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You've probably landed on this Blog Post because you saw a video or two of someone Turning on a Lathe and wondered if it would suit you. Maybe you are just looking for an activity for your spare time or you just want to be in your own space doing what you want to do and when you want to do it? Is Woodturning a Good Hobby to get involved in you may be asking yourself. As human beings we are often afraid of what we don't know and don't understand so I decided to write this post to clear up a few things up for you. My Own Early Experience I started Woodturning back in 1996 when a friend showed me his homemade Lathe made out of a washing machine motor, welded bed, moveable tailstock with a basic pulley system & on/off switch. Although extremely primitive, this setup actually worked and I was hooked from the very first try. I bought my first Lathe within a fortnight and went on to buy a bigger Lathe within the year as well as a few basic Tools. My mistake going forward is that I didn't go and get lessons immediately and this cost me dearly long term. I ended up leaving the Lathe idle off and on for several years. In 2014, after an extended break I came back to Woodturning again with a vengeance and eventually sought out a Professional Woodturning Teacher in 2015 as the same problems kept holding me back. It was the best decision I could have made and it propelled me forward. I finally had explanations as to why my earlier Turning sucked and I had clear advice on how to go forward creating beautiful pieces. Well, it took a little bit longer. Why You Should Learn from My Mistakes If you want to succeed at anything in life you must first get good advice. You can blindly feel around finding your own way but this is a fool's quest. Take it from someone who knows that painful truth only too well. I spent money on bad Machinery and Tools and squandered precious time that I could have devoted to being a real Woodturner. Who knows how far I could have gone if only I had gone for that first lesson. Tuition is Expensive Yes, initially it is an expense where you don't seem to gain anything tangible. You don't appear to have the same gain as when you buy a physical Tool for the same amount of money. What you are in fact gaining though is the insight and knowledge from a professional who has already walked the same road as you are on now. I wasted many hundreds of Euro buying cheap, bad Machines and unnecessary Tools. I could have used the money to buy better if only I had someone to show me the way. So, Is Woodturning a Good Hobby? Yes, it is an amazing hobby to have. I am doing this professionally since 2015 and I love creating my current range of products. I get so much joy in creating the best pieces I can make and know that I can still improve even now. If I had been able to show my earlier self what I would be capable of after taking lessons I would have been absolutely gobsmacked. If I wasn't in business anymore I would still continue to Turn as a hobby and would probably be making more artistic, complicated one off pieces instead of the production line type products I make now. Woodturning is very therapeutic for me even now as a Woodturning business and I am often able to shut out the outside world when I'm at the Lathe. Even if your early pieces are not very good, you will still be very proud of them and should continue to improve the more time you invest. Most people do not understand that the shaped piece in front of you is a direct result of every movement your body makes or doesn't make and even your breathing comes into play while Turning. You are as much an artist as any sculptor out there as you cut away the raw material to expose the finished surface beneath. Keep that in mind when you first start Turning! Keep plugging away until you Turn what you see in your Mind's Eye! The Cons of Woodturning Con Number 1; It's expensive. There I said it but what pastime isn't? Unfortunately, it is not a cheap hobby and you will have to throw money at it in order to get anywhere. I normally tell my Students to expect to pay between €2,500 and €3,000 just to get started with the basic Lathe, Sharpening Station, Chucks, Tools & Accessories. This is buying brand new, you may be able to pick up good equipment second hand if you are careful. Spend a fraction of this money and you probably won't get very far. Spend the money on Equipment I recommended during my classes and you will be Turning long into the Future. Of course, this doesn't include purchasing a Bandsaw which you will need in time and all the other bits and pieces that you will want to buy; and you will want to buy more! Con Number 2; It's difficult. Woodturning is a difficult, challenging but not impossible craft to master. I often tell Students that the world would be full of Woodturners if it was easy. First you will need good equipment and Tools. Second, you will need to put in lots of time to become proficient and this is only after receiving lessons. Many believe that they can throw a few Euro at it and an hour or two here and there and they will magically be brilliant at it. Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that. If you are up to the challenge and are willing to work through failure then Woodturning is probably right up your street and something you should pursue. Enjoy It! Enjoy your time on the Lathe! No matter what is going on in your life, you can always put a piece of wood on a Lathe and just Turn. Fairly soon, you will only see and think about the piece in front of you. What could be a better Hobby to have? Conclusion Many of my Students have the same issues or worries when getting started. They wonder if they like Woodturning enough at the beginning to justify spending all that money because the results are not immediately apparent and may not be for a while. How do you gauge it so? I normally ask Students if they felt great while Turning in my classes or was it a 'take it or leave it kind of thing'. To those that felt great, I say go ahead and spend the money. To those that didn't enjoy it so much I say maybe it's not for you. If you feel you are in either of those groups, take a lesson first and then at least you will know. If you take my advice and buy great equipment and decide down the road that its not for you; you can always sell it on and get most or all of your money back. If you buy cheap, you won't get your money back. What do you have to lose? Don't procrastinate. Don't worry about the initial cost of Tuition, you will reap the rewards in your first year on the Lathe while saving money. Don't be shy when it comes time to book. Just go for it and be happy with the fact that it will be of great benefit to you going forward as a Woodturner. I specialise in low Teacher to Student ratio Sessions of short duration where I cram as much as possible into 3 hours instead of you having to attend full day courses with groups of strangers as with other Woodturners. If 3 Hours is too short, you can extend to 4 and 5 Hour sessions if you wish. Check out my Woodturning Tuition page for listings and more details or read more in the Blog Posts at the bottom of this page. Thanks for reading and I hope to see you in my Workshop in Tralee real soon! David

I have had many Students in the retirement age bracket over the last few years attending Woodturning Tuition classes in my Workshop. It seems to be quite popular with this age group so I thought I would write a post to deal with some of the issues and thoughts around your first steps in taking a lesson or deciding to take a lesson. I have added information for those who are considering buying a Retirement Gifts too. These observations I have made have been from repeated patterns with different people but are always very similar in nature. Woodturning in Your Retirement in Ireland Many people are used to being active all week in their chosen careers and the onset of a time when your week is no longer as full can be quite unnerving for some. I have found that the initial investment costs for starting Woodturning does not scare these individuals away as they may have put some money aside or received a retirement package and can afford it; quite possibly for the first time in their life. A basic startup with Woodturning could cost in the region of €3,000 depending on what equipment you buy so this is no hobby to take up lightly. Spending less than or even a fraction of this amount will slow your growth as a Woodturner and could lead to you abandoning Woodturning later on in favour of finding something else to do with your time. Start as you mean to go on and you won't be disappointed! Having discussed these topics with many who are around the time of retirement I can confidently give some pointers here in this post. If you are thinking of Woodturning in your Retirement in Ireland, you should definitely read on below. Choosing a Retirement Gift for a Family Member I will just deal with this section first before moving on to the categories as it is quite common for the Retirement Gift buyers to be on the lookout before the Retirees. If you are looking for a great Retirement Gift for a Family Member, a Woodturning Gift Voucher can be a great choice. If that person is good with their hands and enjoys a bit of a challenge; it can be a very rewarding and satisfying use of their free time. I have Gift Vouchers available on my One Person Classes or 2 Person Classes which will get your loved one(s) off to a good start. If Woodturning is not a good fit for them, at least they will find out early on and can then move on to some other activity before going to any great expense. Woodturning is a difficult but not impossible craft to master but is not for everyone unfortunately. I constantly say to my Students that the world would be full of Woodturners if it was easy to do! Please read on and you might see where this person is at in their Retirement journey before making your decision. People generally fall into 3 main categories. Near the retirement Age Just recently Retired Retired for some months or even years Near the Retirement Age In the last 12 months this person may be getting nervous about the future but are also excited about they themselves being the near sole focus of their weekdays instead of being at a place of work. These people are generally more careful and considered when deciding to do something in life. Generally, I find that many of these people had a view to do Woodturning at some earlier point in time but never actually got around to it. Of course, I also get people from this category who don't have a clue what Woodturning is but saw a video recently and it looks interesting enough to try it out. This is the perfect time to start planning your Woodturning journey and I would advise you to take a Woodturning lesson as soon as possible so that you see all the pitfalls and benefits from an experienced Teacher who will more than likely save you some valuable time and money going forward. Just Recently Retired I find that these people just wanted to retire and get that bit out of the way first before then contemplating their future. They generally find that once retired they can't relax at all and immediately go searching for something to fill the void in their time. If they don't like to go Golfing, playing Tennis, going on foreign holidays etc then this can be an urgent time for them and impulsive decisions can be made. The good news is that they have made the decision to try Woodturning and can now proceed easily enough with sound advice and planning by taking a lesson. Getting started Woodturning is quite complicated but can be easily overcome by taking a proper lesson with a Woodturner like myself and finding the right plan going forward. I will help filter out all the noise and get you focused on what machines and accessories to aim for so that you get off on the right foot and don't waste time and money. Retired for some Months or even Years This is the group I find with the most regrets when it comes to Woodturning. The longer they've left it, the worse it is. They've spent time with the family, gone Golfing, gone on Foreign Holidays, spent time with Friends but none of those things have been challenging or fulfilling long term and there's still a bit of a void in some part of their lives. They still long for something else to give them that rush of self accomplishment in their free time. I find this group of late bloomers to be the most hungry to get started once the decision is made and frequently rush out too quickly and buy the wrong gear. In some cases I have had examples of people who may have left it too late in life to commit to Woodturning fully and I find this to be upsetting when it happens. Thankfully, I have had only one case so far of someone going all out and spending a lot of money only to find that their age meant that they couldn't commit long term. If you are close to retirement age you should have no difficulties but please don't leave it 10 years before starting Woodturning. The Horrors of Woodturning Woodturning in the beginning is full of errors, catches, mistakes, bad finishes, bad pieces, poor Tool choices or wrong Lathe purchase etc etcetera. We all go through this and it can be a scary time for some. In my early days I made so many mistakes and poor choices that I wanted to quit and did even quit for a while. I never took a lesson first day and this proved to be my ultimate mistake and my biggest regret in Woodturning. When I came back to it I decided I would finally take a proper lesson and this was the 'Cure for All' that I needed and should have gone for right from the start. I didn't magically become proficient overnight but I was shown why I was making mistakes and was shown the correct way to present tools to the work on the Lathe. This turned out to be the Light Bulb moment and it opened so many new doors for me. After 6 months I couldn't believe the difference in the pieces I was making. Another 6 months onward and the quality was still improving steadily. Lots of repetition, lots of practice equals good results! The Joy of Woodturning Many new Woodturners think that by spending an hour or two a week on the Lathe will see them proficient in a month or two but it takes longer than that I'm afraid. Each piece you make is a block in the foundation of your progress and each new piece teaches you something new which is then applied to your next project. I often say to Students that I wish I could fast forward time for them to the 6 month stage to see their improvement but unfortunately that is not possible and all I can do is relate my own experiences. When you do get to this stage, there is nothing better than Woodturning because you are part of every piece you make. You Turned it and you finished it! Every movement of your body and the tool in your hands has an effect on the wood that when done right can be absolutely magical. For Retirees, this can be the buzz that they are looking for, so don't leave it go much longer. Woodturning Tuition Classes in Tralee What makes my Classes so special and different from other Woodturners? I specialize in low Teacher to Student ratio instead of big classes; normally one to one or one to two so each person gets my full attention or near full attention during a class. Instead of focusing on project pieces, I advise Students about Lathes, Sharpening Systems, Chucks, Hand Tools etc during the first Tuition session and always advise from a budget that the Student is comfortable with. Sometimes, the Student already has a Lathe or some tools and I can advise on whether good choices have been made or how what they have can be utilised. After this part, I normally move on to Turning between centres. The point of this part of the Tuition is controlled Tool presentation focusing on good bevel contact and sharp Tools. Depending on the Students abilities we may move on to a second piece with more Tools being added and actual shapes being Turned. Don't worry if we don't get to do too much Turning in the first session, the aim is to start off right and proceed as you are able. I normally advise one to three x 3 hour sessions before you go off on your own. The next sessions focus on Turning mostly as we will have covered machines and Tools in the first session. If my advice is taken, I will save you hundreds of Euro in your first year and push your Turning journey on much faster than you learning by yourself. Take a Class with me in Tralee and see for yourself! Thanks for Reading, David

Author Note: If after reading, you found this Blog Post to be beneficial and are going to buy one of these devices from Amazon anyway, you might consider clicking one of my Amazon Affiliate links below in blue and checking out that way. As an Amazon Associate I may earn from qualifying purchases. If you already have an Amazon UK account you can still use the links to purchase while logged into your account. This Post is mainly for people in Ireland but also relates to those in the UK who are in the market for a TV connected media device and are hesitating. I am writing from my own experiences using Amazon Devices over the last few years. Best Fire TV Device Ireland I'm sure you have looked for a Device you can hook up to your TV to view Movies, TV Shows and more at some stage of your life. Smart TVs promise that capability but in my experience rarely live up to it. Instead I spent a few years buying Android boxes which performed poorly after a while because they were loaded with software and had poor processing speeds and onboard memory. I stream from Legal Subscription platforms like Prime Video, Netflix, Disney Plus and often use USB flash drives with my devices. While you can load third party software on to Amazon devices it is probably not advisable to risk it. You never know where that software has been. If you are currently looking for a recommendation for the Best Fire TV Device in Ireland then you can't go far wrong with Amazon Fire TV. Author Note: Always use your Devices to watch Legal Apps and content! Fire TV Cube I really hesitated before buying this Device because it was twice the price of an Android box but I'm so glad I did. Hard to photograph black surfaces, this is the unit below booting up. The blue light goes off when ready. I bought this is May 2021 and in mid March 2024 at the time of writing this Blog Post it is still going strong however, I think the battery in the remote is finally dying. I'd normally get 2 years or so out of an Android box before it became problematic and then unusable, the Fire Cube is still going strong though. The home screen shows suggestions of what to watch next from all my Subscription services and this can be a great feature if you find yourself endlessly scrolling. The Alexa voice activation for connected Devices sometimes goes a bit wonky but it's great to be able to tell Alexa to turn on each Device when you don't have the control in your hand. I have found great use for the Alexa pause and play commands which are extremely handy for me as I tend to use a Smartphone or Tablet while watching TV. Finally, the Fire TV Cube looks classy sitting next to the TV. I got a USB adaptor for it but couldn't activate it in the settings menu. Instead, I can use the USB on the TV if I need to. Small complaint really, considering. For some reason the Fire TV Cube is hard to find these days and not available to ship to Ireland, probably due to Brexit. You may be able to buy from Amazon UK and ship to a relative in the UK and get it that way. Amazon USA also only seems to have refurbished models. Maybe there is a new model coming out in the future? I will update the links below when I find out. Check out the UK Version Fire TV Cube on Amazon UK. Check out the International Version Fire TV Cube on Amazon UK. Ireland, EU etc. Not Available. Check out the Fire TV Cube on Amazon USA. Fire TV Stick I bought the Fire TV Stick to replace a second Android box connected to my bedroom TV. Again, the Android was having issues with memory and performance so I wanted something better. I got the Amazon Fire TV Stick with USB port attachment adaptor bought separately so I could load files from Flash Drives and watch externally stored media files. The unit is powered by plug but there is a USB powered adaptor that can use the TV USB port for power if you want. The unit works great and is a much more affordable device than the Fire TV Cube. Only one thing to mention, there is a slight delay at the start of a file when you watch media through a Flash Drive. It's not the end of the world though. I recommend the Fire TV Stick if you want to use for a bedroom or small space as it is really compact. If you need something for your sitting room I would recommend the Fire TV Cube. Check out the UK Version Fire TV Stick on Amazon UK. Check out the International Version Fire TV Stick on Amazon UK. Ireland, EU etc. Check out the Fire TV Stick on Amazon USA. Echo Dot 4th Generation This is one of those things that I swore I would never get. It doesn't play visual media so why would I want it? I ended up buying one for my Son and while I was picking it out I started reading all about it. I bought one in the end expecting it to be a massive mistake. To my surprise it has become a very useful tool in my office. Sometimes I have multiple sheets and tabs open on 2 screens and I need to get an answer to percentage or general knowledge question without minimising; Alexa is there with an answer. Sometimes, she has trouble with my accent or I get my question mixed up and have to try again but for the most part it is extremely useful. I can also link it to Amazon Music or Spotify with a simple command. Alexa, play Amazon Music or Alexa, Play Spotify. I have a tower speaker behind me in my office but I rarely turn it on as the Echo is fast and convenient to use. There are loads of other handy things that Alexa can do like setting time reminders, shopping lists, controlling other set device and more but I rarely go beyond what I need it for. You've got to try it for yourself and see if it's a good fit in your home. Check out the Echo 4th Gen on Amazon UK. Check out the International Version Echo 4th Gen on Amazon UK. Ireland, EU etc. Check out the Echo 5th Gen on Amazon USA. Conclusion As I mentioned above, I have had these devices for several years now and they are still going strong. If they ever break down I wouldn't hesitate to purchase again. While I may benefit if you purchase using one of my Affiliate links I still stand behind what I say here. I hope you find what you are looking for! Thanks for Reading, David

I have been Turning for quite a while now and been in business as a Woodturner for more than 8 years. I've seen and tried various products that are available on the market over the years. Each one is different, some better than others; some good for certain projects but not for another. I wanted to go through some of these products in this one Post as some of my Customers keep asking for recommendations. Hopefully, this will explain things a bit better. I sell all these products so I can advise which one is which. So, What is the Best Sandpaper for Woodturning? What is the best Sandpaper for Woodturning? That's a loaded question right there and it depends on what you are doing and how tough the products need to be. There's no point in using a paper sandpaper on a fast spinning piece on a lathe as it may disintegrate over time and there's no point in using high quality cloth back sandpaper on rubbish material as it is overkill and a waste. In the following paragraphs I will deal with each type and what I would use them for. Some products are called abrasives but their function can still be similar or the same. The products listed here are also used for regular Woodworking and even handy for Painters or hobby DIYers. First, The Important Lecture Bit Sandpaper is actually a cutting tool, not an abrasive tool. It should be used once and then discarded. Many people including myself back in my early days do not know this and keep rubbing the spent sandpaper against the wood grain. Why is this bad? Spent sandpaper does not cut anymore, clogs up easily and generates a heated burnish to the wood surface which may cause issues with your finish. I used to keep a metal drawer full of used sandpaper when I first started Woodturning so don't feel bad if you didn't know this. It was a bit embarrassing to realize my mistake at the time but I got over it. Paperback Sandpaper This is the cheapest form of sandpaper, make sure it it brown and not green aluminium oxide which is terrible for woodwork. Good for Woodworking but not so good for Woodturners sanding across the grain as it has a tendency to be a bit too rigid, may crack when rolled up for getting into smaller curved surfaces and can also fall apart if pushed too hard into the wood. This type is great when on longer sections or flat areas sanding in the direction of the running grain. It is cheaper to buy because it is cheaper to make. Even now, I still keep it around my Workshop because it is handy to have in a pinch. Using Paper Back instead of Cloth Back for some jobs can save on the amount of Cloth Sandpaper you use so don't discount it completely. It should be noted that some Woodturners use sheets or rolls of paperback without any issues. For me it is a personal decision to mostly use other types for my work. I sell Paperback Sandpaper here. Flexible Cloth Backed Sandpaper This is great for Woodturning as it can be cut into any shape to allow you to sand into those small coves and around beads with ease. The cloth back holds the sandpaper together superbly. I use this type for most of my Woodturning and even more on my flat surface Woodcraft pieces. They work great in Sandpaper holders and stand up to a lot of punishment. Cutting the sandpaper into smaller strips for small areas is a great way to be economical. It is more expensive to buy because it is more expensive to produce but lasts longer than paper. It can be helpful to use compressed air on the surface or flicking the sandpaper every now and again to avoid clogging. I sell Cloth Back Sandpaper here. Sianet Abrasive Sianet is fantastic for sanding on and off the lathe. It is sold in 420mm x 75mm strips in grits from 80 to 600 but I only stock 120 to 400 grits as they are sufficient to cover all sanding needs. Sianet excels when used with a sander extraction system as it pulls the particulates through the holes in the net and doesn't clog like regular sandpaper. When used by hand it doesn't clog up either and all you have to do is shake it off and go back to sanding again. I find that a quick rub with 120 grit can smooth out a curved shape with tool marks very quickly on the Lathe. I always keep a sheet of 120 grit on each Lathe and finish with regular sanding grits afterward. Sianet lasts longer than cloth backed sandpaper so is a great investment. It can be cut with a scissors into any shape or size that you need. Each strip is sold loose without packaging so makes the product quite cheap to buy and great value for the amount of work it will do. I sell Sianet Abrasives here. Chestnut Products Net Abrasive Chestnut Products Net Abrasives are very similar to Sianet and perform in exactly the same way. Unfortunately, being a product from the UK these are more expensive to import than European made Sianet and they come in packaging which is also an added cost. Many of my Customers still buy it because they are used to using it and it arrive pre-cut to a handy size. Like Sianet, the grit is printed on each one so you won't mix them up. I sell Chestnut Products Net Abrasive here. Chestnut Products Nyweb Sheets Nyweb are great for in between work when sanding and also for preparing surfaces for the next stage or finish. They come in four colours with different levels of abrasion. While it states that the White is non-abrasive, I found that it can cause scratching if used between finish coats. Green – Standard abrasion Red – Extra fine abrasion Orange – Ultra fine abrasion White – Not abrasive, main use is in the even application of stains and other finishes. I sell Chestnut Products Nyweb Sheets here. Fine Sanding Pads I use these very handy Fine Sanding Pads to de-nib Sanding Sealer which gives a lovely smooth surface prior to finishing without any extra scratches. Sanding on the lathe cuts across the grain which can leave little scratches so choosing the correct light grit is very important. After sanding a spindle crossgrain it is advisable to then go in the direction of the running grain before blowing away dust and applying your finish. I also am fond of using these as a final rub of Woodcraft products before bowing off with a compressor. I sell Fine Sanding Pads here. Sanding Discs for Bowls & Platters You use specially cut sanding discs on mandrels for Bowls and Platters. Buying decent quality sandpaper is absolutely vital here as bad discs will just cause more heat and friction of the wood surface fibres. I make discs to order on my website from 25mm to 75mm and can sell the full 150mm discs too. I got a bad batch of discs one time in the past and they broke my heart. I had to use 2 discs of each grit where 1 had been sufficient before and every bowl I finished had visible scratches in the finished Bowls due to irregular sanding. I swore never again after that and I only use high quality Swiss or German made sanding discs these days. I sell Sanding Discs here. In Conclusion Everyone hates the sanding part of the job but it is absolutely vital so that the finished piece looks great even with close scrutiny. Buy cheap nasty products and you will get nasty results. I use all the products listed above at various times and for various wood products that I sell so they are never a waste to have around. Buy good products and your work will show it. I hope to see you in the Checkout soon, thanks for reading! David

Author Note: If after reading, you found this Blog Post to be beneficial and are going to subscribe to Amazon anyway, you might consider clicking one of my Amazon Affiliate links below and signing up that way. As an Amazon Associate I may earn from qualifying signups/ purchases. If you already have an Amazon UK account you can still use the links below to direct you to sign up. This Post is mainly for people in Ireland and also the UK who are in the market for Amazon Prime and other featured Apps. I am writing from my own experiences using Amazon Prime. Subscriptions Subscriptions are the new 'In Thing' these days. Everywhere you look there are new Subscription Services popping up and some that were free are now charging for them. Media companies are jumping in with both feet to bring new subscription platforms and in the future it looks like this will be the same across the board. In Ireland, we seem to be added last to the list of these companies so when they come on board it can be hard to decide which ones to go with. With all these companies offering the same packages, are any of them offering more value for your money? Yes, there is. Have you heard of Amazon Prime? Amazon Prime I have had an account on Amazon UK for many years and every time I logged in I saw the Prime Logo which became more prominent as time went by. I eventually joined and from the start noticed that I personally benefiting from being a Prime Customer because of their Free Shipping options. I currently pay £8.99 per month but there is a saving by paying the annual rate of £95.00. I must switch over as I had forgotten about the different rates and was only reminded when I started writing this post. When first reading about the charges I thought they were a bit excessive, why would I pay nearly €10.50 odd per month? I have added the Amazon listed benefits in bullet points but also added my own views below that. Read on Below. Amazon Prime members can: Access unlimited, FREE Delivery on millions of items Enjoy unlimited instant streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows, through Prime Video Read as much as they want from a rotating selection of more than a thousand books, recent magazine issues, comics, Kindle singles and more, on any device at any time Securely store an unlimited amount of photos with anywhere access through Prime Photos Listen to over two million songs on Prime Music Get exclusive, early access to daily Lightning Deals Sign up here for a 30 Day Free Amazon Prime Trial. Benefits of an Amazon Prime Account Amazon Prime offers free shipping on lots of products. Not all, you must remember that Amazon has thousands of independent sellers that sell products with added shipping costs. Many of these sellers seem to charge a low amount for shipping so if Amazon doesn't sell the product you won't break the bank by buying from one of these sellers. In Ireland, if you are a basic Amazon UK account holder and currently order at least 2 packages a month from Amazon you would justify the Prime Membership monthly cost at your ease. If you order more than 2 packages a month then you are really saving. As an Amazon customer I would regularly order more than these quantities per month so am making a substantial saving per annum. Generally, these are products that I can't source in Ireland through any Irish retailer. I always check first. Sign up here for a 30 Day Free Amazon Prime Trial. Added Benefit As a Prime Customer, you also have access to the Amazon Prime Video app which allows you access to tons of TV Shows and Movies for free. Watch one or two movies or TV Shows a month and add the money saved on shipping and the price is most certainly worth it. If you compare that to buying a few DVDs or attending the Cinema once or twice a month then it is most certainly a great saving. I have a few other media apps which I am considering cancelling but I will keep my Prime Membership as is. Sign up here for a 30 Day Free Amazon Prime Trial. Other Amazon Products Amazon has other subscription products that you can sign up for too. Music, Audible, Kids, Kindle. These offer a great variation from one source instead of multiple companies. Amazon Music If you like your music on the go you can have access to up to 70 million songs with no adverts Unlimited access to 70 million songs – including all the latest and greatest artists and albums, as well as thousands of playlists and stations Ad-free listening – uninterrupted, high quality audio Offline listening – download to listen to your favourite music, wherever you are Hands-free listening with Alexa – exclusive voice feature Sign up here for a 30 Day Free Amazon Music Trial. Amazon Audible Audible is the publisher and distributor of the world’s largest selection of digital audiobooks and spoken-word content. Audible customers can listen anytime and anywhere to professionally narrated audiobooks across a wide range of genres, including bestsellers, new releases, sci-fi, romances, classics, and more. An Audible Trial offers a great way for a customer to try audiobooks. With their Trial, you will receive: One free audiobook of your choice The ability to choose from 200,000-plus titles, including bestsellers, new releases, sci-fi, romances, mysteries, classics, and more The option to cancel easily, anytime; audiobooks already purchased are yours to keep, even if you cancel Sign up here for a 30 Day Free Amazon Audible Trial. Amazon Kids How does it work? Amazon Kids+ is an all-in-one subscription that gives kids access to thousands of kid-friendly books, movies, TV shows, educational apps, Audible books, and games on compatible Fire, Android, iOS, and Kindle devices. Parents also receive access to easy-to-use parental controls that allow them to find the right balance between education and entertainment. Parents can personalise screen time limits, set educational goals, filter age-appropriate content, and also manage web browsing and content usage based on their preferences. Amazon Kids+ has so much to offer, including: A world of content for kids to explore within a completely kid-friendly environment Promotion of reading and math with educational apps and thousands of books Flexible parental controls where you can choose what content each child sees, set educational goals and time limits. You can manage these settings from their device, or remotely from our Amazon Parent Dashboard Ability to personalize each kid’s experience with profiles, and let them watch where they want to – on Fire Tablets, or Kindle eReaders Sign up here for a 30 Day Kids Plus Trial Amazon Kindle Unlimited What is the Kindle Unlimited 30-Day Free Trial offer? The Kindle Unlimited Free Trial is a great way for customers to explore over 1 million books, thousands of audiobooks, and popular magazines on any device. Great benefits of Kindle Unlimited include: Unlimited Access to over 1 Million eBooks Rotating selection of popular magazines Thousands of books with audible narration Read anytime, on any device with the free Kindle app After the 30-day free trial, the subscription will review on a monthly basis. Members have the option to cancel their subscription any time. Sign up here for a 30 Day Kindle Unlimited Trial Conclusion If you are in the market for some new entertainment then Amazon will certainly have something for you. Enjoy the benefits of Prime membership, if used wisely will actually save you money. Like I mentioned at the top of the Post, I would appreciate you signing up for your Free Trials using one of my links above. If my recommendations match up with your experiences maybe you will keep your membership and explore some of the other options listed here. It took a bit of time to write this Post and add my own experiences so using my Affiliate links means I may earn from qualifying signups/ purchases. Thank you for Reading my Post, David

Author Note: If after reading, you found this Blog Post to be beneficial and are going to buy from Amazon anyway, you might consider using one of my Amazon Affiliate links below. As an Amazon Associate I may earn from qualifying purchases and I may receive some sort of credit for the time spent researching and writing this Post should you decide to purchase. You can also buy the Hardback and Paperback versions of these books if you wish which should be available at the link destination. Military Books That Made it to the Big Screen For most of my life I have been fascinated by all things Military and I have collected Movies, Magazine Publications, Books and now Kindle Books with Wars and Military Themes as subject matter. Even better, I loved to find out that a movie is based on a Military Book. That way, the movie didn't end and offered more. When I was younger I couldn't wait for the next high production War movie to come out. In contrast to Movies, you would often find that Books offer a more visceral feel to events and your mind works hard to try and conjure up the picture the Author is trying to paint to tell their story. There are other good movies Platoon, Saving Private Ryan etc. that I wish were based on Authored Books but are in fact screenplays. I have left them out for that reason. Available on Kindle For those that don't know, I want to share some titles of books and the movies that they were made into. Some may surprise. I intend to add to this Blog Post as I remember titles so this is not completed yet. Any title suggestions are welcome. Where Kindle is unavailable at present, the link will take you to the Book version options. Full Metal Jacket - The Short Timers by Gustav Hasford. What a powerful movie this was from the start, shaving of recruit heads to the tune of Hello Vietnam to the Marines singing the Mickey Mouse outro at the end of the movie prior to the credits. The Short-Timers is a 1979 semi-autobiographical novel by U.S. Marine Corps veteran Gustav Hasford, about his experience in the Vietnam War. Hasford served as a combat correspondent with the 1st Marine Division during the Tet Offensive of 1968. As a military journalist, he wrote stories for Leatherneck Magazine, Pacific Stars and Stripes, and Sea Tiger. The novel was adapted into the film Full Metal Jacket 1987, co-scripted by Hasford, Michael Herr, and Stanley Kubrick. In 1990, Hasford published the sequel The Phantom Blooper: A Novel of Vietnam. The two books were supposed to be part of a "Vietnam Trilogy", but Hasford died before writing the third installment. Currently the Book does not seem to be available for Kindle but is available on Hardback and Paperback although for quite a lot of money. I will leave the entry here as that may change and this is one that should be high up on your list. Check out The Short Timers on Amazon UK. Or check out The Short Timers on Amazon USA. Hamburger Hill - The Crouching Beast by Frank Boccia I watched this movie many years ago not knowing it is based on a book. Movies based on books around this time tended to focus more on violence and cinema explosions rather than being true to the actual events. As a first lieutenant in Bravo Company of the Third Battalion, 187th Infantry, Frank Boccia led a platoon in two intense battles in the Vietnamese mountains in April and May 1969: Dong Ngai and the grinding, 11-day battle of Dong Ap Bia--the Mountain of the Crouching Beast, in Vietnamese, or Hamburger Hill as it is popularly known. The Rakkasans, the 3/187th, are the most highly decorated unit in the history of the United States Army, and two of those decorations were awarded for these two battles. This vivid account of the author's first seven months in Vietnam gives special attention to the events at Dong Ap Bia, following the ­hard-­hit 3/187th hour by hour through its repeated assaults on the mountain, against an unseen enemy in an ideal defensive position. It also corrects several errors that have persisted in histories and official reports of the battle. Beyond describing his own experiences and reactions, the author writes, "I want to convey the real face of war, both its mindless carnage and its nobility of spirit. Above all, I want to convey what happened to both the casual reader and the military historian and make them aware of the extraordinary spirit of the men of First Platoon, Bravo Company. They were ordinary men doing extraordinary things." Check out The Crouching Beast on Amazon UK. Or check out The Crouching Beast on Amazon USA. Born on the Fourth July - Born on the Fourth of July by Ron Kovic This movie focused initially on the innocence of boys playing war in patriotic America of the 50s, dealt briefly with scenes in Vietnam and then the ugly and angry aftermath of Ron Kovic's injuries. The Author finds himself once again and becomes a voice for the anti-war movement. He served two tours of duty during the Vietnam War. He was paralysed from his chest down in combat in 1968 and has been in a wheelchair ever since. Kovic was the co-screenwriter of the 1989 Academy Award-winning film based on Born on the Fourth of July. Check out Born on the Fourth of July on Amazon UK. Or check out Born on the Fourth of July on Amazon USA. Black Hawk Down - Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden Black Hawk Down is one of my all time favourite movies of all time. If you can get over the fact that many of the actors are over 30 when most soldiers would have been average 20 at the time of their service. I bought the book expecting a play by play of the movie but it was quite different. It is a real perspective by someone who was there instead of a directors entertaining vision. The book is different from the movie and is currently not available on Kindle. I am leaving it here for the day that it is available. Already winning acclaim as one of the best accounts of combat ever written, Black Hawk Down is a minute-by-minute, heart-stopping account of the 1993 raid on Mogadishu, Somalia. Late in the afternoon of Sunday, October 3 1993, 140 elite US Soldiers abseiled from helicopters into a teeming market neighbourhood in the heart of the city. Their mission was to abduct two top lieutenants of a Somali warlord and return to base. It was supposed to take them about an hour. Instead, they were pinned down through a long and terrible night in a hostile city, fighting for their lives against thousands of heavily armed Somalis. Two of their high-tech helicopters were shot out of the sky. When the unit was rescued the following morning, eighteen American soldiers were dead and more than seventy badly injured. The Somali toll was far worse - more than five hundred killed and over a thousand injured. Authoritative, gripping, and insightful, Black Hawk Down is destined to become a classic of war reporting. It is already the most accurate, detailed account of modern combat ever written. Check out Black Hawk Down on Amazon UK. Or check out Black Hawk Down on Amazon USA. Lone Survivor - Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell You've probably already seen the movie. A harrowing tale of 4 special ops Seals being hunted behind enemy lines and as the title suggests, only one makes it. In June 2005 four US Navy SEALs left their base in Afghanistan for the Pakistani border. Their mission was to capture or kill a notorious al-Qaeda leader known to be ensconced in a Taliban stronghold surrounded by a small but heavily armed force. Less than twenty-four hours later, only one of those Navy SEALs was alive. This is the story of team leader Marcus Luttrell, the sole survivor of Operation Redwing. Blasted unconscious by a rocket grenade, blown over a cliff, but still armed and still breathing, Luttrell endured four desperate days fighting the al-Qaeda assassins sent to kill him, before finding unlikely sanctuary with a Pashtun tribe who risked everything to protect him from the circling Taliban killers. Check out Lone Survivor on Amazon UK. Or check out Lone Survivor on Amazon USA. American Sniper From 1999 to 2009, U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle recorded the most career sniper kills in United States military history. His fellow American warriors, whom he protected with deadly precision from rooftops and stealth positions during the Iraq War, called him “The Legend”; meanwhile, the enemy feared him so much they named him al-Shaitan (“the devil”) and placed a bounty on his head. Kyle, who was tragically killed in 2013, writes honestly about the pain of war—including the deaths of two close SEAL teammates—and in moving first-person passages throughout, his wife, Taya, speaks openly about the strains of war on their family, as well as on Chris. Gripping and unforgettable, Kyle’s masterful account of his extraordinary battlefield experiences ranks as one of the great war memoirs of all time. Check out American Sniper on Amazon UK. Or check out American Sniper on Amazon USA. Unbroken - Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand The incredible true story of Louis Zamperini, now a major motion picture directed by Angelina Jolie. In 1943 a bomber crashes into the Pacific Ocean. Against all odds, one young lieutenant survives. Louise Zamperini had already transformed himself from child delinquent to prodigious athlete, running in the Berlin Olympics. Now he must embark on one of the Second World War’s most extraordinary odysseys. Zamperini faces thousands of miles of open ocean on a failing raft. Beyond like only greater trials, in Japan’s prisoner-of-war camps. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini’s destiny, whether triumph or tragedy, depends on the strength of his will … Check out Unbroken on Amazon UK. Or check out Unbroken on Amazon USA. We Were Soldiers - We Were Soldiers Once and Young by Hal Moore & Joe Galloway In November 1965, some 450 men of the First Battalion, Seventh Cavalry, under the command of Lt. Col. Harold Moore, were dropped into a small clearing in the Ia Drang Valley. They were immediately surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers. Three days later, only two and a half miles away, a sister battalion was brutally slaughtered. Together, these actions at the landing zones X-Ray and Albany constituted one of the most savage and significant battles of the Vietnam War. They were the first major engagements between the US Army and the People’s Army of Vietnam. How these Americans persevered—sacrificing themselves for their comrades and never giving up—creates a vivid portrait of war at its most devastating and inspiring. Lt. Gen. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway—the only journalist on the ground throughout the fighting—interviewed hundreds of men who fought in the battle, including the North Vietnamese commanders. Their poignant account rises above the ordeal it chronicles to depict men facing the ultimate challenge, dealing with it in ways they would have once found unimaginable. It reveals to us, as rarely before, man’s most heroic and horrendous endeavor. Check out We Were Soldiers Once and Young on Amazon UK. Or check out We Were Soldiers Once and Young on Amazon USA. Siege of Jadotville - Siege at Jadotville: The Irish Army’s Forgotten Battle by Declan Power Ok, I'm a little biased on this one and this has turned out to be one of my favourite movies having watched it 4 times so far. This Company performed their duty to the highest possible standard for the UN but were completely abandoned by & UN hierarchy & Irish politicians during and after the event. The whole incident was viewed as an embarrassment by the Irish government and swept under the carpet for years. These brave men should have received medals and a huge parade at their homecoming but received nothing but years of unfair silent shame instead. In September 1961, another chapter in Irish military history should have been written into the annals, but it is a tale that lay shrouded in dust for years. The men of A Company, Thirty-Fifth Irish Infantry Battalion, arrived in the Congo as a United Nations contingent to help keep the peace. For many it would be their first trip outside their native shores. Led by Commandant Pat Quinlan, A Company found themselves tasked with protecting the European population at Jadotville, a small mining town in the southern Congolese province of Katanga. It fell to A Company to protect those who would later turn against them. On September 13th, 1961, the bright morning air of Jadotville was shattered by the sound of automatic gunfire. Check out Siege of Jadotville on Amazon UK. Or check out Siege of Jadotville on Amazon USA. 13 Hours: The explosive true story of how six men fought a terror attack and repelled enemy forces in Benghazi by Bill McCarthy This is another great movie based on true events and one that I have watched several times. 13 HOURS is the true account of the events of 11 September 2012, when terrorists attacked a US State Compound and a nearby CIA station in Libya, one of the most dangerous corners of the globe. On that fateful day, a team of six American security operators stationed in Benghazi fought to repel mounting enemy forces and escalating firepower, to protect the Americans stationed there, including the US Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens. Going beyond the call of duty, the team ignored orders to stand down and instead choked back smoke, fought wave after wave of machine-gun fire and retook the Compound, averting tragedy on a much larger scale – although four Americans would not make it out alive. Recounting the 13 hours of the now infamous attack, this personal account is both blistering and compelling, and sets the story straight about what really happened on the ground, in the streets and on the rooftops. Check out 13 Hours on Amazon UK. Or check out 13 Hours on Amazon USA. Conclusion - For Now For now, this is my list and I've read about half of them myself. I love the movies so they are listed here. At some stage I will get around to reading the rest of them. If I think of more I will add them as time goes by. Thanks for Reading, David

Booking your first Woodturning Class anywhere can be a little stressful for some people and for others turning up on the day in person can be a more stressful event. I decided to write this Blog Post for those that want to know a bit more about what to expect on the day. It isn't really stressful but I admit I get a little nervous myself when I first meet new people arriving. It goes away and most are glad that they made the effort to take at least one lesson. Your First Woodturning Class I've lost count of the amount of people who claim they are Woodturners or have been Woodturners in the recent or distant past before they land at my door. I even said that myself when I went for my first lesson and then proceeded to embarrass myself when it came to actually Turning. I have yet to meet someone who is very competent at Woodturning when they take their first Woodturning lesson with me so if you are clueless don't worry about it. You are not the first and you won't be the last! I get a lot of Retirees, Near Retirees, Woodworking Teachers, Carpenters, Farmers and then people from all walks of life so you are probably in good company. If you have any Woodturning Tools it would be advisable to bring them along so I can see what state they are in. I normally offer to shape or sharpen them free of charge and show you how to look after the Tools and keep them razor sharp. Directions I live about a mile from Tralee Town Centre in a rural setting. V92 W2H4 is my Eircode and Google will show you exactly where I am. Look out for a stone wall with two gates & 4 reflective bollards, the second gate nearest the mountain will be open for you. Just drive in and park in front of the white van. There are angled spaces for cars in the driveway but so many people had difficulty maneuvering into them from this gate that I just started telling them to park in front of the van. I will be there to greet you and let you into the house. Please feel free to use the Bathroom at any stage, I sometimes forget to mention this when I first meet people. For Starters I like to show people some finished products as many Students don't know what a well finished piece looks like and this is a very handy early reference. From there we go into my dry wood store where I normally talk about sourcing wood and drying methods. If Students express an interest in cutting and drying their own wood I will show the wet wood drying stores and talk about some of the processes but otherwise we will go straight to the Workshop. You can alter this route at any time by asking questions about any of these topics, I don't mind at all. The Workshop Most Students instantly recognise the investments I've made over the years when they walk through the door. I normally start by spending a bit of time talking about about Lathes and do a bit of comparison between different makes and models and use online Irish retailer websites for reference. If you are in the market for a Lathe we will hopefully narrow your focus to 1 or 2 Lathe models. Sharpening equipment is next and is nearly as important as choosing the right Lathe but is often left as an afterthought. Many Students, including myself back in the day want to spend very little on a sharpening station and this is a massive mistake. I show you 4 systems that I own and talk about setup and which one will suit you for long term use. Don't be fooled by buying a cheaper machine, buy one that you can use for the next 10 years or longer and the results will speak for themselves. Handtools I normally spend a small bit of time talking about Tools, my personal preference being Hamlet Woodturning Tools. I show how some Tools are cleaned and sharpened. Some Students bring their own Tools, many of which are not really good enough for long term use. I can reshape and sharpen these for you if they are not too bad and give you pointers on their use. Generally I recommend buying a good brand like Hamlet and buying the Tools individually and not from premade sets. Have a read of my Blog Post Woodturning Chisel Sets Worth Buying and see why I do not recommend them. The First Piece I start every Student with a 6 inch piece of Red Deal (Sitka Spruce) between centres. It is an easy softwood for getting started and everyone has to do it regardless of how experienced they claim to be. From this I can tell what level you are at and identify any issues with Tool presentation or stance. I focus my Tuition on the process of rubbing the bevel as it is the basis of Woodturning for most Tools. Don't take offence at being asked to turn a basic piece if you are more experienced, it's important that I see how you work so I know where to go with you next. With some Students I will move on to using Parting Tools, Skew Chisels and then a Spindle Gouge so you learn how each Tool is presented and how they are supposed to cut. I sometimes wait until the 2nd piece to do this but every session is different. Coffee Break About halfway through the session, we take a well needed coffee break and decompress for five or ten minutes. Latte, Half milk half coffee is the speciality here and something I can make fairly easily. Sometimes I have help and can offer tea but Latte is the usual if I'm on my own. The Second Piece After the break the second piece is normally a piece of Beech so you can experience Turning a Hardwood. If you are doing well enough I will add a dovetail and move the piece over to a chuck for the next stage. Don't be too concerned if you don't get this far, everyone is different and has different experience levels. We may have spent longer talking about machines or wood drying so don't get to this stage until late in the session. If the students wants to keep practising the Tool techniques they did in the 1st piece I am ok with that but sometimes Students want to Turn a piece that can take home. For these Students I normally assist them making the initial cuts on a teardrop shape to show how they are achieved but I normally have to take over and finish the shaping. I will then show how to sand, seal and finish the piece off yourself. Tempus Fugit Tempus Fugit - Time Flies! 3 Hours is not very long and it flies by fairly quickly. The whole thing can be fairly intense for some and yet others want more when we reach the end. I do offer 4 and 5 hour sessions but 3 hours is probably best for the first time. If you are coming from far away you can talk to me about longer sessions for your first time. If you are coming from a long distance I would recommend staying in a B&B or Hotel the night before. During a 5 hour session there will be a short coffee break at 1.5 hours in and then a slightly longer one about the 3.5 hour mark. Trust me, you will need it. I suggest bringing a sandwich or small snack to replenish your energy levels. Unfortunately, I don't offer catering as I am set up for it. Bowls I sometimes get asked to do Bowls during a session. I'm not set up at this moment in time to teach Bowl Turning as the wood is hard to come by and learning to Turn a Bowl would take longer than my sessions currently cover. I can and have gone through the basics with Students who come back for a 2nd and 3rd session and demonstrate how a Bowl is turned and the processes by which it is mounted on the Lathe. When I moved on to Students doing their own Bowl I found that they struggle and this is why a full day session would be required for Bowls. The reason for this is because I would have covered the basics of Spindle Turning during the first session and there are similarities of Tool presentation and use when Turning a Bowl that can't be skipped. Many people believe that they can simply pick a chisel and start Turning a Bowl but unfortunately this is not the reality at all. There is loads of theory and practice involved in Woodturning and Bowl Turning has its own set of difficulties. Conclusion I get so many people who have an idea of what Woodturning is which is very far from the reality. Videos online can give an inaccurate representation of how fast skills can develop and what can be achieved on very basic machines so take these with a grain of salt at all times. These are people who think you can throw €400 to €500 at a Woodturning setup and think that that will be sufficient going forward. Sadly, it's not that easy. Have a read of my Buying your first Woodturning Lathe in 2024 to see some of what's involved. It is far more complicated than that so take a lesson with me and I will shorten your learning curve and hopefully save you a bit of money in the process. I hope to see you in my Workshop soon! Thanks for Reading, David

Author Note: If after reading, you found this Blog Post to be beneficial and are going to buy from Amazon anyway, you might consider using one of my Amazon Affiliate links below. As an Amazon Associate I may earn from qualifying purchases and I may receive some sort of credit for the time spent researching and writing this Post should you decide to purchase. You can also buy the Hardback and Paperback versions of these books if you wish. I have also recently added Masters of the Air. Introduction, Band of Brothers and The Pacific on Kindle Many of the war movies we have seen over the years were inspired in part or all by books written by those who have been in the thick of the action during conflicts. Anyone who has seen Band of Brothers or the Pacific may or may not be surprised that they are in fact based on several books written by men who saw action with the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment and accounts from Marines of the 1st, 5th & 7th Regiments of the 1st Marine Division who saw combat in the Pacific. I sought out some of these books for my Kindle and thought I'd share some of these titles with you as you may not be aware of them. I initially wanted to add a whole load of war films but realised that the Post would be massive altogether. Instead, I will write a second Post with the films on their own. Band of Brothers by Stephen E Ambrose Written by Stephen E Ambrose this book follows Easy Company, 506th Airborne Division, U.S. Army, from their rigorous training in Georgia in 1942 to D-Day and victory. Ambrose tells the story of this remarkable company, which kept getting the tough assignments. Easy Company was responsible for everything from parachuting into France early D-Day morning to the capture of Hitler's Eagle's Nest at Berchtesgaden. Band of Brothers is the account of the men of this remarkable unit who fought, went hungry, froze, and died, a company that took 150 percent casualties and considered the Purple Heart a badge of office. Drawing on hours of interviews with survivors as well as the soldiers' journals and letters, Stephen Ambrose tell the stories - often in the men's own words - of these American heroes. This book accounts for the bulk of what you see in the series. You can buy the Kindle/ Book version here Band of Brothers Amazon UK. Or check it out Band of Brothers Amazon USA. Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memoirs of Major Dick Winters Damian Lewis grabbed everyone's attention and respect during the Band of Brothers series but Dick Winters was real and this is his account of his time in action with Easy Company. He includes many details and untold stories beyond what Stephen E Ambrose wrote. Starting with an account of the gruelling training designed to make the 506th the most elite unit in the US Army, Beyond Band of Brothers is fascinating account of one man's experience of commanding Easy Company from D-Day, to the Battle of the Bulge and into Germany. Dick Winters gives real insight into leadership under the most difficult conditions - every man in the company had been injured by the time they reached Germany - and tells the real story of the Allies' final defeat of Hitler, from the point of view of someone who was really there. Check out Beyond Band of Brothers on Amazon UK. Or check it out Beyond Band of Brothers on Amazon USA. Parachute Infantry by David Kenyon Webster You probably remember this character in the background for most of the series but was featured prominently in the episode 8 The Last Patrol. He was with Easy Company from the beginning and jumped into the chaos of occupied Europe on D-Day, fighting his way through Holland and finally capturing Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest. He was the only member of Easy Company to write down his experiences as soon as he came home from war. Webster records with visceral and sometimes brutal detail what it is like to take a bullet in the leg, to fight pitched battles capturing enemy towns, and to endure long periods of boredom punctuated by sudden moments of terror. But most of all, Parachute Infantry shows how a group of comrades entered the furnace of war and came out brothers. Check out Parachute Infantry on Amazon UK. Or check out Parachute Infantry on Amazon USA. You'll Be Sor-ree!: A Guadalcanal Marine Remembers the Pacific War A mortarman with H-2-1 of the legendary 1st Marine Division, Sid was only seventeen years old when he entered combat with the Japanese. Some two years later, when he returned home, the island fighting on Guadalcanal and Cape Gloucester had turned Sid into an "Old Timer" by Marine standards, and more: he left as a boy, but came home a man. These are his memoirs, the humble and candid tales that Sid collected during a Pacific odyssey spanning half the globe, from the grueling boot camp at Parris Island, to the coconut groves of Guadalcanal, to the romantic respite of Australia. Sid recalls his encounters with icons like Chesty Puller, General Vandergrift, Eleanor Roosevelt, and his boyhood friend, Eugene Sledge. He remembers the rain of steel from Japanese bombers and battleships, the brutality of the tropical elements, and the haunting notion of being expendable. This is the story of how Sid stood shoulder to shoulder with his Marine brothers to discover the inner strength and deep faith necessary to survive the dark, early days, of World War II in the Pacific. Check out You'll be Sor-ree! on Amazon UK. Or check out You'll be Sor-ree! on Amazon USA. Honourable Mentions I have chosen Autobiographies mainly for this Post with the exception being Stephen E Ambrose due to the importance of his book towards the series. There are a few more which I found and will add them when I get a chance. Honourable mentions go to; Shifty's War: The Authorized Biography of Sergeant Darrell "Shifty" Powers, the Legendary Sharpshooter from the Band of Brothers. Check out Shifty's War on Amazon UK. or check out Shifty's War on Amazon USA. Call of Duty: My Life Before, During and After the Band of Brothers. About Buck Compton Check out Call of Duty on Amazon UK. Or check out Call of Duty on Amazon USA. The Pacific The Pacific is based primarily on the memoirs of two US Marines; With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa by Eugene Sledge and Helmet for my Pillow by Robert Leckie. It also draws on Sledge's memoir China Marine and Red Blood, Black Sand, the memoir of Chuck Tatum, a Marine who fought alongside John Basilone at Iwo Jima. Personally, I find the Pacific to be a better series than Band of Brothers after rewatching them both many times but it suffers from slow sections in the middle of the series which are important to the story but affect the momentum. Band of Brothers on the other hand is intense up to the last 2 episodes and then slows. With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa by Eugene Sledge You probably remember Joseph Mazzello' convincing portrayal as Private Eugene Sledge 'Sledgehammer' from the series. Eugene Sledge had a very difficult time adjusting back into civilian life after the horrors that he witnessed during his service but eventually managed to write a book with the help of little notes he made in his pocket bible. Described as one of the finest memoirs to emerge from any war, With the Old Breed tells with compassion and honesty of the cruelty, bravery and deaths of the men he fought alongside, and of his own journey from patriotic innocence to battle-scarred veteran. 'Eugene Sledge became more than a legend with his memoir, With The Old Breed. He became a chronicler, a historian, a storyteller who turns the extremes of the war in the Pacific - the terror, the camaraderie, the banal and the extraordinary - into terms we mortals can grasp' Tom Hanks Check out With the Old Breed on Amazon UK. Or check it out With the Old Breed on Amazon USA. Helmet for my Pillow by Robert Leckie James Badge Dale portrayed a lovable rogue in The Pacific who like many others suffered during his time in combat. His memoir Helmet for my Pillow is one of the most riveting first-person accounts to ever come out of World War 2. Robert Leckie was 21 when he enlisted in the US Marine Corps in January 1942. In Helmet for My Pillow we follow his journey, from boot camp on Parris Island, South Carolina, all the way to the raging battles in the Pacific, where some of the war's fiercest fighting took place. Recounting his service with the 1st Marine Division and the brutal action on Guadalcanal, New Britain and Peleliu, Leckie spares no detail of the horrors and sacrifice of war, painting an unsentimental portrait of how real warriors are made, fight, and all too often die in the defence of their country. From the live-for-today rowdiness of Marines on leave to the terrors of jungle warfare against an enemy determined to fight to the last man, Leckie describes what it's really like when victory can only be measured inch by bloody inch. Unparalleled in its immediacy and accuracy, Helmet for My Pillow tells the gripping true story of an ordinary soldier fighting in extraordinary conditions. This is a book that brings you as close to the mud, the blood, and the experience of war as it is safe to come. Check out Helmet for my Pillow on Amazon UK. Or Check out Helmet for my Pillow on Amazon USA. China Marine by Eugene Sledge China Marine is the long-awaited sequel to E. B. Sledge’s critically acclaimed memoir, With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa. Picking up where his previous memoir leaves off, Sledge, a young marine in the First Division, traces his company’s movements and charts his own difficult passage to peace following his horrific experiences in the Pacific. He reflects on his duty in the ancient city of Peiping (now Beijing) and recounts the difficulty of returning to his hometown of Mobile, Alabama, and resuming civilian life haunted by the shadows of close combat. If you want to complete the story by Eugene Sledge then you must read this one too. The series barely mentions the clean up duties that Eugene and many other Marines had to do following the cessation of hostilities and instead focuses on his journey home. There is quite a lot of detail that is missed before that happened making this well worth a read. Check out China Marine on Amazon UK. Or check out China Marine on Amazon USA. Red Blood, Black Sand by Chuck Tatum You may remember this guy as being the unlucky one of two Marine recruits that John Basilone took out training before any of the rest of the platoon arrived at Camp Pendleton. When Chuck Tatum began Marine boot camp, he was just a smart-aleck teenager eager to serve his country. Little did he know that he would be training under a living legend of the Corps—Medal of Honor recipient John Basilone, who had almost single-handedly fought off a Japanese force of three thousand on Guadalcanal. It was from Basilone and other sergeants that Tatum would learn how to fight like a Marine and act like a man—skills he would need when he hit the black sand of Iwo Jima with thirty thousand other Marines. Red Blood, Black Sand is the story of Chuck’s two weeks in hell, where he would watch his hero, Basilone, fall, where the enemy stalked the night, where snipers haunted the day, and where Chuck would see his friends whittled away in an eardrum-shattering, earth-shaking, meat grinder of a battle. This is the island, the heroes, and the tragedy of Iwo Jima—through the eyes of one who survived it. Check out Red Blood Black Sand on Amazon UK. Or check out Red Blood Black Sand on Amazon USA. Masters of the Air: How the Bomber Boys Broke Down the Nazi War Machine by Donald L. Miller I had to add this as it is another release from the creators of Band of Brothers and the Pacific. I am currently waiting to watch the series in one go once the last episode has aired. Now a major television event from Apple TV and Steven Spielberg (starring Austin Butler, Callum Turner and Anthony Boyle) and companion to Band of Brothers and The Pacific. ‘Seconds after Brady’s plane was hit, the Hundredth’s entire formation was broken up and scattered by swarms of single-engine planes, and by rockets launched by twin-engine planes that flew parallel’ Meet the Flying Fortresses of the American Eighth Air Force, Britain’s Lancaster comrades, who helped to bring down the Nazis Historian and World War II expert Donald Miller brings us the story of the bomber boys who brought the war to Hitler's doorstep. Unlike ground soldiers they slept on clean beds, drank beer in local pubs, and danced to the swing music of the travelling Air Force bands. But they were also an elite group of fighters who put their lives on the line in the most dangerous role of all. Miller takes readers from the adrenaline filled battles in the sky, to the air bases across England, the German prison camps, and onto the ground to understand the devastation faced by civilians. Drawn from interviews, oral histories, and American, British and German archives, Masters of the Air is the authoritative, deeply moving and important account of the world's first and only bomber war. Check out Masters of the Air on Amazon UK. Or check out Masters of the Air on Amazon USA. Conclusion If you enjoyed Band of Brothers and The Pacific and want to know the full story behind the characters then the above titles are an absolute must. I couldn't believe the difference between the screen and what actually happened these guys in real life. It's true that Hollywood has to embellish and make their stories entertaining with a good consistent continuity but that sometimes comes with a cost where actual fact is concerned. I have no problem with small inaccuracies but I have issues where it is blatant. Read the books and come to your own conclusion. About the Post Author I am a Self Employed Woodturner from the West of Ireland. Outside of my work I have a passion for Movies and TV Shows and I have always had an interest in Military subjects. I write this and more Blog Posts to further my business reach and because I have actually started to enjoy writing over the last 12 months. If you follow one of my Affiliate Links above and make a purchase I get a small percentage which gives me a little something back for taking the time to research and write this Post. I would appreciate your support. If you have no intention of following the links, maybe I can entice you to come to one of my Woodturning Tuition Classes or Woodturning Experiences. Follow the suggested Posts below. Thanks for reading! David

I'm sure there are many people out there who wonder if there is any value at all in attending a Woodturning Course or Tuition session. I myself was one of those procrastinators or avoiders when I first started Turning and it cost me dearly long term by not reaching out sooner to a professional. So what are the reasons to go for Woodturning Tuition and how will Woodturning Tuition benefit you? I will deal with a few points here that should lead you in the right direction in making your decision. As a professional Woodturner and Woodturning Teacher I have insights into the pros and cons of taking Tuition classes from my own background and as an experienced Woodturning Teacher. There are plenty of pros and no cons that I can see other than parting with a small sum of money without having a Tool or Machine in its place. Read on! Many People Choose to go it Alone I was one of those people that thought I knew it all in the beginning, I didn't! I struggled at everything, from buying the wrong Lathe, bad grinder without decent attachments, cheap Turning Tools, loads of tearout issues, bad finishing etc. etc. The thing was, I didn't know any better and there was nobody to show me the way. YouTube did not exist when I started and the internet was only in its infancy. I was advised to go and get a Woodturner to give me some lessons but that advice was not followed. I struggled unnecessarily for years as a result. Woodturning Tuition is Expensive It is true that Woodturning Tuition costs money. In some cases the amount is higher than some people are comfortable parting with. The end result is they don't go and limp on for another year or so wasting their valuable time and money in the process. I made a lot of mistakes buying Tools & Equipment down through the years that ended up not being used or underutilised because there no real need to buy them. I ended up spending thousands of Euro that I could have used elsewhere. I use that hard earned knowledge these days to show my Students what not to buy and why. I stear Students in the right direction buying Lathes and Tools that will still be used for many years into the future. Many of my Students are already heading down the path of buying the wrong gear when they come to me. If they follow my advice they end up saving a lot of money and progressing as Woodturners much faster than going it alone. If a single private Tuition Session is too expensive for you, you can always book a 2 person Tuition Session and split the cost with a friend. Advancing Your Abilities This is one that many Students don't consider at all. By attending a Woodturning Tuition session you can lay a good foundation for going forward and cut your learning curve considerably. Had I taken a lesson or three back in the day, who knows how much further I could have gone in the Woodturning World. Maybe I could have been internationally renowned, who knows. We all stand on the shoulders of those who came before us when it comes to knowledge and experience so there is no need to go it alone. Reach out to a Woodturner and just go for that first lesson. Everything is easier after that. Once that is over you will see the benefits immediately and it won't be long before you are booking your second session. YouTube is not a Great Teacher Watching YouTube videos can be great for new Woodturners and you may pick up some great advice along the way but they are definitely not the same as attending a live Tuition session. Videos need to be properly laid out so nothing is missed along the way in explaining processes. I have tried to make YouTube videos myself but I don't have the patience to plan and execute them into propper teaching tools. I personally find my videos to be lacking and I hate rewatching them once uploaded. As soon as the camera starts recording I forget bits of what I need to say and I can gloss over or miss some important points. In my Tuition sessions, I can go into more detail on certain points and the Student can ask questions related to any subject that peaks their interest. You can ask questions in the comments of a YouTube video but you may not get an answer. These videos can also contain a lot of 'fluff' too in the form of chats, segways and shout outs instead of cutting to the quick and dealing with the topic in hand. This always annoyed me when I was learning which is why my own videos are almost always quick and to the point. So will Woodturning Tuition Benefit me? Absolutely!! The paragraphs above should have explained several great reasons for taking a Woodturning Class but I will bullet point them here for you. You will Save Money You will Save Time You will Advance faster You will buy the right gear You will be Turning longer into the Future You will be Safer Turning as a result! How Many Classes do I Need? For my own Teaching Classes I recommend students take between 1 and 3 sessions at 3 Hours each. I advise buying your own Lathe after the second session if you don't have one already and then go away for a month or two to experiment and apply what you have learned in my classes. Book the third one and come back to me with your questions and problems in your own time. You will have them, I know this from experience. This roughly translates to between €100 and €300 for weekday sessions and more if you choose the Saturday sessions option. I guarantee you will save about 3 times that amount in your first year alone. I do have some that come back to me more than 3 times but that is entirely up to the individual and Students are welcome back anytime for refreshers or more advanced work. Conclusion Don't procrastinate. Don't worry about the cost of Tuition. Don't be shy when it comes time to book. Just go for it and be happy with the fact that it will be of great benefit to you going forward as a Woodturner. I specialise in low Teacher to Student ratio Sessions of short duration where I cram as much as possible into 3 hours instead of you having to attend full day courses with groups of strangers as with other Woodturners. If 3 Hours is too short, you can extend to 4 and 5 Hour sessions if you wish. Thanks for reading and I hope to see you in my Workshop in Tralee real soon! David

For those that don't know me and have found this post online by accident, I am a Woodturner, Woodturning Teacher and Woodcrafter with my own business in Tralee Co Kerry Ireland since 2015. I had been Turning off and on since 1996 up to starting my business and I have been teaching my Craft since 2019. I only started teaching when I felt I knew enough about Woodturning to properly instruct others. I get many requests from Grandparents, Parents, Aunts & Uncles to teach Woodturning to young children during the course of each year. Summer is generally the time when these requests come in more frequently and some Parents expect a Summer Camp style event for a discounted price. These people generally change their mind when they see the price exceeds the price for Summer Camps and the duration is inconveniently short for them. I'm not a babysitting service, I run a serious business and there are serious consequences for using sharp Tools and unpredictable wood on a spinning machine at high RPMs. What is the Right Age to Start Woodturning How appropriate is Woodturning for a Child under 12? Is it ok for a 6 year old to try it out? What is the right age to start woodturning? I have been asked these questions and many other variations of the same over the last few years. The answer can be quite complicated and can vary from each child and and for each new request. I don't want to turn people away unnecessarily but I have to inject a bit of reality into the situation when I can. Sometimes, it can be ok to have a small child briefly trying out woodturning with an adult guiding the chisel and supporting the child directly. This is fine in your own home, with a family member, with your own Lathe & Tools for a short period of time but not ideal in a proper Workshop setting like mine. I generally try to discourage anyone under 10 from Woodturning as they are just not capable at that age. I understand that you might be excited at the prospect of introducing something new to a young person's life but it isn't always appropriate or even safe to do so. I take Safety very seriously in my Workshop at all times. Am I being unfair to Children? Absolutely not! Woodturning requires specific body movements, advanced control & coordination and an ability to respond to correction from a Woodturning teacher that young people are just not capable of below a certain age. I know this because I have had children of many age groups attend with Parents in the past and the results are always the same. While I am happy to do the odd Session with a younger person it is more often than not a waste of everyone's time. The child is often too young to understand or appreciate the Craft and the Parent has higher expectations of the Tuition Session and it goes no further. Also, my requirement for a Guardian to be present during the entire lesson isn't always convenient for some people. I don't take chances while teaching children. I need you there to be responsible for them. Age 16 and Up Seem to do Better I have tried many times over the last few years to develop classes for secondary school teenagers and also slightly younger students in my Workshop. Each time the attempt has failed fairly miserably. Sometimes, I can get one or two interested in attending classes and after a bit of back and forth by email with their Parents, the request dies out and the Students never attend. I don't chase people anymore as a result. From experience, Students I've taught aged 16 and over tend to do better in Woodturning classes and stick with it longer which allows me to get them through the basics and on to more advanced work. The basics are the important part of Woodturning and you cannot skip this stage. The basics can be the boring part of learning to Turn and require lots of repetition before becoming competent. This is the stage where many Students falter and drop out. Encouragement is Great but... If you are one of those adults who want to encourage a young relation to take a class, first of all I salute you. I'm delighted to hear someone trying to take children away from video games and get them to experience a hands on Craft. Many adults admirably want to impart skills to young people while at the same time think that it should be inexpensive to do so. Imagine if I suggested you take a pay cut in your job because I had an opinion about what you do without fully understanding what it is you do exactly. Would you be happy with that? My Current Charges I no longer distinguish between people's ages when it comes to Tuition charges. I did offer cheaper rates and shorter sessions over the last few years but I have had to change that because it costs me too much to run each class and it takes me away from my production business. At the end of the day, I have to make a living at this. I now charge the same for adults and children because it is actually harder and not easier for me to teach younger people. I also now teach over my regular 3 hour class sessions which is probably going to be very tough on younger people, not to mention the Guardian who will have to be there too for the duration. I run a business and I have overheads to cover on a daily basis, this is why I have made the decision to charge everyone the same and over the same minimum 3 hour session. Is my Child Capable? Before considering your child for Woodturning, think about how they perform around the house. The ability to sweep the garage floor or work a hoover around the sitting room does not translate into ability on a Woodturning Lathe no matter how much you want it to. Some children are more responsive to physical work than others but you must realise that Woodturning is not the same thing as chores or housework. Children are not great with complex tasks and their life experience is much less than yours as an adult. Oftentimes, life experience makes learning new things so much easier so should never be discounted. As adults, we may forget how challenging some things were when we were small. Experience Woodturning Woodturning is a great experience to have in your life. I do it for a living so I know how good it is and that was right from Day One for me. Consider this. If you bring your child at too early an age it may turn them off Woodturning later in life. If they do not enjoy the experience they probably won't want to do it again. Even the slightest small thing might upset them and turn them off it for life. I have had some children that had to be corrected multiple times for the same errors. I did not enjoy the repeated corrections and I assume the children didn't enjoy it either. Did anything bad happen to you as a child that turned you completely off a hobby or sport? I would hate to be the cause of that. A Bit Strict? Reading this Blog Post, you might think that I am being overly strict but I am drawing from past experiences and from these things I learned what worked and what did not work. If I state these things and explain my reasoning then there's no room for individual interpretation or misinterpretation. Many people will ask for special treatment or exceptions to be made but if they are clearly spelled out then there is no room for misunderstandings. By all means, you can request a lesson for your child but you should be ready to accept that the time is not yet right and don't be upset about it. Conclusion If Woodturning was simple or easy the World would be full of Woodturners. Woodturning is massively popular Worldwide but it is not for everyone. It requires dedication, repetition, disappointment and will most surely empty your wallet time and time again. A child may not be capable of these kinds of responsibilities so early in life so don't force it upon them. Just because you think it is a good idea might not necessarily mean a child will agree. So what is the right age to start Woodturning? The answer is not easy to nail down to a particular age group as all children are different. Think carefully before pushing your child into Woodturning and take my advice by trying to wait until their later teens or beyond before encouraging this path. If you push them too hard too early they will most likely go the opposite way to what you want. If you are a Woodturner yourself and you try to share your passion of Woodturning with your child it can backfire spectacularly. Let them make their own decisions themselves would be the best advice you can take. I hope these few thoughts helps your decision making. Thanks for Reading, David

Countless times I have seen new Woodturner's posts on Facebook where they score a haul of small cut logs and then ask for advice on how to seal the wood for seasoning and drying. The advice given to these people is generally wrong and a complete waste of time and sealer. This is repeated on a daily basis on the various group pages so I decided I needed to address it. The advice from other novices is normally to seal both ends of a log with Anchorseal, Emulsion Paint, PVA Glue, candle wax etc. If the log is short, you have just wasted your time and whatever sealer you have used. The wood will crack and you will lose most of what you tried to save anyway depending on how long you leave it that way. Instead, the best advice is to cut and remove the pith as soon as you can before sunlight and wind get to the wood surface. Once the Pith has been cut away from the centre of the log, then you may then seal the endgrain. Read on below. Saving Cut Logs After a tree surgeon has visited, if they haven't taken away the wood that is; they generally cut the tree into firewood sized logs approximately 9 or 10 inches long if asked to do so. Sometimes they do twice that, it depends on who does the job and the instructions they receive. There is absolutely no point in sealing these sizes in their current form. The wood will crack because the heartwood or pith is still intact. Heartwood and sapwood dry differently and with the piece intact the wood will pull in different directions as it dries and will form end checking cracks. This is unavoidable while the pith remains and cracks get worse as time goes by , not better. The wood will continue to crack until the tension has been fully released. You release this tension by removing the Pith from the wood. I have created a simple drawing of the cross section of the log. The Heartwood is shown as not being a perfect circle, wood is rarely perfectly circular in shape. I am using a large diameter example here rather than a small diameter log. On large logs it is possible to get 2 or more blank slabs either side of the Pith. I have oriented the Bowls 2 different ways to show how they can be oriented as a finished product. On smaller logs only 1 small slab or blank is normally possible each side of the Pith. Please note; Blank slabs can be cut into spindle blanks should the material be unsuitable for Bowls. Cut Out the Pith - Always The Pith or Heartwood should always be removed. On small logs you can cut right down through the centre of the Pith and this should be enough to relieve the tension for drying. For larger logs it is advisable to cut left and right of the pith to lessen the chances of Heartwood material moving differently and possibly cracking your bowl. The area that you cut out would then be quarter sawn material outside of the Pith and suitable for Platters due to more stable short grain. How to Process Logs for Woodturning? How do I process logs for Woodturning? It's really very simple. You need to process the log into blanks as soon as you can, cutting away the pith before you can seal the endgrain. The pith is the area of original growth, it has different density and will always dry differently to the rest of the log. The pith itself nearly always cracks and is always the cause of logs splitting. It is also advisable to cut away any of the bark areas as this is where insect activity will be based mostly. If the wood has woodworm, chances are that the larvae will have travelled further into the wood and are so small that you may not see their tracks. It is advisable to cut away as much of this material as possible to avoid continued woodworm presence or better yet throw it away and get something better. Why take a chance on infecting other wood or even your home! Spindle Blanks Spindle blanks are easy to deal with, simply cut the sizes you require and then seal the ends. You don't even have to bandsaw straight edge, an axe cut is probably sufficient if you allow enough waste but probably not the best if you want to stack the wood on stickers. Seal the endgrain and go about an inch up the sides at each end. Put the wood on stickers so that the air can get at all the surfaces and away you start the drying process. If you do get end checks after this it probably isn't the end of the world. Some wood will crack not matter what you do and there may also have been micro cracks before you even started. I always allow a little bit of waste for my pieces so I can cut the drying checks away and I always cut the ends of new green spindle blanks with a chop saw to make sure there are no end checks before sealing them. Mostly, I aim to get 4 individual pieces from any single spindle blank length I cut. I allow a specific measurement and if an end cracks I will just add that cracked bit to the firewood pile. Bowl Blanks Bowl blanks are a little more complicated. If the log was exposed for a while it is advisable to cut the endgrain again exposing fresh wood without cracks. Depending on how long the end grain was exposed you could end up cutting up to 4 inches from either side of the hardwood log. You must keep cutting until all the cracks are gone. Cracks don't heal or get smaller as the wood dries, they get worse. If you want to make Bowl blanks out of small logs you should get wood to the rough turned bowl stage as soon as you can and then seal the outside edge of the endgrain with PVA Glue. You may then use whatever drying method suits you. If you leave the log as is, you will get radiating cracks going into the bowl. Bowl Formula for Logs? Is there a formula for figuring out a Bowl size from a log? I don't have a set formula as such but I have a basic rule of thumb; not always perfect and depends mainly on the size of the log and direction of initial Pith cracks. Cut a fresh end to the log until all large cracks are gone, there will always be a small crack at the Pith (initial crack). Orient the log to give you the best sized bowl parallel to any pith cracks and draw a line (A). Rotate this line vertically. Measure this line and then measure along the log to give you the best possible diameter for the size of log similar to the size of the line on the end and add a little bit (B). A-B will be roughly the same but adding a little bit extra along the log allows for errors or if there is a defect you can move the bowl slightly. You will be making it smaller on the bandsaw and smaller again when you true this up on the Lathe so don't worry about accuracy at this point. You will always learn something new when you cut Bowls so don't worry if you make a mistake. You learn from mistakes. Every log you cut will be different and you will figure out your own techniques over time. Short term Storage of Logs There will be times that you can't get to the wood to process it on the day or maybe a few days, what do you do then? A short term solution is to wrap the logs in a decent Tarpaulin. Wrap in such a way that all surfaces are completely covered by one or more Tarps and secure against wind. I would not leave this for more than one night if the logs are fresh cut as a Tarp is not a hermetic seal. If you start cutting but can't finish, put the cut sections into black or clear plastic bin bags and fold the bag over allowing no air in. Each day, turn the bag inside out so the wood doesn't develop mildew and put the log back inside the dry bag surface. This will do for a week or so. Bowl blanks should be processed within this time and spindle blanks can go a bit longer. The bigger the Bowl Blank size the sooner you should process it into a Bowl and seal the external end grain. Best advice is always to process as soon as the wood is cut so you don't lose anything. Best Way to Season Hardwood The best way to season Hardwood is to cut the trunk in long lengths and put it on 3 or more stickers to keep it off the ground. Wood sitting on soil is going to rot so keep it elevated. You don't have to cover the wood, just leave it exposed for 6 months up to 12 months but you should keep an eye on it so it doesn't go too far. The levels of Fungi on the endgrain should tell you how much Spalt is likely developing. This seasoning method will hopefully allow the wood to gain some colour due to existing fungi while losing some water and weight. As the wood loses water it starts to relax and tensions are released and in some other areas are increased. If you cut a fresh tree and turn a bowl straight away, the wood will move an awful lot and you will end up with a very misshapen dry shape. By letting the wood lose some water over the 6 - 12 months or so it will move far less after the 1st Turning. If you can, source a trunk about 6 feet rather than small logs. You then don't have to worry about a poor yield. Some of the more experienced Woodturners around the world will leave a tree this way for about a year or more before deciding on when to cut. Their experience should tell you what method is right. Why do People advise Sealing Small Logs Most people are not experts at processing wood and many people just parrot what they hear online. That's why the same bad advice keeps coming up again and again. I will say it once again. Sealing logs is a waste of time and effort, don't do it! There's no point in sealing large trunks either, the wood will crack no matter what you do as the tension moves in the wood. You will be cutting back up to 4 inches anyway so why waste the sealer? Below is one of my earliest attempts at seasoning wood. I sealed the logs after this and wrapped the unit on all four sides and the top with black weed barrier to stop the sunlight but allow airflow. Why did I do it like this? Because someone told me that this is the way to season wood. It isn't. It isn't even a great way to prepare this wood to be firewood. I know far better these days. Again, remove the Pith and the Bark and then you can seal the end grain with glue or Anchorseal or any of the ones I mentioned above. Wood should then be stored like I have done in the last picture below. Drying Spindle Blanks You can create a drying area for Spindle Blanks quite easily for very little cost. Racks made up of rough sawn 2 x 1.5'' are quite sufficient once the weight is supported at midpoints. Below is a small wooden shed I lined with 25mm Xtratherm Insulation to control temperature. There are air vents about allowing air to free flow taking moisture away. The shelves are narrow to allow the glue ends of the wood to dry without getting stuck to the racks. 3 months in this shed with a fan assisting during the day before the wood moves on to my secondary drying location. Drying Bowl Blanks There are different requirements for drying Bowls and a variety of different methods which I won't go into in this post. That probably deserves a Post on its own. My own preference right now is the old paper bag method which is slower but has better results than Kiln drying. Conclusion There are loads of different methods for cutting wood logs and storing for drying. What I have outlined here is correct because I have tried and tested this myself. Take everything you hear on Facebook forums with a pinch of salt as people can be eager to parrot other people's opinions to make themselves feel important. Try and get a second opinion before believing what you read and hear. Go and get a second opinion on what I have written here by all means, I won't be insulted at all. Thanks for reading, I hope it was helpful. Post comments below if you wish. David

I have been Turning Professionally since 2015 although I personally tend to disregard the first few years of that as I was teaching myself the ropes so to speak. Yes, I was earning money direct from my Craft but I feel I was not yet experienced enough to be a true Professional in my opinion. I have argued this point with another Woodturner who disagreed with my assessment but I don't want to cheapen the Craft by saying I was when I felt I wasn't. I hope that makes sense to people. I started Turning in 1996, never got a lesson and thought I was doing well. I spent very little money on machinery and tools and wondered why I rarely sold anything. It wasn't until I went for proper Tuition that I realised how bad I actually was and why I had never achieved anything. I attended my first lesson with a Professional Woodturner in late 2015 and only then did the real work begin. Patterns of Failure - Why Woodturners Fail I have taught enough Students at this point to see the patterns of failure early on. Although I have touched upon this subject in other Blog Posts I have never dedicated one entirely to the specific reasons why most new Woodturners fail so early on in the process. Hopefully, you the reader will see these things in yourself as you read on and this may help you. I will list a number of fail points below in no particular order of relevance but the first 4 are really important. Never going for proper Tuition This has turned out to be my biggest regret over the years. Had I reached out to a Professional early on, I could have shortened my extremely long learning curve, bought the correct tools & machines and saved myself from wasting lots of time & money. I finally went to Glenn Lucas in Co Carlow in late 2015 and my whole world changed from then on. Many worry about the cost of Tuition but the reality is you generally save multiples of that cost over time by fixing your techniques and adding new products to your repertoire. Not to mention following the right advice on Equipment & Tools. Buying Inferior Tools & Equipment I bought 2 cheap Lathes at different times in the beginning and didn't realise anything was wrong until a few months afterwards with both of them. An inferior Lathe will have lots of drawbacks and will have a limiting effect on your Turning abilities. You will often find a new Woodturner using a light machine with an inappropriately big piece of wood. This is not smart and could be potentially dangerous. Cheap machines can also have inferior motors, are lightweight with a tendency to bounce around and have parts that break easily. On the other hand and I have to say this, cheaper machines may give you a start that you otherwise won't have, you may have no choice but to go that route. Conflicting statements, I know but I had to say it because sometimes it is a reality. My advice however is to start as you mean to go on and buy a decent machine that will last you many years to come. Remember, a cheap Lathe will stunt your growth as a Woodturner and hinder any progress you could potentially make going forward. Not Spending Enough Money This is a big one. Woodturning is probably the most expensive hobby on the planet, IMO. Most new Woodturners (myself included back in the 90s) will buy a Lathe with the money they have in hand at that time. This normally means buying a Lathe that will only suit them for the next 6 to 12 months. If they are still Turning after this point their skill level will have outgrown the machine they are using. My advice to Students currently is to borrow the money from a Credit Union and spend 3 or 4 times their budget to get the machine they should be starting with. If you are spending €1,500 and up on a Lathe you are buying a machine that should grow your abilities. Most people will still balk at the entry level Lathes that are about €1,000 but spending more will nearly always benefit you long term. The problem for most Students I find is they don't know if they like Woodturning enough yet to justify spending €2,500 or more just to get started. It's your decision I'm afraid, only you know the answer. Not Enough Practise Time Woodturning is one of those Crafts that requires a lot of time and effort to become proficient. I often ask Students if they spent much time practising between Tuition Sessions and watch them backpedal their responses by saying how busy they were and they only managed an hour or two here and there. I know as soon as you start Turning in front of me whether you practised or not. I can also hear it if I have my back turned by the way. You are not Turning for my benefit, you are Turning for your own. Please remember that! If you have a Lathe, you should be using it. Constant practise develops muscle memory and Turning becomes so much easier over time. Buying a Bad Sharpening System A decent Sharpening system should be very high on your list from the beginning but from my experience many skimp on this because they have outlayed so much money on a Lathe and Handtools that they feel they cannot afford what is recommended. They in turn buy a cheap machine with a bad motor, cheap wheels and limited functionality which is next to useless and will not last long term. If you buy a top of the range machine with great grinding wheels and sharpening platforms from the very beginning your Woodturning journey will be so much easier. Sharp Tools make Woodturning safer and infinitely much more fun to do. I show my Students 4 different machines that I have and explain the pros and cons of each. If you spend €800 on what I recommend you will have a great machine which will last you the rest of your life if you continue to Turn or have a very good machine for resale if you choose to give up at any stage. Using Bad Handtools Some cheap Lathes come with Tools included, never use these as they are normally rubbish and not fit for purpose. Some second hand Lathes come with Tools that the previous owner used, always take advice from a Professional like me before using these as even if they are quality Tools they probably need to be reshaped and properly sharpened prior to first use. Never buy the Woodturning sets of 6 to 8 Tools as they are probably not the right tools for you going forward. I normally recommend 6 individual Tools for Spindle Turning and another 3 for Bowl Turning. You can buy more and probably will as you go on but 9 is all you really need to get started. Check out this Blog Post on Woodturning Chisel Sets I wrote for greater detail on this subject. I sell a range of Hamlet Woodturning Tools on my Website should you want to buy quality Tools instead of rubbish. A proper Workshop This is quite often the last thing people think of. In their mind, they envision a little corner of a shed or garage that will be perfect for their new Lathe but the reality is Woodturning requires a fairly decent sized area to be effective and safe to work in. Too often, sheds are damp which rusts the Lathe and Tools and is not a nice atmosphere to work in. Winter time is an especially unpleasant time to be in a freezing workshop. Don't believe me? I'm writing this Blog in February in my little office instead of being in my Workshop. Even though there is a heater there, it is not an ideal atmosphere at this time of year. Plan a decent sized area with some safe heating device (not explosive or highly flammable if possible) and dust extraction set up away from cars or anything that could get damaged by dust waste & flying debris. Following Bad Advice YouTube is not a proper teacher so if you are following videos online be aware that the creator may not know everything about what they are doing or talking about on screen. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of excellent Woodturners out there to follow and I wish that YouTube had been around in the 90s when I started out. Where would I be know if it had been I wonder? I have videos on YouTube myself but I find that I am not great at explaining or demonstrating as soon as the camera is rolling. I forget to explain certain things or over explain others. I realise my shortcomings, would you? If you take a lesson early on you should be able to discern if a video creator is doing the right thing or the wrong thing. I followed bad advice in a video when making my earliest Spinning Tops and made bad pieces as a result. Waning Interest Over time, the initial excitement that Woodturning elicited may wane and you find other activities including watching TV a better use of your time. Try and make yourself go to the Lathe, it cost you money so why not use it and be creative for an hour a day. If you get into the habit of avoiding the Lathe, you will soon fail as a Woodturner. Try and remember that you are doing this because it's for you and for you alone and you are not doing it for the benefit of someone else. Woodturning can be very therapeutic for people so enjoy it for what it is. Lack of Sales This was very difficult for me in the 90s when I couldn't sell my early design Candle Holders. Hours of work and people didn't appreciate what I had created or so I thought. When I started my business I had similar experiences of sales droughts which are difficult to bear. You can't help but take these things personally especially in your early days Woodturning. Remember, not everyone has the money to buy luxury items (which your pieces will be) and what you make may not appeal to everyone. There is no point in making products that you like when the masses have no interest. Instead, look to current trends and try to come up with your own unusual take on a product. Don't just copy someone else's ideas, make your own. Unfortunately, there are Woodturners out there who steal ideas, I have had some of mine copied by others who should know better and it doesn't feel very nice. In Conclusion Go and get a lesson before you do anything. Trust me, it will be the best money you ever spend. If you enjoy your lesson, go ahead and spend money on the recommended gear. If it's just an OK experience, maybe Woodturning isn't for you. Better to find out before splashing out thousands of Euro on equipment that will be idle in a few months. If you didn't like it, you are only out of pocket for €100 or so and a few hours but you had an experience and you can cross off Woodturning from your wish list. Whatever the outcome, just go and do it and you will know where you stand regardless. Hopefully the paragraphs about will strike a chord with you and you will go forward armed with information that will help you make good decisions. For anyone interested, my listing options can be found on the page Woodturning Tuition Thanks for Reading and safe Turning! David