Wood turner

Wood turner turning a plate in Germany on a wood lathe, 1988

The turner is a craftsman or industrial worker who has learned the trade of a turner. He primarily processes wood , but also horn , ivory , amber , alabaster and serpentine, as well as plexiglass and other plastics . The job title in Germany is wood turner (ivory carver) and wooden toy maker .

job profile

The activity is called turning in the wood turner 's trade. The most important machine is the lathe and the most important hand tools are the turning iron .

Work

The turner produces turned individual elements (for example stair rods, bowls, boxes) as well as complex articles (such as banisters , tables , stools , coat stands), which can be composed of many individual parts. He uses the simplest technology and hand tools up to computer-controlled fully automatic machines.

specialization

There are various rare specialties in the turner's profession, such as:

Spulenmacher (historically Spillenmacher) produces spinning wheels and devices for the yarn and weaving trade.
Tire turner
Chair maker (cradles, children's and rocking chairs)

Amber turner

Horn turner

Ivory turner

Usually, however, wood is used. The wood toy maker and the ivory carver are assigned to the turner profession.

Professional organization

Many turneries are organized in guilds . Depending on the number of companies, this can be for a city, for a region or for a federal state. All over Germany, turneries are organized in the Association of German Turners and Wooden Toy Makers. Today's businesses have extremely different production ranges and range from one-man operations, in which only turning is done by hand, to industrial turnery, in which production is exclusively fully automatic.

Economic

The wood turning trade is a niche profession. The income from these activities is very volatile.

The collective agreement has been generally binding for woodturners in industrial companies since 2013 .

education

Germany

In Germany, the turner profession is an apprenticeship in the craft with a three-year training . Further training to become a master turner ( master craftsman compulsory ) is possible, but no longer mandatory since the amendment of the German Crafts Code. The vocational schools specializing in the wood turner are located in Bad Kissingen , in Seiffen / Erzgeb. and Michelstadt . In the course of the reform of 2003, the wood turning trade was moved to Annex B1 of the Crafts Code and has since been a trade that does not require a license.

Austria

The three-year vocational training also takes place in the dual system at vocational schools and at relevant training companies in the wood turner trade. The prerequisite for starting the apprenticeship is completing the nine years of compulsory schooling. Most of the apprentices, however, have a degree from secondary school or polytechnic school.

In Austria, the apprenticeship lasts three years and ends with the final apprenticeship examination . This is divided into a theoretical and a practical part. Graduates have the opportunity to take the master craftsman examination. This enables immediate access to the regulated craft of wood turner, but is not mandatory.

Switzerland

The profession of wood turner has merged into the profession of woodworker in Switzerland .

Wood turner in Indonesia

Woodturners in East Timor

Woodturners in Kabul at the Fitzelbank

Woodturners in Cairo at the Fitzelbank

Woodturners in Pindaya / Myanmar at the rocking lathe

Woodturners on a rocking lathe at a medieval market

Turned objects: two contrefait objects between two cups, Germany, 17th century

A turned wonder ball in the Überseemuseum Bremen

Artistic wood turning in Ambras Castle

Woodturning workshop in the Zuiderzee Museum

history

Wood turner, representation (around 1425) from the house book of the Mendelsche Twelve Brothers Foundation , Volume 1, Nuremberg

Wood turner, representation (around 1651) from the house book of the Landauer Twelve Brothers Foundation, Volume 1, Nuremberg

The wood turning trade is proven to be one of the oldest trades on earth. The first wood lathe emerged from the first mechanized device known to man - the fiddle drill . Only the axis of rotation was shifted from the vertical to the horizontal plane. Turned objects were made at least 3500 years ago.

The oldest documented find dates from the early 7th century BC. From Corneto in Italy . The Etruscans had already developed a great skill in turning bowls, furniture legs and plates of different materials at the time. The craft was finally exported from the Mediterranean to northern areas via the Celts , and so it can be seen in the 3rd century BC. In the area of Germany . Despite the primitive Fitzelbank technique, thin-walled vessels, ingenious boxes, well-designed feet and pillars, mirror handles, bottles, plates, etc. were on offer from the turners of the time. Not only wood was processed, but also ivory, bone , amber, bronze , sandstone , limestone , slate , marble , alabaster and many more.

It was not until the 13th century that a new form of the lathe appeared . With the tilting lathe technology , the direction of rotation was still changed, but now both hands were available to hold the tool. In the epoch of the Renaissance the woodturning trade ceased to lead a life of its own and entered into an interrelationship with carpentry and carving . However, it was not until the French Baroque that handicrafts and art flourished. In Germany, Nuremberg was the center of this craft, and it was Nuremberg turners who made the craft acceptable. There were also very good woodturners among the princes , tsars , popes , kings and emperors of that time. The Ovalturning and Passignano turn came and twisted pillars (wound) found their way into the offices. Thanks to the cranked shaft by Leonardo da Vinci , the uniform rotary motion was finally possible. Figure and polygonal lathes were created.

In the middle of the 18th century, the woodturning trade was pushed into the background. With the modest tasks, the skills of the turners of the time could not be demanded for a long time. So many techniques that represented the highest level of craftsmanship fell into oblivion. For a long time, the educated public turned away from the woodturning trade due to unsuitable and exaggerated turner curiosities by so-called art turners, and it was only in the 1970s that it experienced a renaissance, which lasted until German reunification . Despite the subsequent strong thinning of the woodturning businesses, turning by hand has survived to this day and is still an important addition to woodworking . In 2018, the woodturning trade was included in the nationwide register of intangible cultural heritage.

Wood turner, representation (1568) from a Nuremberg register of estates
Drechsler, representation (around 1587) from the house book of the Mendelschen Twelve Brothers Foundation, Volume 2, Nuremberg
Wood turner, representation (around 1601) from the house book of the Mendelschen Twelve Brothers Foundation, Volume 2, Nuremberg
Alabaster turner, illustration (1698) from a Nuremberg Book of Estates

literature

Hugo Knoppe: Handbook of the turnery . F. Ernst Steiger, Leipzig 1938, DNB 574373454 (Reprint: 1989, ISBN 3-88746-231-9 ).
Fritz Spannagel : The turner's factory . Th. Schäfer, Hannover 1981, ISBN 3-88746-014-6 .
Rolf Steinert, Herbert Hegewald: The turner . 5th edition. VEB Fachbuchverlag Leipzig, Leipzig 1981, DNB 821086618 .
Volker Rodekamp : The wood turning trade in East Westphalia. A traditional handicraft in the structural change of the 20th century. 1981 ( full text as PDF )