SWAT was Fun!!

[Allen Neighbors]

Well, I made it to SWAT, and I still have my wallet. I ended up with about 12 hours of really good instruction, from such demonstrators as Don Ward, Janice Levi, Mike Mahoney, Jimmy Clewes, Stuart Batty, and Anthony Harris.
I discovered that Mike, Stuart, and Jimmy, are not only gentlemen, and exceptional turners, each of them is also genuinely nuts. I laughed a lot, while I was learning.
As at the previous SWAT Symposium, the Instant Gallery was stacked with a lot of carved, pierced, and otherwise enhanced turnings, but the conventionally turned pieces were beautifully done... well, except one... mine. Mine was a crude-looking vase, and I didn't intend to put it in the gallery. I took it to show to my niece, who lives in Wichita Falls. Because it was strange wood, I showed it to a fellow Creeker, Tom Canfield, and he and a couple of other fellows coerced me into putting it in the gallery.
I think it was because of the type of wood, and the way it was turned. It was turned from a piece of Bristlecone Pine.
Bristlecone Pine is the oldest living tree known to man... many living as many as 6,400 years. It mostly grows between 9500 feet and the treeline. The average growth is about 1 inch in 100 years. The piece I turned is from a tree that was in a forest fire back in 1897, and was dead, but still standing when it was cut down. I counted from the pith, 179 rings, and because they were so close together, I lost count and quit. I'll try to get a pic of it to post one of these days.
I really enjoyed getting to be friends with Tom Canfield; He's really a nice man; and he also had some beautiful pieces in the Gallery.
I'm disappointed to find out that this was the last SWAT Symposium that will be held in Wichita Falls. Against the wishes of many (so I heard), they signed a 5 year contract with the Convention Center in Waco, TX, so it'll be at least 5 years before they could come back here.

[Craig Powers]

I agree. SWAT was a lot of fun. I saw Bill Berry, Michael Mocho twice,
Jamie Donaldson, Stuart Batty twice, Kirk Deheer, and the Mahoney/Batty-Two Ways to Turn a Bowl. They were all excellent. There were many others
that I wanted to see, but not enough time.
Allen, I saw your Bristlecone Pine piece and I liked it. You should post it.
I would highly recommend SWAT. Lots of learning and fun.

[Thomas Canfield]

SWAT was fun and there were a lot of great people attending in addition to those doing the demos. I enjoyed meeting Alan and spending some time with him during some demos and meals - we both won the same during the raffles - NOTHING. Meeting and talking with people from at least 6 states shows the widespread interest in turning. The different turnings shown in the Instant Gallery help to give some idea of what one can do with practice, and some ideas to take home to work on. The pieces I took seemed out of place, but were fun and showed my progress after a couple of years. The vendors there had alot of eye candy, and some did grab my attention but for future. I really Mike Mahoney do his coring and turning. Seeing him made the coring system look almost easy, but I am still thinking that over.

[Allen Neighbors]

This is the crude vase that I turned from the burned Bristlecone Pine. I turned it between centers and made a tenon on the bottom, and shaped the top and bottom edges. Then I used a scrap piece of Apricot (with the wood spinning at about 1800 rpm) to burn the ring around the top. Then I chucked it up and hollowed it. I left it pretty thick, because I was afraid it would come apart since a couple of the cracks went all the way through. Then I finished the shaping, and sanded it, finished the bottom, and oiled it with lemon oil and Danish Oil.
One man said that not hollowing it thinner could have been either 'being conservative' or 'being chicken'. I agreed that either description would fit me pretty well.
Hope you like it.