I was very pleased and excited when, some months ago, I
was informed that Martin Matthews was going to make another DVD/Video. Having
watched his first video, Four Generations of Watchcase
Making, which was an excellent
production, I naturally thought it was going to be further aspects of watchcase
manufacture and patterning.
So I was surprised and delighted when I realised
that the content of this latest production was on “ Patterning Machines ”.
I quickly realised that this was a unique record for future generations showing
such a huge variety of different machines from all over the country.
On viewing
this DVD for the first time you are, at the beginning, pulled up sharp by the
disjointed sound track. But this is intended to get you out of the comfort zone,
brain in gear and into analytical mode.
Martin very quickly puts the viewer at
ease with his clear, gentle, informative commentary, which is accompanied by
a visual feast of machines and equipment. These range from basic wood turning
between centres, in the open air using the branch of a tree as a return power
to drive the engine/lathe, to a highly sophisticated Michael Kampf geometric
security engraving machine. ( Those early wood turners must have had thighs like
tree trunks ).
I have now watched the DVD several times with pen and paper at
the ready to make notes but have become so engrossed each time that I ended up
with a blank piece of paper. This is really a tribute to the way Martin has been
able to produce a script from his vast knowledge and put it into sections which
are informative, exciting and will make sense to viewers even if they only have
a little knowledge of the subject.
The whole production is enhanced by Barbara
Darby’s masterly skill in capturing the very important aspects of the different
individual machines and the variety of equipment used. She has an in-depth understanding
of the subject and is therefore able to show the intricacies of these fabulous
machines, illuminating hidden cogs and levers with the use of clever camera angles.
They spend some time exploring Martin’s own machines before moving onto
the Society’s Rose Engine and all its equipment. Especially the many different
types of chucks like the pencil and the weird looking brass independent four-jaw
branch chuck*. We then visit the workshop of Jeremy Soulsby and see a 300 year
old rare wooden rose engine with brass rosettes. It demonstrates very clearly
the body of knowledge that was known at that time. Also it shows the skill of
how, with only basic tooling, those magnificent craftsmen were able to build
such complicated machines and get them to work and produce on them wonderful
ornamentally turned objects.
Whilst still on the subject of rose engines, we
were able to see the exquisite beauty and remarkable engineering ability with
which Jeremy and Fred Armbruster made their own rose engines.
Martin then spoke
to our President of the Society, John Edwards, who drew our attention to some
of the history of straight- line and rose engines from illustrations by Moxon
and Bergeron. John also efficiently demonstrated the principles of how the rare
rose chuck worked.
We could see the infinite variety of patterns generated from
the Hartley chuck and an Ibbetson geometric chuck. These are simply amazing,
as were Alabone’s coloured patterns.
We then moved onto Nick Edwards’ security
engraving machines. The cabinet, which comes with this machine, contains racks
and racks of change wheel gears and the number of designs for the use of different
combinations of wheels must run into tens of thousands. It crossed my mind that
Nick might like to produce one of each pattern, maybe for the next AGM. ( Also
on show was the Nick-type, designer, oily looking, multi-coloured tee shirt – a
must for every self-respecting ornamental turner. )
Lastly, we were privileged
to see the commercial workshop of Pledge and Aldworth. Steve Keen showed us different
types of machines used, and demonstrated on a British, made in Birmingham, Plant
14” straight-line engine ( note the important use of stops). This machine
is probably the best straight-line engine ever produced. Sadly the brocading
machine was not working but we did have sight of the computer operated multi-chucked
straight-line engine working. Hence the strange sounds at the beginning of the
DVD.
This is a wonderful information packed DVD. A must in the library of every
ornamental turner.
I hope we can look forward to the next production soon!
*
Featured in Bulletin # 58, pages 151-152 – Ed.
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