JCCFS: Tell us more about your upcoming woodworking class, “Make Your Own Boomerang” on March 8th. It’s for all levels, correct?

RO:  Yes! A boomerang is really one of the simplest but most effective pieces of sporting or recreational equipment that you can make. It requires no previous woodworking experience, and really very few tools and very little time. However, it can give you many years of enjoyment and satisfaction!

We will be crafting the boomerangs out of a high-quality birch plywood imported from Finland. This is an “aircraft quality” wood that is more expensive than some other woods used to make boomerangs, but we use it because it is very durable…it will stand up to a lot of throwing, and a lot of hitting the ground!

In the class we will be shaping our booms with a combination of hand tools—primarily saws, files, and sandpaper, and we will be decorating them in any way the student cares to, using basic acrylic paint and markers. And finally, we will be finishing them with a coat of spray-on waterproof polyurethane.

The process and materials that we use will ensure that students and their boomerangs will enjoy “many happy returns!”

JCCFS: What can students expect to leave with? 

RO: Students will leave my class with a boomerang that they have shaped and decorated themselves, a detailed set of instructions on how to throw and catch the boomerang (and how to do so safely), and some instruction & experience “in the field” (literally!) on how to do so. They will also leave the class with some experience in working with wood, hand tools, and applying decorating & finishing materials. And finally, they will leave with the very interesting story behind how a boomerang works, as well as its history. They will be able to impress and amaze their friends & family with their new-found knowledge, their craft, and their ability to throw and catch a boomerang!

JCCFS: Tell us a little more about yourself for those who are unfamiliar.

RO: I became fascinated with boomerangs as a child, while on a family vacation, when my parents bought us a Frisbee, a kite, a boomerang to play with outside. Those toy boomerangs back then didn’t really work very well—that is, they might fly a little ways, but it was hard to get them to really return to you, much less to catch at the end of their flight.

Later in life I wondered, do these things really work? Can you really make one return all the way to you, so you can catch it? I decided to go into my woodshop and make one, and to test it out at the city park near our house. I was amazed and delighted that the answer is, “Yes!”

After that, I discovered that boomerangs are a fun and easy thing to make & to decorate, as well as to play with. Then, around 2011, when one of my sons started developing an interest in woodworking, and knowing that my father had a lot of artistic talent, I decided to establish Owens & Sons Boomerangs as a hobby project. I was still working full-time at my regular job, but we began working together whenever we could to craft and sell handmade boomerangs.

And as I set up our Owens & Sons Boomerangs website, I was fascinated to learn about the history of boomerangs and the physics behind how they work…for example, did you know that:

• …boomerangs fly and return in a circle due to the same physics as found in an airplane wing and a bicycle wheel?
• …boomerangs didn’t originate in Australia, but were developed all over the world as far back as 20,000 years ago?
• …the earliest boomerang found was made of the ivory of a mammoth tusk?
• …the reason boomerangs became so developed and a prominent part of Australian aboriginal culture was because they were one of the few ancient cultures around the world who did not develop the bow & arrow as a hunting tool and weapon?
• …boomerangs were even found in King Tut’s tomb?

As I began to make and sell boomerangs, I also began to collect ones made commercially or hand-made from all over the world, and to throw them as a hobby. If you’re looking for something to throw & catch that doesn’t require a partner, a boomerang is about the only thing that will do that! It has become a good way for me to get out into nature, and to enjoy some solitude while also getting some exercise.

Besides making boomerangs as a hobby, I am a retired Presbyterian minister, having spent most of my career working with a nonprofit organization in Louisville, Kentucky that brings together religious congregations across lines of race, faith tradition, etc. to solve community problems at the systemic level. In my retirement, in addition to making boomerangs, my new woodworking hobby is building, restoring, and repairing acoustic guitars and other instruments.

JCCFS: What attracted you to the Folk School? What are you most excited about for your first time teaching here?

RO: I was very pleased to be contacted by the school about the possibility of teaching a class on boomerangs. I had heard of the school before, from living in North Carolina in the past and from having relatives with a cabin in a nearby town, but I really didn’t know much about the school until I was contacted. Since then, I have been fascinated and very impressed to learn about the extent of the skills and crafts that are taught at the school. Especially as a relatively new guitar-builder, I am very interested to learn more and to see what the school is doing in that area. And now that my wife and I are both retired, who knows, maybe we will return for some classes in the future!

JCCFS: What’s something you’ve made recently that you’re proud of, and why?

RO: I am always proud of my boomerangs, both in how they look and how they actually work! But lately I have been especially proud of the guitars that I have built, including most recently my first commission, which was a 00-size guitar made of maple and spruce. It looks and sounds amazing, if I do say so myself (and fortunately, my customer says the same)!

JCCFS: What tips would you give an aspiring woodworker? Anything you wish you knew earlier in your career?

RO: From my years of doing woodwork, and especially since I have been involved in the very challenging and very detailed work of building guitars, I have learned not to allow myself to get upset when I make the inevitable mistakes that always come with woodworking (and with most other crafts). In fact, just recently I made a sign and hung it in my woodshop that says, “DFO! DON’T FREAK OUT!…every mistake is either fixable, hide-able, or livable!”

JCCFS: Where do you draw inspiration from for your work?

RO: Having lived in the Appalachian area of southeastern Kentucky for part of my life, and as a frequent visitor to Western North Carolina throughout my life, I have been inspired for a long time by people in the region who carry on handcraft and folk traditions, including the music, dancing, crafts, etc.