Medieval Living

As I’ve said before, one of my many hobbies is woodturning. A friend of mine is a professional turner, and so . . . well, I now have a mini-lathe set up in the garage, along with other woodworking tools, i.e. tablesaw, bandsaw, planer, drill press, and so on. Of all the tools I have, the lathe is by far my favorite – there are so many cool things one can do with a lathe and the proper scrapers and such. While looking for an article on Medieval woodturning, I came upon a very interesting site – my French is rather rusty but I can get the gyst of what is being said. . . but the picture are absolutely incredible.

The man featured in the website turns things on a tree trunk. Jean-Paul Rossi, of L’ARGENTERIE DES BAUGES does some truly incredible work on this rather bizarre looking tree lathe. The picture is from his website, and I give full credit to him for it – but I don’t think someone can truly appreciate what a “tree lathe” would look like until they see one. He includes a brief history of early wood turning techniques (in French, so if you’re rusty like I am, you might want to ask someone fluent in French to help you). He also has a six-minute video posted on youtube where he shows a little of his technique.
I highly encourage you to visit his website, even if you don’t understand French, the pictures alone are worth it!!!