Dave Shombert first learned to use a lathe in high school wood shop.  Although that was more years ago than he cares to think about, he retained an interest in woodturning throughout his adult life.  He retired from a career as a physicist with the U.S. Public Health Service in 1993, moved to Elkins, bought his first lathe, and set about trying to remember how to use it.  Shortly thereafter, he met Paul Weinberger, of Weston.  Paul was a patternmaker and moldmaker in the glass industry that once thrived in central West Virginia and had applied his extensive patternmaking skills to artistic woodturning, specifically in the form known as segmented turning.  A lasting friendship was formed almost instantly, and Dave learned segmented turning from Paul in an Augusta Folk Arts Apprenticeship throughout 1998.  

In conventional woodturning, a single piece of wood is spun on the lathe and turned to the desired shape with woodturning tools.  In segmented turning, the object is first constructed in rough form by gluing together many individual segments of wood, then turned to its final shape on the lathe. This allows the use of different species of wood and control of grain orientation, thus adding color and geometric figure to the object.  Many steps are involved, and the construction of a large complicated piece can take weeks.
 

Dave (right) with Weinstein