Artisans of Dartmoor - Book - Page 15
Among Sharif ’s more elaborate designs are two-handled sharing
quaichs – Scottish cups of friendship – and Viking-inspired
interlocking lidded boxes for storing food or keepsakes. A highlight
of his career was winning an award from the prestigious Worshipful
Company of Turners for a decorative three-tier lidded box traced
with natural spalting lines – colouration caused by “fungal
warfare” in the wood.
What Dartmoor’s earliest woodturners would have made of Sharif ’s
skills is anyone’s guess. A recently discovered Bronze Age burial
chamber, just 15 miles from Sharif ’s workshop, contained two sets of
wooden ear and lip studs, believed to have been made on a small ‘strap’
lathe – a precursor to the pole lathe. The find at Whitehorse Hill, in
the remote northern reaches of the moor, is the UK’s earliest example
of woodturning, pushing back the first known British use of a lathe
by more than 500 years (see page 10). “Knowing that our ancestors
were woodturning on my doorstep 4,000 years ago makes me feel a
strong affinity with them. I’m very proud to be continuing such an
ancient trade.”
The Woodturner • Sharif Adams
ABOVE: Sharif leaves his
timber to season in a cow field
outside his barn for 18 months
until it’s dry enough to work
on. “I prefer to use wood with
minimal defects and a clean
grain,” he says.
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