Minutes for January 15, 2013 meeting
of the Tennessee Valley Woodworkers

 

President Kevin Deuermeyer called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM.

 

Reminders:

 

Club events for 2013:

 

Carvers Event:

 

Announcements:

 

Old Business

 

Super Show and Tell for the December meeting:

 

Program:   Red Oak Ladder Back Chairs by Tim Hintz

 

Our guest speaker, Tim Hintz, was introduced by former club VP, Paul Fulks. Tim studied woodworking at the Appalachian Center for Craft in the late 1990s after a career on the Gulf Coast as a deep sea diver. He currently lives in Smithville, TN, where he makes his living building what he calls “Fresh Chairs”. Each finished chair is unique, exhibiting the natural wiggles of the wood around knots and retaining the made-by-hand tool marks.

 

Tim’s very informative program consisted of a slide presentation followed by two live demonstrations. He began by showing examples of his “fresh chairs”. He discussed the various procedures and tools required for transforming a green five-foot length of veneer-grade red oak log into a variety of rough blanks that would eventually become chair posts, rungs, back splats, and rockers. He explained the techniques he uses for bending, shaping, and sizing parts before final assembly. He also described in detail the harvesting of green bark strips from select hickory trees (bitternut preferred) and explained the multiple tedious steps required to produce a durable and beautifully woven chair seat.

 

For the live demonstrations, Tim split and shaped a chair back splat, starting with a green red oak log wedge and using only a froe, club, draw knife, and shaving horse. He then showed how to locate, lay out, and cut one of several narrow splat mortises into a chair back post and described how the curvature and slope of the splat set would be adjusted at final assembly to provide sitting comfort.

 

Pictures and prices for the many style/finish combinations can be found on Tim’s website at: www.timhintzfreshchairs.com.