My maiden voyage into wood-turning was a practical project; restoring the knob and handle on an old cast iron saucepan. Starting on an old hobby lathe my father had bought at a pawn shop, I prepared for the project by raiding his cut-off pile for what looked like a suitable piece of Saligna. After finding the right piece, I got to work mounting it between centers, sharpened the chisels as well as I could using sandpaper and an old floor tile and turned the lathe to maximum. The learning curve was steep and the mistakes many, but after a while I got the hang of it. Slowly but surely, I started shaping the wood. I think I knew when two, three, four hours passed as if they were mere minutes; I was in love. I spent a couple more hours shaping scrap wood into whatever my heart desired and honed my skills.

It didn't matter how long I spent at the machine, I never grew tired. But soon it was time to leave, and with that; leave the lathe behind, for I had to return to the city for work. My newly discovered passion halted by responsibility. 

A couple of months later, close to my birthday my father had to come up to Pretoria for work and brought me a little present. You see he's not a man for turning, he enjoys making cabinets and restoring old furniture, so he brought me the old hobby lathe and the chisels. I've come a long way since then, and am hoping to share a bit of my work along the way to help fund my addiction to turning. After all, it's the best addiction to have.