One for the ages

June's meeting was held on June 3rd at the Peters Valley Wood Studio.  The meeting began outside, but not because we didn't have access to the studio.  (I now have a key!)  The meeting began with an announcement by our current President, Dan moore and a challenge to the club.  Dan will be relocating to the Richmond, VA area in the next few months, and Richard will be assuming his duties as the Vice President (in a bloodless coup).  As usual, the group would greatly appreciate someone stepping up to the nomination for President.

In Dan's departure, Dan and I discussed the disposal of some of his assets to be shared by the club.  It was proposed that Dan and I would bring the wood in question to the club to be equally dispersed with the following challenge:  you have to make something to bring to the July meeting.  Unofficially, we're going to call this Moore's Wood Challenge (I tried to come up with something catchy, but failed...)  You can make ANYTHING at all out of the wood you took, but you have to bring one item to the next Show and Tell.  Prizes will be awarded for first, second, and third (Dan and Steve will judge)

Once the mosquitoes had their fill of us and the last bits of wood were out of our trucks, we went inside where we discussed the club business.  Peters Valley had contacted us to let us know that they would allow us to exhibit at the Craft Fair in September with the jury process.  Several members voiced their concern over tax issues and their was moderate interest in doing this individually.  Upon further conversation, it was not viable to do this as a club.

From here, the conversation shifted to future demonstrations.  Joe Eid, who felt left out because he hadn't seen an e-mail from me in months (because of a typo in the list I was given...sorry Joe!) suggested that he would be interested in doing a hand rubbed finishing demo based upon a recent workshop he took at Peters Valley.  It was highly and enthusiastically approved by the group, and we'll make sure that we get Joe on the calendar in the next few months.



Show and Tell featured some recent work from the group.  It's hard to move the meetings alone AND be the photographer, so I am looking for some more volunteers to bring cameras and capture the action.  Here are a couple of pieces from the S&T:

Our main topic for the evening demo was the tool making.  As a starting point, Steve started out by walking through the steps for making handles.  As a reminder, using a chuck to grip the blank, drill a hole in the one end using a slow lathe speed.  The hole will be automatically centered when the tailstock point is inserted.  Next sneak up on sizing a tenon to fit the ferrule.  A copper tubing nipple is a great ferule, and copper is soft enough to be turned on the lathe with conventional tools.  Once the ferrule has been fitted, turn the handle to fit your hand.

We also covered the differences between tool steel and cold rolled.  Tool steel can be sharpened and hardened for a cutting edge.  Cold rolled is typically used to hold a piece of tool steel.  Round rod can be sourced to make numerous tools (very inexpensively) as compared to catalog prices and they work equally as well.  If you've never tried making your own tools, it is a great way to save a few hundred dollars.

Stay tuned for an announcement about the July meeting.  It will most likely be moved to accomodate one of the Peters Valley wood studio instructors availability.  Once I have confirmed the date, I will let you know

Safe spinning.