Thank you for the master class in picking out the best pieces for turning from what looks like a worthless piece of wood.

Nice cutting to get small blanks out of a split cookie. Will add the technique to my blank cutting trick bag. Thanks!

Dear Richard, I really appreciate listening to your KZfaqs. I learn a lot. I started turning at the age of 72 and it makes me so happy: I find peace of mind in my retired garage shop. There are not many people to learn from in Quebec where I live. I thus have to learn on my own. I will try to shape a bowl gouge with your asymmetrical grind, none to be found here. I will try to get a Crown 5/8 or 1/2 inch bowl gouge and hopefully get a « Raffan » grind on it. Thanks for all the techniques presented in your videos, I always learn and you are my main source of inspiration

I stand in awe at how you can find material in what seems firewood.

It's always fun to watch somebody else work. I don't have to clean up the sawdust. Thanks...

Thank you Richard for sharing this with us. I have wood with splits and struggle to see how to get the best out of what I have, this video really helps.

I've watched you do this many times now and still have trouble seeing what you do with a work piece. You are able to visualize so many pieces from the original. I just cannot see them myself. To me it was just a mess until you have finished. Then there are 5 or 6 very nice little work blanks. Thank you for sharing Richard. Have a great day and stay safe.🙂🙂

Thanks for the lesson Richard.

Thankyou Richard , I now look at logs like you showed in your video . take them apart into usable pieces , avoiding splits along the way , thanks again .

Really appreciate seeing how you work around the various splits and defects. This is very timely as I have some wood that has been drying for the past year and, despite sealing the ends, has developed a number of splits - not unexpected for the species being dried. This gives me some ideas for how to proceed.

Thank you as always for sharing your knowledge with us all. To bad the center can not used that color was awesome. Keep up the amazing work. 👽

Thanks Richard

I saw a few nice boxes in there. 😎

Mr. Raffan. It is always a pleasure watching your videos. Thank you for making them so accessible. I’m new to turning so your content and instruction is very useful and much appreciated. Have you ever hollowed a bowl or cup or vase with the lathe spinning in reverse? It strikes me as a useful technique with visibility in mind. I recall you mentioning reverse hollowing in a previous video but can’t remember which one or how that worked. Thanks again and please keep up the wonderful work. Cheers from Guelph Ontario Canada.

Thanks for another great video Richard. I'm always impressed how easily you cut everything on the bandsaw. Would you consider doing a video on how you keep your bandsaw cutting well/bandsaw setup etc.?

Good afternoon! What blade do you use to cut round blanks?

Your mic seems to be working much better these days.

OK, so 6 small pieces from those blanks might yield a cash return of $100 sold wholesale? That's interesting math. I get that they may not all be priced identically, but it's almost $17 per piece on average, we're looking at $68 per hour if we can turn a piece every 15 minutes. I saw Richard turn once back when we were both much younger bucks, and at the pace he worked, he probably could have done it with small pieces such as these, and still have a bit of time to explain what he was doing. Because he's a monster, and it's why we love him so much. Working at full throttle I maybe could turn one of the simpler pieces in 20 minutes, which is still a pretty good wage if that's all there is to be considered, and if I could maintain that pace for a whole day's work. (Too old for those kinds of marathons nowadays, thank goodness, but back in the day, who knows?!) But of course, that's not all there is to be considered. Unless some kind genie drops off the wood on the doorstep for free, there's costs and time involved in finding and harvesting the timber (more than you might think sometimes). There's costs of production (electricity, consumables etc). Equipment depreciation. Maintenance - tools wear out, things break and need fixing. If it's really a business and not an off-the-books kind of hobby thing, there's insurance, income and payroll taxes, rent or mortgage etc etc. All of which goes to show that it's damned hard to make a living simply as a production turner. Manufacturer's tool sponsorship and paid demos after gaining some recognition helps a lot I'm sure, and sales of high-end "art" pieces also. A spouse who works and contributes substantially to the household income sure as hell wouldn't hurt either. lol For myself, back in the mid 1970's I was engaged in the restoration of Victorian houses, and back then you couldn't find any sources for gingerbread elements and stair balusters etc, so I bought a lathe and began turning in self defense. I needed parts, and the only way to get them was to make them myself, and the only way to make any money with it was to learn how to work fast and efficiently. Nowadays of course, catalogs are full of machine produced reproductions of almost anything. Anyway, it's been quite the journey. I still turn to make useful things, which is why I like Richard's approach so much - we both prefer our work to used and enjoyed rather than sitting on a stand taking up space somewhere. I love that Richard is still making these marvelously informative yet unpretentious videos and putting them out in public like this. Such a pleasure to watch, and the "where did I put that other scraper" moments are just so wonderfully genuine. A bit long winded, this, but oh well!!