The Post-Camp Decline, Part 2: Machines

The last evening of the camp saw a presentation of a revolutionary gouging system and automated profiling machine by Greg James. The three-stage gouging system gave incredibly precise results: with good cane being gouged at an accuracy of plus or minus 0.01mms. The secret, Greg said, was the way the cane was clamped to the bed. Traditionally, this is done by clamping the cane end to end as it lays in the bed. The drawback of that system is that the cane cannot be gouged evenly unless it naturally conforms to the bed. Greg’s system clamps the cane on either side down along the length of the carriage, forcing it to conform to the bed’s diameter. Of course, the effectiveness of the process depends on how close in diameter the cane is to that of the bed, but the standard bed diameter of 25.4mm produced outstanding results for cane ranging from 23-27mm. That’s a huge window for accuracy without needing to reset the machine.