|
| |
Profile:
| The Museum
contains one of the work’s great collections of Ornamental Turning Lathes. It houses
eleven lathes dating from 1804. The collection includes six Holtzapffel, two Gill, one
Evans, and on Davies. The most recent acquisitions a Bower Rose Engine Lathe pictured to
the right. |
 |
Other significant machines include:
- A Holtzapffel horizontal lapping machine
- A Holzapffel treadle grinder of which only one other is known to
exist
- 1,500 specimens of different woods from around the world
- 3,000 examples of woodworking tools
- 1,200 specialist books on related subjects
|
The Museum and Tobby House (Workshop) is adjacent to the home of
Bob Lynn and is opened at any reasonable hour when Bob is home, or by Friends of the
Museum by arrangement.
To reach the Museum from Ashburton Leave State Highway One at the
traffic lights at the Mitre 10 corner and follow Highway 77 towards Mt Hutt for just over
one Kilometre. The Museum is on the left with a notice at the entrance, drive in.
Entry to the museum is $3.00 single or $2.00 each for
groups.
Visitors pay only once in each year.
You can join the Friends of the Museum for an annual subscription
of $15.00 or a life membership for $20.00. This gives you access to the museum
and rights to use equipment in the workshops as well as receiving the newsletter. |
 |
The headstock of a 200 year old priceless work of art, the Bower Rose
Engine lathe, made between 1804 and 1815. This lathe was brought to New Zealand for the
1925 Dunedin and South Seas Exhibition (a major industrial exhibition) as a display item
for the British Pavilion.
The wood lathe is without question the oldest machine, the highly developed lathe like
the one above is also the only machine capable of reproducing itself. |
Rose Engine lathes are capable of intricate work, including engraving work such as the
scrollwork seen on early bank notes and postage stamps, as well as intricate
three-dimensional work. Parts for Babbage’s first mechanical computer were made on an
ornamental turning lathe.
Bob Lynn:
Bob Lynn, founder and curator of the Museum has spent a lifetime working
with wood. In the process he built a substantial business which produced woodwork for some
of New Zealand’s prestigious buildings, including joinery and panelwork for
parliament building (the beehive) in Wellington. Bob is an expert on the hand tools used
to shape and work wood and is an enthusiast in keeping traditional crafts alive.
Bob developed a special interest in reviving the Ancient Crafts of Rose Engine, Swash,
and Ornamental Turning, after they’re being virtually lost for two or more
generations. Many of the world’s great art treasures created on the old lathes of the
16th and 17th century are still in existence. Most of this work was
done in gold, silver, ivory, brass, and rare woods.
The lathes still in existence date only from 1794, when Holtzapffel started business in
London. Not many more than 200 Holtzapffel lathes are known still to exist. Only two were
made and delivered to original owners in New Zealand.
Woodwork,
My First Seventy Years"
By Bob Lynn
Is available for sale at $35.00
This book with hard cover has 120pp, 16 of which are in colour;
166 illustrations, 46 in colour.
All proceeds, not just the royalties, go directly to
the Trust for the maintenance of the Museum. |
|
