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Woody doesn’t mess with small stuff. Most of his
finished turnings are 18” to 30” in diameter and
typically 18” to 36” in height. What’s interesting is
that he turns all of his work on an old Oliver lathe
originally built in 1947. What’s even more interesting
is that Woody is more than 86 years young, and that he
turns “just about every day” according to him. We
believe it too. Woody’s output is phenomenal. All of
Woody’s pieces are signed and numbered and he recently
completed number 3700!
Woody was born January 18, 1919 in Divide County, North
Dakota. His father and mother homesteaded on a 160
wheat farm until they lost the farm during the great
depression. After the family moved to Washington state,
Woody worked for many years in the lumber industry and
did a stint on the ALCAN highway in the ‘40’s before
joining the Army Air Force in 1943. He was a nose
gunner on a B-24 out of Italy during the WWII and a
gunner on a B-29 during the Korean War flying out of
Japan. He retired as a Senior Master Sergeant in 1965
after 22 years of service to the country.
He
then took up carpentry and worked as a house framer in
Florida and Texas for another 22 years before taking up
woodturning as a hobby…a hobby that turned into a
full-time profession. (Did we mention that he’s 86!)
He’s largely self taught, but allows that he learned
more in six months after joining GCWA in 1986 than
during his time of going it alone.
To
accommodate the large pieces of Mesquite Woody prefers,
he modified his old Oliver lathe extensively. He raised
the headstock and tailstock 6” and reworked the power
train. A revised 1-1/2 HP motor, pulley system along
with the original Oliver gearing gives him a wide range
of speeds, but Woody admits he turns everything at
“about 300 rpm.”
He
makes most of his own tools, too. In the picture to the
left is one of Woody’s ½” bowl gouges. All of his tools
are big to reduce vibration, but when it comes to
reducing vibration, nothing we’ve ever seen compares to
the torque arrester Woody uses. It’s made out of 1-1/4”
solid stock and is five feet long. It does such an
effective job that Woody doesn’t even use the hold-down
bar on the rear tool rest. We watched him
(see picture at left) turn a
formidable looking piece of Mesquite and the torque
arrester never even jiggled.
In addition to
GCWA, Woody is a member of the AAW, the Los Amigos del
Mesquite Association, and the Texas Mesquite
Association. (Did we mention that he loves Mesquite?!)
His partner in
woodturning is his lovely wife Sarah. She fusses over
him and makes sure he gets to the GCWA meetings on
time. She also goes with him to the various art
festivals where he sells the majority of his work and
she can talk “Mesquite” just as good as he can. If you
don’t believe us, just ask her!
Commenting on his age,
Woody confides “When you’re as old as I am, nobody needs
tell you how lucky you are to be able to go to the lathe
as often as I do and create a new piece of art.”
Amen,
brother Woodard! |
