Woodturning: Skill And Magic In The Round

By Nancy K. Crevier

Russ Strasburger, retired Easton elementary teacher and part-time magician, used to work his magic on schoolchildren. Since 1989, though, he has been working magic on pieces of wood culled from his apple orchard and the surrounding woods.

Mr Strasburger, whose craft is on display at the C.H. Booth Library through November, practices the art of woodturning from his Newtown home on Taunton Lake Road.

Woodturning, simply put, is the craft of spinning wood to create a form, then embellishing it through the use of tools such as gouges, chisels, and scrapers. Examples of a primitive form of woodturning have been found in Egypt dating back to 300 BC, and the ancient Chinese practiced a simple form of this craft, as well, turning out simple platters and plates through manual methods. By the 1500s, Europeans had developed more elaborate, mechanical methods of woodturning that allowed them to create ornamental pieces.

It was pure happenstance that led Mr Strasburger to his hobby. “I was going through video tapes on woodworking, just out of curiosity, and picked up a tape on woodturning. I had never turned before then. I saw it and knew I wanted to do it,” he recalls. “I got really excited and found a club, which at the time was newly formed, in Brookfield. I even bought a used lathe before I had even started.”

As a member of the Nutmeg Woodturners League chapter of the American Association of Woodturners (AAW), he was exposed to experienced woodturners and made connections that have helped him improve his skills and broaden his knowledge of the craft over the years. The chapter meets once every two months for demonstrations and lectures by skilled craftspeople in the old railroad station that is part of Brookfield Craft Center on Route 25.

“That’s actually how I got my first lathe,” says Mr Strasburger. A lathe is a crucial piece of machinery to a woodturner. The mechanized tool is used to shape a raw piece of wood; the piece of wood turns around a horizontal axis fixed in place at either end, spinning at speeds controlled by the artist.

“At the first meeting I went to, I met a nice guy named Tom. He was looking for a big, industrial lathe to do architectural woodturning.” Coincidentally, Mr Strasburger had come across such a tool that an acquaintance was selling. He could not use it himself, but passed on the information to Tom. With the purchase of the industrial lathe, Tom no longer needed his small, Rockwell lathe and sold it to Mr Strasburger. His hobby was underway.

“I practiced turning coves [concave molding cut into a board edge] and balls on greenwood.” Greenwood, which is wood seasoned less than a year, can be used for turning, says Mr Strasburger, but it will split as it dries. In some cases, this can be a desirable attribute. “If you turn it thin enough, it just sort of deforms and is sort of neat,” says this woodworker, who always has his eyes open for new and creative ways to practice woodturning.

No Rockwell lathe was ever built with automatic speed control, and changing belts to do so was cumbersome; as his skills grew, he converted the lathe, adding a four-speed, three-phase motor. “It can go slow and still have plenty of power now,” he explains. His lathe collection has grown with his passion. His garage houses a large Delta that is useful for many of his bigger projects. Smaller pieces and detail work is sometimes better accomplished with a small lathe, so a petite version of the other lathes takes up another spot in the garage. “The head stock of the big Delta gets in the way,” Mr Strasburger explains, “so it’s nice to have a tiny lathe to avoid that.”

He has also altered and created tools to aide him in his projects, such as the undercutter he designed to achieve the effect of a ball “floating in a bowl.”

Local Wood

For the most part, Mr Strasburger prefers to use wood he finds locally, even though exotic and tropical woods are available for sale. “Specifically, I like to use wood from my apple orchard,” he says. “I have used pine, maple, cherry, birch, ash. You can use anything.” Of all of the domestic woods, though, he favors black walnut. “I like the grain and I just love the color. The dark wood is so pretty.”

Learning what works and what does not is part of the thrill of woodturning for Mr Strasburger. “I’m different than most people. I like a challenge.” He goes on to illustrate this statement by saying, “I started [practicing woodturning] with 2-by-2s and 2-by-4s and nobody does that. It just doesn’t turn nicely.”

A piece of wood that will turn nicely and produce a solid piece, he has learned, is one with no cracks and not a lot of knots. “A clean piece,” he says works best. Although it is hard to work with, a tree burl (a knotty outgrowth on the side of a tree) makes a nice bowl, because of the wild grain pattern it produces. Spalted wood is also popular, Mr Strasburger says. A fungus, which infects the wood, leaves a crazed motif throughout the grain and results in pieces with unusual properties that many people find desirable.

What Mr Strasburger does with the wood he scavenges is to create unique items, some practical, some just for fun. “My personal favorite is the plunger,” chuckles Mr Strasburger. “My wife, Patti, hates it. She is very supportive, but she doesn’t like that plunger.” The Strasburger toilet plunger adds a flourish to a utilitarian product by topping off the rubber cup with an ornate, curvy handle of fine wood. There is nothing like a work of art to soften the blow of a nasty job.

Boxes of all sizes, some trimmed with beveled edges, some topped with mosquelike domes, rattles, bottle toppers, bowls, plates, puzzles, and pens are some of the more than 1,000 pieces he turns every year. “I made over 200 rattles for Mary Fellows [owner of The Little Green Barn in Sandy Hook]. People like them because they don’t have any finishes on them. And every year I make 40 to 50 Christmas ornaments to give to family and friends.” Wedding parties receive bottles of wine from the Strasburgers and bottle toppers turned to represent a bride and groom.

As a magician, he could not resist playing with a trick of woodturning that turns a simple knob into a shadow profile. Usually used to top walking sticks, Mr Strasburger has made pens in this style, as well. When held in the sunlight, the cane or pen topper projects the shadow of a human profile. The profile he chose to emulate in wood by looking at a photo as he worked was, of course, the famous magician and escape artist Harry Houdini.

Inside Out

Another woodturning skill he has proudly mastered is called “inside out” turning. This technique involves gluing four pieces of wood together, turning a negative of the desired shape, and breaking the four pieces apart. The pieces are then reversed 180 degrees and glued back together. The resulting item appears to be one hollow piece with a symmetrical design on each side.

Because of the precision of detail on a finished product, it would seem that woodturning is a long, involved process. But Mr Strasburger deftly demonstrates the ease with which a rough hunk of timber is transformed into a thing of beauty. In a matter of minutes, a small block of wood goes from a crude lump to a smooth cylinder to a detailed spindle. “Now comes the fun part,” Mr Strasburger says, and ever the magician, he cuts three rings free from the spindle. A baby rattle, smooth and elegant, appears before your eyes.

The pride and challenge of turning a piece is satisfying for this wood artist, but it is a hobby with a soothing quality, as well. “Woodturning,” he says, “is 100 percent concentration and that’s totally relaxing. If there’s anything on my mind, it’s gone.”

In other words, stress disappears — like magic.