Wille’s turning hooks and traditional Swedish turning

I recently spent a delightful day working with Peter Lamb @gerrishisland at his lovely home in Kittery, Maine.  He wanted to get himself set up to turn bowls on an electric lathe, so we spent the day tinkering and turning.  For those of you who don’t know Peter, he is both a wonderful person and a fount of woodworking knowledge.  I think I first met him in 2015 at a course with Jögge Sundqvist up at Lie Neilsen Toolworks.  Peter was friends with Bill Coperthwaite, and after Bill passed he became a trustee for Dickinson’s Reach.  Peter has been connected to the greenwoodworking movement in the US for decades, and I always learn something when talking with him.

Not long after my visit, Peter sent along a series of photos that really got my attention.  These are shots that he took of Wille Sundqvist‘s turning workshop (included here with permission from his son Jögge).  What especially arrested me were the tools—massive hooks like those used on a pole lathe.  

 

Peter also loaned me his copy of Träsvarvning enligt Skärmetoden, a book written by Wille Sundqvist and Bengt Gustafsson and published in 1981.  The book discusses the Swedish turning tradition, and in the chapter on bowl turning describes these same hook tools.  

 

 

 

I am slogging through it, using Google translate to try to make sense of the text.  The translations leave something to be desired.

You can see that the hooks are used in both side and end-grain turning, depending on their design.  Obviously modern ring tools perform a similar task, and though they are designed for end-grain hollowing, they also work well in side grain as well.  I use the “Termite” by Oneway, which works well save for the fact that the small ring gets clogged.  I am curious about how one of these Swedish hooks might be used on the inside of side-grain bowls, working from the rim into the interior, like on a pole lathe.  The cut on a pole lathe is often well below center, and allows for a swooping, rising cut into the interior.  I perform a similar cut with gouges, but instead of working below center I swoop up above center and then down.  I am really curious if the below-center technique might work with these hook tools.  

The book also includes shots of a young Del Stubbs.  Before Del became the renowned toolmaker of Pinewood Forge fame, he was a turning phenom who traveled widely giving demonstrations.  Stories of him turning spindles with an axe and producing ungodly thin bowls abound.  Below you can see Del using a makeshift pole lathe driven by a spring suspended from the ceiling, as well as a lovely handled pot.  Notice that the portions between the handles are lathe turned, not hand carved, something you can only do on a reciprocating lathe…

 

After posting some of these shots on Instagram and Facebook, many folks provided leads on where to learn more.  Peter Follansbee recalled that Fine Woodworking ran an article about Wille and his turning hooks “way back when.”  He kindly looked up the reference: May/June 1983, “Turning Tools that Cut” by James Rudstrom, who Peter says was Wille’s neighbor.  I am in the process of getting that article now. My friend Jeff Kuchak, another pole lathe turner, reminded me of the video “The Spoon, the Bowl, and the Knife” that includes Wille turning, though I don’t recall him using hooks in that video. (I do remember him using a spindle gouge to turn a bowl—yikes!)  I will have to look at it again.  Jan Harm ter Brugge from Amsterdam said that he owns one of Wille’s hooks, and I am in contact with Jan now about that.  Finally, Merlin Fox @knivesfoxspoons mentioned that Svante Djarv makes those hooks.  Of course I could not resist and ordered one.  Svante’s tools are much coveted and often take up to a half year for delivery.  I own one of his carving axes (the “Little Viking”), which I absolutely love.  Thankfully, Svante has one of his medium turning hooks in stock, and I think it is ready to ship.

I leave with a few shots by Peter.  The first of a custom forged tool rest made to Wille’s specifications.  The second is of Wille’s workshop door.  So charming.