Trevor Gillbanks

My Dad was a builder and like many young sons of builders I grew up with a hammer in my hand and nails in my pocket and it soon became apparent to Dad that no tools or pieces of wood were sacred if they were in my sight. Having such an industrious and inquisitive young son gave Dad and Mum great pride but also frequent bouts of frustration. Like the time when Dad was away building and the lawnmower was not running properly so I, at the tender age of about eight, decided to fix it. I carefully took it apart bit-by-bit studied the pieces in the process and laid them out like a true engineer. Then I proceeded to put the mower back together again. It certainly looked like a mower again and I would have done an amazing job if it weren’t for noticing the few bits left over! ‘Oh well, they’re small enough that Mum won’t even notice them in the rubbish bin!’ I learnt a lot from that experience.

So I guess it was no surprise to them, that when it became time for me to make a career choice I chose the engineering trade in fitting, turning and machining. This led me into the New Zealand Army where I was able to continue playing with tools and toys, but this time BIG ones!

However all this time while I was engineering I looked for every opportunity to build things and always had a dream to have a serious go at woodturning, which I had tried when I was in High School. My leisure life has always been filled to the brim with activities but in the year 2000 the time was right to investigate the Manawatu Woodworkers Guild Open day. I had hardly walked in the door before I spied out a couple of ex-army mates, one being ‘Ole JR’ and I guess one could almost say - that was that! When I returned home that afternoon and my wife saw a grin as big as the one I sported the day I cracked the fly fishing code she knew life was to present yet another adventurous twist in the road.

And so my long awaited lathe arrived for my fiftieth birthday that same year. (That lathe has already been upgraded!) I take part in every course I can (out of sheer excitement I arrived an hour early for the first one), attend whatever Jamboree I can and read as much as I can because I believe woodturning is just like anything else – ‘the more one learns the more one realises there is to learn’. I will give anything a go and particularly enjoy working with New Zealand native woods, especially burls and driftwood.

Wood and machinery have always, and will always, have only one meaning for me – exploration of the next frontier!