Very impressive! I didn't realize it was going to be translucent until he brought the light onto it. I wonder how thick the finished piece is and how many of them he went too far on!

Yes, this is an old thread, but there still seems to be more questions than answers.

The link was dead, but I have seen lamp shades turned.

Most of the thinner turnings are finished by placing a light within the turning. By shining light through the work, one can much easier gage how much wood is left, and how thick it is in comparison to the rest of the work. I have a friend who turns wooden cowboy hats, both full sized and in miniature. This is the only way to get a turning thin enough to shine a light through for a lamp shade, or thin enough to bend the rim into the hat.

As far as waste is concerned, woodturners are some of the most conservative woodworkers when it comes to not wasting wood. We will use pieces of wood that are too small for any other use in the shop. If you check with the Woodcraft catalog or flyers, you will see that the rejected blanks for clarinets are offered as lower priced pieces of African blackwood. The mounds of wood shavings that you see at the turner's feet is quite often wood that is not suitable for anything, due to punkiness, infestation or rot. If the inside wood is usable, then there are other ways of not wasting the wood as well, such as using a bowl nesting gouge set that literally allows the turner to free the center from a bowl blank so that it could be used for another project. I have seen where turners have produced an entire stack of nesting bowls from one blank.

There are also those who practice what is basically the quilting of woodturning. By carefully cutting and sanding pieces of wood, usually of different colors, they then glue them up into the basic shape of the vessel they are turning. Once the glue has set, the entire item is mounted on the lathe and turned to it's final shape. Very little waste at all.

The shavings rarely go to waste either. Many a time I have used the shavings to burnish the turned piece for a nice finish. They can also be used in the garden, or as packing, like they used to be used! BTW, I have often turned barefooted in the shop during the summer. The smell and feel of the shavings is a joy to work in, and the shavings have never caused me to slip. In fact, the most irritating thing about the shavings is having to pick them up! Far more pleasant than picking up after a router!