Award winning artisan, Don Leman, shares his thoughts on the specialized art of segmented woodturning. Mr. Leman is a formally trained industrial designer who has also spent years restoring antique clocks and their mechanisms. With “segmenting”, Mr. Leman has found the perfect outlet for his talents and inclinations – a pursuit that requires an extraordinary capacity for the fine details in things. The conception of the final object must be precisely planned before the first piece of wood is cut. This suits Mr. Leman, whose technical knowledge of geometry and angles is complimented by his ability to artfully fuse sweeping curves and tones into the objects he shapes. (5.5 Minute Video)

Open any book on segmented turning and you’re likely to see at least one chapter filled with numbers, angles, and formulas. But you don’t have to be a mathematician to calculate the angles, lengths, widths and depths of the building blocks that make up a segmented glue-up. Some simple multiplication or division is all that’s needed. In this clip, I’m pleased to present segmented woodturner, Don Leman, who demonstrates the easy way to figure out how to calculate the dimensions of each individual segment, no matter how complicated your project may be. It all comes down to some very simple rules. It’s easier than you think. (4.5 Minute Video)

Turning segmented objects is similar in many ways to traditional woodturning. But there are subtle differences. Each segmented glue-up can contain dozens or hundreds of precisely made pieces fused into a single rough blank. This construction can sometimes be more fragile than a solid piece of wood, especially during the early roughing out stage of the turn. But there are ways to minimize the risk of “blowing up” the piece. Success starts with proper gouge and hollowing tool selection. WoodTreks guest artisan and Segmented turner, Don Leman shares his thoughts on how he approaches the craft and his special appreciation for the magic that comes from putting a complex segmented stack on the lathe and putting steel to wood. (3.5 Minute Video)