Guest editor Emiliano Achaval talks to woodturning video creator Mike Peace
When I accepted this guest editorship, my third one, I only had to think a little about who I wanted to introduce you to. My good friend Mike Peace has done a lot, not just for the woodturning world but for his community, his church, and his country. He has what I call old-school values, which we have in common, and we have shared many miles travelling to symposia together. His house near Atlanta is close to countless woodturning clubs within driving distance. He has demonstrated at all of them several times and was chosen to demonstrate at the Portland AAW symposium a few years ago.
Mike gives one-on-one classes in his well-laid out shop and is one of my favourite YouTube woodturners. He was a great turner before he even thought about making videos, unlike some dubious ‘masters’ with just a few years of experience posting dangerous and unsafe techniques. I enjoyed us working together on this introductory bio.
Can you tell us a bit yourself?
I was an army brat and moved around a lot until I was in the fourth grade when my family settled in Florence, a small town in north Alabama. I was one of five kids and money was always tight. We all grew up with a strong work ethic. My older brother and I both had newspaper routes back when the newspaper boy threw the newspaper on to the porch from his bicycle. I delivered papers for years until I went off to college.
I attended Auburn University and finished with a degree in Economics and an ROTC commission as a 2d Lieutenant in the army. My wife was in my high school class and we got married right after college. I spent two years with an artillery unit in Germany. After active duty, we both attended the University of Alabama for our masters degrees, hers in special education and mine in business. I stayed active in the army reserve and retired as a Lieutenant Colonel. In civilian life, I worked as a human resources manager. In the early 1980s I bought a personal computer as a hobby interest and was able to apply those skills to the human resources operations. I was working for an international computer company in the mid 1990s and was selected for a team to implement a new human resources systems worldwide in preparation for Y2K [the year 2000].
I had an opportunity to develop and teach a week-long class in Uxbridge, England, for our European divisions on using the new system we were implementing. I continued in human resource and payroll systems implementation work as a consultant until I retired. A few years before I retired I had joined a general woodworking club and was learning about general woodworking. Shortly after I retired in 2007, I discovered woodturning and I was sucked into the vortex!
What are the influences in you work?
Atlanta is a woodturning mecca. The Atlanta metropolitan area has a population of over six million with a number of different woodturning clubs as well as several woodworking stores. I have always been active in multiple clubs and was able to see a different demonstrator two or three times a month. We also had two regional symposia in North Georgia so I was able to see a number of excellent demonstrators on a regular basis.
As a retiree, I was able to spend many hours practising in my shop. I was also able to take many hands-on workshops with the many professional turners coming through the Atlanta area on a travelling circuit to demonstrate and teach before moving on. We have a joke here that you cannot go to hell without changing planes in Atlanta! I attended all-day demonstrations or had hands-on classes with Richard Raffan, David Ellsworth, Glenn Lucas, Stuart Batty, Ray Key, Benoît Averly, Stuart Mortimer, Jimmy Clewes, Chris Ramsey and the list goes on. All of these folks have influenced my woodturning journey. I would say Richard Raffan has had the most influence on my work. I have just about every book he has published and most are now well worn. I am somewhat self-taught on chasing threads by hand, but relied heavily on the many thread-chasing videos Sam Angelo created for his YouTube channel, The Wyoming Woodturner.
Alan Zenreich convinced me to embrace doing remote demonstrations back in 2018 when there was little demand. When Covid hit and the videography equipment required to conduct Interactive Remote Demonstrations (IRDs) was scarce, demonstrators who were prepared to do IRDs were even scarcer. However, I was ready, having geared up the two years prior, and I stayed busy doing remote demonstrations over Zoom. I did as many as four remote demonstrations in a week and did one for a club in Alabama and one for a club in England on the same day. Alan’s encouragement and mentorship with the hardware and software was critical to getting me and many other demonstrators up to speed on this new technology that has been and continues to be a challenge for many clubs.
How did you get started writing woodturning articles?
Joe Herrmann, the then editor of Woodturning Design, saw a picture I had posted on a woodturning forum of some coffee scoops I had turned. He invited me to write an article on the project. I had never written an article for publication before and was thrilled. He published a second article and this gave me the confidence to submit article ideas to Betty Scarpino, when she was the editor of the journal of the American Association of Woodturners (AAW), The American Woodturner. This was before I started making YouTube videos and I went on to write a number of articles for the AAW journal.
How did you get started on making YouTube videos?
I have always enjoyed teaching and had some teaching opportunities with every job I ever held. I had opportunities to demonstrate and conduct workshops in the clubs I belonged to and soon to other clubs in the region. I never considered myself a wood artist but more of a craftsman. I was a member of the Gwinnett Woodworkers Association that met weekly. It started recording the club demonstrations for posting to its new YouTube channel. I volunteered to help edit the videos, which was a challenge as I had never edited video before. Video editing continues to be a learning challenge.
After learning the basics of video editing, I started my own woodturning YouTube channel, Mike Peace Woodturning. I enjoy the YouTube creation process. It is, in many ways, similar
to writing a woodturning article in that one needs to plan what is going to be presented in a logical way. The draft needs to be refined with process pictures that illustrate what is being described. I have been working on my channel for about nine years and now have released almost 700 videos. The positive feedback from my community is gratifying and a big source of encouragement to keep at it.
What is your favourite tool?
I guess my most used tool is my favourite. That would be a 3⁄8 in Doug Thompson spindle gouge with a short handle. I do more spindle projects than cross-grain bowls so I use it on most projects.
What helpful advice do you have for other woodturners?
Join a club. Find someone who can help you. Get some lessons or help from someone who can turn successfully. Take some classes. YouTube is great for providing inspiration or the basic steps for a particular project. Actually, using a woodturning tool is a skill that, for most beginners, requires correction and feedback. You may need that correction multiple times. Do not get frustrated by trying to learn how to sharpen and use your tools by yourself.
Learning to sharpen is an essential skill to using conventional tools. Be safe. Approach the lathe with a tool and close your eyes for a few seconds. Think about trying to turn blind. Accidents happen in the blink of an eye so always wear a face shield. Not every piece of wood you put on the lathe has to end in a finished piece. Practice. Practice. Practice.
Woodturning is a bit like playing a musical instrument. You cannot just pick up a tool, stick it into a whirling piece of wood, and expect great results on your first try. Enjoy the journey. Have fun making shavings. Practise turning beads and coves. When you get a catch, ask yourself why and correct your technique. If your piece flies off the lathe, figure out why. Then correct your chucking technique. Learning comes from repetition so start with small, simple projects and do lots of them. It might be a bottle stopper or a weed pot. Do not attempt a large bowl until you are comfortable turning smaller ones.
“I have been working on my channel for about nine years and now have released almost 700 videos”
What other hobbies do you have?
I am passionate about woodturning so really do not have other hobbies. Between my civilian job, reserve training and raising a family I never really had time for hobbies. My wife and I were avid tennis players until back and arthritis issues put us on the bench permanently just a few years ago.
In Atlanta, you can play year-round so we played in a league all year. My wife was the better player so we only occasionally played on the same mixed doubles team. My woodturning activities offer me lots of variety. I teach in my shop, I conduct a monthly workshop for one of my clubs, demonstrate and, of course, make YouTube videos which includes answering questions and responding to comments.
I maintain my website, mikepeacewoodturning.com, that I developed myself. I am active in my church. I stay busy as a volunteer with the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) preparing federal and state tax returns pro bono. This programme targets seniors and individuals with lower incomes.
Further reading
ALL IMAGES BY MIKE KEBBELL
One Response
After sever years of going to club meetings. I discovered that I was a spindle turner in a club of bowel turners. My time at my lathe now is much more enjoyable. I like to remind new turners that great spindle turners make good bowl turners but good bowl turners don’t make great spindle turners. I find my best learning tool is watching YouTube videos along with visiting other wood turners. I like look for books and articles that are aimed at spindle turning