Keith Rowley (1)

Keith covers the following topics:

Trees and Wood
The Woodturning Lathe and Accessories
Tools of the trade
Sharpening
Laws of Woodturning
Turning between Centers
Faceplate Turning
Copy Turning
Sanding and Finishing
Boring and Routing
Safety, Design, Turning courses

The book is 175 pages, lavishly illustrated with top quality color photographs and clear line drawings. The text is thoughtful and easy to follow.
Keith lives and works in England so this book is UK-centric and the section on lathes and show more accessories is not particularly useful in the US. The section on “Native timbers, UK”, on the other hand, presents an interesting insight into turning elsewhere.

IMHO: It is an ambitious undertaking to produce a good single volume comprehensive guide to woodturning – even if it is restricted to a ‘foundation’ course.
Keith Rowley, however, has nailed it.
Written in a personal style reminiscent of Frank Pain’s “The Practical Wood Turner” this is easy to read and deceptively simple to follow. Only on re-reading, trying the exercises and reading again does one appreciate the depth of this foundation course and see the interesting places it can lead.
If you are a one-book person this could be the one – read it, annotate it and read it some more - it’s a keeper! show less