[Regia-NA] Pole lathe

[nathan]

> >You can use a pole lath without a tool rest i am sure, but it is so much
> >more efficient to rest yor tool on something.  Why make your
> life difficult
>
> Um, because we have no actual evidence they used 'em?  Of all the
> lists I'm
> on, this is the one place I least expected to hear this kind of
> philosophy. ;-o


>From this discussion as a whole we seem to have no evidence for pole-lathes
as a whole thing (we have evidence that supports the idea they may have been
used, we don't have a whole pole lath in a provenencable context (shame that
;-)).  So we are immediateley into dodgy ground with them.

Those that know a huge amount more than me about pole lathing are of the
opinion that a tool rest is a good idea (otherwise we wouldn't have them
these days either).  So to me i take that as them being a good idea, that
does not make them authentic to period, but if we know they were used before
and after (do we?) and they are a good idea to me that supports the notion
that just because we havent found them don;t mean to say they didn;t exist.

Now i for one would be quite interested in seeing the process of use without
one, and specifically the pros and cons.  It heartens me to hear you state
that period tools were used in the process (cos with other tools anything
becomes possible).

Specifically:
Are there impacts in the learning process (how hard would it to be to learn
from scratch)?
Is there a requirement for additional physical capabilitis (do you need a
lot of wrist striength)?
Is there any greater level of fatigue involved? (massive afctor if this is
your day job)
Is the speed of working affected?
Is the quality of product affected?
How do the results on various woods compare?
How would the pole lathe and user need to be configured to make this all
work?

---

And the decision making process that permits (or does not permit them) is
fortunately not mine (i shall take this moment to calmy stand to one side
and point at the Authenticity Officer).  I just chib in with tuppence and he
makes the calls, there is a big difference between kicking an idea around
here and actually making the thing and then trying to defend it by making
these arguments.

Hugz
N.