The trade name of a 'roll turner' is descriptive of the work. A metal blank is formed (turned) to a specific shape required for the rolling of steel in a rolling mill. Railway rails are one of the products made by roll turners.
At rolling mills metals are shaped by passing heated metal blocks back and forth between the specially formed rolls of a mill stand, until the desired shape and length have been obtained. Roll turners form and shape these sets of rolls by means of lathes and specially prepared tools such as templates (patterns) until they conform to the specified shape.
Working from blueprints, roll turners clamp steel blocks in giant lathes and cut the desired grooves into the steel blocks, using cutting tools. Roll turners constantly check the shape and size of the grooves on the roll against a template (pattern). In this way the rolls, to be used in rolling mills to shape other steel blocks, are manufactured.