There seems to be more people turning wood at the lathe than any point in my lifetime....at least anecdotally, in the last 35 years of woodworking that I am acquainted with, the number of turners seems to be at its highest point? Maybe my awareness is just higher in this respect?
Regarding equipment - lathes, chucks, specialized tools, seem to be the most advanced they have ever been.
Opportunities to learn/information available - for woodturning, it seems that there is more availability through local clubs, symposiums, mentoring at prestigious schools, videos/DVD's, books, forums, internet [youtube, etc] seem to be at an all time high.
Demand for turned work/ the ability to turn a hobby into a sustainable income, especially as a supplemental income in retirement.......not so sure about that one? Economic downturns, less disposable incomes for most households, higher costs of fuel, health care, etc. taking larger chunks of most peoples' resources.
Graying - the median age of most turners seem to be somewhere mid to late sixties.
Are we in woodturnings "Golden Age" now, or is it yet to come, or has it already passed us by?
Interesting question, Roger. I would agree that turning -- equipment, techniques, information, popularity -- seems to be a happening thing. My hunch is that it will continue to rise in popularity.
The underlying question here, of course, is what makes turning popular? And to address the graying factor, how will this popularity be affected as the demographics skew even older with the aging of the boomer generation?
I have a few theories, though none very well researched or thought out. One is that, for me at least, turning has always been a satisfying way to make something in a day. As a long-time architectural woodworker and furnituremaker, I appreciate the relatively instant gratification of turning a lovely piece of wood into something wonderful.
I've never done it for money, though, and I can imagine it loses some of its charm when you feel obliged to produce. Still, hobbyists like me spend a lot of time and money on our pastime, and we're the main market for most of the innovative new products that keep coming out.
Have we passed the peak of the golden age? I'm optimistic that we haven't. As you said, there are a lot of younger folks coming up in the activity, and they are enticed more and more by the decorative and sculptural possibilities of the medium. So, traditional round-and-brown turning may shrink as a proportion of new turning activity, but the creative side is likely to continue to gain traction, and as long as the youngsters coming in outpace the retiring of the old-timers, it'll keep the numbers healthy.
The feasibility of supplementing your income may suffer, though, as more and more sellers enter the marketplace. There will always be a need for utilitarian turnings, but competition may end up lowering the price expectations. The decorative work is likely to ebb and flow with the fortunes of the broader art market, because that's really what we're selling. And, again, the expanding amount of creativity and innovation will most likely raise the bar in that arena, too, increasing competitiveness for collector dollars. It may well also result in more affordable work vying to fill the middle market niches, with work that is simpler and easier to produce, yet with great style and curb appeal.
Just a few hunches. I'll be interested to hear what others think.
Interesting thoughts. I got into turning for the same reason Ellis said that he enjoys it. It's quick and the materials don't have to cost much. Well that's how it started anyway. I had a cheap lathe, a few home made tools and pulled wood out of the woods around me to turn. I liked furniture making and box making but the wood was just so expensive and you know how long it takes to sand and finish something the size of a dresser.
If you combine the cost and time element with a job that doesn't pay well and requires more than 40 hours a week quite often it's easy to see why the above got me hooked.
Another thing that I think helps woodturning grow is the number of different ways you can go. You don't have to make bowls, or hollow vessels, you can make just about anything that your imagination takes you. I learned to make my own tools during this period which is another fun aspect of turning. Collecting and buying tools and gadgets. At first I was pretty broke and had to really do things on the cheap. If you stay at a job long enough you get used to the income and it gradually rises, you pay off cars etc and start to have a little extra to spend.
Then you get hooked on the tool vortex and even though we all know it's wrong not, when your new you think the latest tool will make you a better turner. So you start the fun of buying grinding wheels and jigs, and trying out new tools or buying the latest chuck.
I am a little concerned about turning or woodworking as a hobby in the long run. At the present time the really young generation doesn't seem to be attracted to any hobbies. They also seem more likely to buy condo's or things that don't have a yard to maintain. this makes me think that a hobby that needs space and has noise considerations may be a problem. Hope I'm wrong but most I see right now can't keep their nose out of their phone long enough to do much of anything.
Things may change. I think there is still physical need for many humans to work with their hands and create something. So it may be the big stress reliever for the next generation may be turning. Something that can be done with minimal space and materials and feeds that need to create.
I am concerned about the next generation. My son works in the turf industry and a great deal of their business comes from golf courses. Their salesmen are very concerned the next generation is not joining country clubs and actually playing golf. Several golf courses locally have gone under. They are wondering if they are at the end of their run or at least in the declining years.
Wood working and wood turning may suffer in the long run as well, but there may be enough people that actually want to do something with their hands and not just Google it or watch it on FaceBook or YouTube to keep it going. I hope so.
I'm relatively new to the site but I will chime in and share my motivation to start turning. I am 26 and I don't have anyone close to me that turns. I have always cut my own firewood, enjoyed being outdoors, and really wanted to make things out of wood. Any furniture making would have cost alot of money to get all of the equipment and required more space than I had. I work in a machine shop and have had plenty of time on a metal lathe and I had heard of wood turning in the past. Shortly after, I bought a lathe, a mess of Thompson tools, and I already had plenty of wood and I was on my way. A family friend is a woodcutter so I have a good flow of burls and it's become something I'm really passionate about. I joined my local club which I would say consists of 80% of the members above 60 years old which somewhat surprised me. None of my friends have shown any interest at all in turning and I don't know any others that are my age that do it. It seems to be that if you don't have a family member doing it, it doesn't seem to catch on. I am not much for being inside watching tv or on the computer, or messing around on a cell phone like several people my age..instead I'd much rather be making something.
I'm wondering if extensive use of the internet results in a higher percentage of young people that are passive observers, rather than doing things with their hands?
Someone your age has also grown up in an age when almost nothing is made here in the US anymore -- most of our goods are manufactured overseas. Maybe there is a growing sense that "we" think, and "they" make? This could result in a lowered expectation of actually doing or making things, as opposed to design and intellectual property.
I'm also curious about your experience in moving to wood turning from a strong machining background. A friend of mine is a PhD-level EE who has spent years designing and prototyping high-precision scientific equipment, so he has a lot of metal working experience. When he gave woodturning a try, he just couldn't get used to carving away the wood by hand. "You mean, you actually hold the tools in your hands?", he asked. Since he comes from a world of precision and making multiples that are identical, he thought that was a weak point to turning by hand. I have never machined metal, and find the sweeping curves more appealing than a series of tiny X-Y-Z movements -- sort of analog vs digital. And, if we want a high degree of precision, perhaps wood is the wrong medium to start with. I wonder if you have thoughts on this, too.
We have a lot of machinists and engineers who are wood turners. Frankly I was surprised when I first heard about hand chasing threads. I had taken machine shop classes in college and the thought of chasing threads by hand was simply inconceivable. Of course now I have not only used hand chasers I've made my own from scratch.
I believe we are indeed in the "golden age" of turning. I think there are comparisons with many other fields; big American cars of the 50's, nothing will ever come close again. Most of us think of the 50's and 60's as the best of times...Muscle cars of the 60's. Rock and roll....The Beatles, Stones, Clapton, etc. they all knew each other, and the times were right, and magic was the result. Never gonna' happen again! Some day, people will look back and marvel that all the big-name turners actually knew one another, and it all happened at the same period in time. Everything fell into place at just the right moment....
Our son had a 2015 Mustang GT that could hit 100 in what seemed like an instant, and get 20mpg on the highway. Fastest car I ever drove. It can stop on a dime with multi piston disc brakes all around, and corner like a go kart. Makes a 1969 Boss Mustang feel like a truck! Today is the best for performance cars, in terms of engineering, but the design can still up for debate.
I think woodturning is just past it's peak, on the way down.
Hey Dick, I think today's hot cars do everything better. But part of the fun was changing cams, exhaust, carbs, etc. in the old days. If you want fast, try today's motorcycles! In the day, my Honda cb750 would turn a quarter mile in 13 seconds @ 100 mph with a top speed of under 120. My brother's Honda CBR will do the same 1/4 mile in under 10 seconds @145 mph, with a top speed near 200.
I can honestly say that the hardest thing that I have had to get used to is the fact that sometimes something is "good enough". Working in a machine shop things are pretty much perfect, therefore I have become a perfectionist. Initially I would try and get everything so perfect with a gouge I drove myself nuts. Since then, I have learned that there isn't really anything wrong with sandpaper and the fact is, we're human-not a machine and because of that I can't expect perfect results. I can say though that the tendency to want things perfect does keep me practicing and trying to master techniques. My favorite part about woodturning and how it differs from machining is the fact that more of an artistic approach can be taken on a piece of wood easier than it can with a piece of metal. I can try something with wood and erase it if I don't like it and I really like it.
