new to me. With practice these new methods became easier to use and enabled me to produce better results.

At this meeting I will be demonstrating inside/out turning.

When I was in junior high school my favorite class was shop. In seventh grade we did a variety of projects with many different materials. Metal, leather, plastic and wood were used. In eighth grade we were able to pick our projects and I made a coffee table of walnut that my folks used until they were gone. I also made a small chest of drawers which is in my home now. In ninth grade we were able to use the lathe for the first time since it was dangerous to use. I was so intrigued that I made many projects on the lathe. The first bowl sits under our phone in the kitchen. It sits on a board that I turned and carved to fit both the bowl and a letter opener and it was returned to me as well when my folks had no more need.

That summer we visited an uncle. He had a lathe he had never used and he gave it to me. My dad put it in the trunk and we took it home from Southern California. I bought lathe tools from Sears or Montgomery Ward with earnings from my paper route. I still have those tools on my tool cart for memory sake. With those basic tools my dad and I created all sorts of things over the years. Then I left home for college. Before college was over Gail and I were married just before our senior year began. My lathe stayed at my parents home until my father was gone.

I brought my lathe home to Issaquah and our boys and I made a baseball bat. Then it sat as life went on busily. While visiting Port Townsend I saw wood pens in a store and I said to Gail I could make those and she giggled because I said that quite often about lots of wood things. A few years later I wondered into a woodworking store and spotted kits for pens and asked the owner what was needed to make a pen. He gave me a two minute lesson and a list of items needed for the lathe. I bought all the accessories and that is when my lathe interest reignited. I actually had to sit down and spread my legs in order to hold the lathe still since it was mounted on a rickety metal stand with casters by my father. I made quite a few pens in this way and finished them with wax.

Chatting with a customer about my lathe experience, he mentioned that he rebuilt old lathes and we worked out a deal that really benefited him and I had a larger lathe. It was less than wonderful, but I managed to use it to make all sorts of things and a multitude of pens. My friend Tom Bageant had a lathe and he bought a chuck that expanded to hold things and I borrowed it and made my first bowl since junior high. It was extremely poor at best, but inspirational. After much thought I decided to purchase a real lathe and bought a General lathe with a headstock that rotated and moved along the lathe bed. It was wonderful.

Tom and I were at Woodcraft in Seattle when Jack Wayne encouraged us to come to the South Puget Sound Woodturners Club meeting. We had heard of the woodturners club many times and thought it was probably a few old guys sitting around telling stories of the past. After Jack’s encouragement we decided to go to the meeting. We were stunned at what we encountered. There were over fifty wonderful turnings on display. There were over a hundred folks at the meeting, all ages and both men and women. My friend from the past, Lynn Olinger, was at the meeting and we had not seen each other in several years. We rekindled our friendship. Tom and I joined that night.

That was the beginning of a wonderful journey. One of the first meetings Dale Larson was there as a demonstrator and taught about turning wet wood and bowl turning in general. I took notes and tried to do this at home with limited success. I then went to a few sawdust sessions and learned from Eric Lofstrom, Jim Cotter and Bob Sweazey. Eric taught me how to sharpen tools by hand without a jig. Bob taught me about cutting the outer edge of a bowl to size and shape before going deeper into the bowl to maintain stability. Jim Cotter taught me all sorts of general turning information. He continues to be a wonderful source of help to me as president.

After spending an afternoon with Eric at his home I was inspired yet again. The next meeting at Show and Tell I displayed this little bowl that I had made using techniques that Eric had shown me. At the meeting Dave Schweitzer taped me on the shoulder and suggested that I spend some time with him. He thought he could teach me some things that I had not learned yet. Wow! What a great experience.

I spent an entire day with Dave listening and learning and turning. I was there for over eight hours. Dave jokes now about how he and Lu thought I would never leave. After returning home I was definitely inspired and turned around 250 wet wood bowls. That way I was able to practice the techniques that Dave had taught me. By the time some of the bowls had dried and were ready to be returned my skill level had improved. After turning another fifty or so bowls my techniques were far more refined.

I spent more time with Dave as he helped me refine my methods. Then Dave did an all day demonstration at Nancy Sweazey’s. I learned even more. The thing that stuck in my head was Dave saying that if it took more than twenty minutes to sand a bowl he figured he had not done a very good job of turning it to begin with. This was another challenge for me to improve my techniques to accomplish using less sand paper and less time to finish a bowl.

Now, after many demonstrations and learning so many things, it is always exciting to come to our meetings. No matter what is being taught one can always take something from the teaching and incorporate it into what you’re turning at home. Tom Bageant is a fine example of doing that with his turning. His light houses, and now his light house pepper mills, are a result of using the many techniques he has learned at club meetings over the years. I can hardly wait to see what he will come up with next.

Now that you know why I am excited about coming to our meetings I hope that you too are inspired to come and learn and use what you have learned in your turning.

See you at the next meeting.

Dan