Newsletter Vol 35 / Issue 12

Splinters December 2020

Volume 35 / Issue 12

Greetings

I trust all you elves and Santa’s helpers have been busy in the workshop. I’ve already received several Show & Tell pics that confirms that you have been. I saw Mickey Knowles the other day and he says he has a table full of projects but hasn’t sent them in. I suspect there may be a lot of folk like that too.

Let’s get started with Splinters!

News Regarding Our Club’s Future

Several folk on the Executive Committee will be having a Zoom meeting Tuesday evening to try out the interface. The plan is to hold a club meeting in January via Zoom.

December Show & Tell

Several folks have sent me pictures of what they’ve been working on during the pandemic. The pictures can be seen on the website Gallery and links are in the online newsletter.

Peter Hunter -created another nice CNC project. Peter says “This is a 16″ x 1″ tray I made from carbonated bamboo, which I just discovered is a grass, not a wood. My son-in-law just started a little craft brewery, and asked me to make him something to commemorate it. It is finished with Watco Butcher Block oil.

Chuck Taylor – definitely has some elf blood in his veins. This month he’s cranking out cutting boards made from maple, cherry and holly glue-up. Size is 10” wide X 15” long and 1” thick. The finish is Mahoney’s food-safe oil finish. I believe he said he was making about 15.

Gary Walker – sent me pictures of a really nice hutch he made for my family doctor (his wife 😊.) I believe he told me he did the stained-glass work too.

Richard Gulley – Last year I made ornaments with names of Jesus carved into them (cnc.) This year my wife realized we didn’t have a set! So, I made 8 more sets. I painted the text black and sprayed with semi gloss rattle can. Total of about 250 pieces.

I also finally fulfilled a promise to Jack Kincella and carved a “Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane” for his church. Carving time was 2 hours roughing, 9 hours finish cut, plus 2 hours cleanup and sanding.  Jack will do the finishing.

Jack Kincella – sent me this pic of a table we just completed. I helped with the joinery on the base. Jack did the assembly and finishing. The top has a story of its own. A lady commissioned Dean Lutes to construct a large live edge table and gave him the dimensions. When she saw the top, she didn’t think it was long enough. Dean made her a bigger top and this one languished in his shop for a long time. Jack seems to have a gift for hooking up one man’s excess with another man’s need. Now Jack’s friends, Ron and Fran have the table they’ve been wanting for a long time.

Jim Jolliffe – has been busy as well.

(Picture)
– Two cottonwood bark houses finished with satin lacquer
– Two cottonwood bark Santa’s finished with satin lawyer, acrylic paint and matte spray.
– One cottonwood bark elf and holly finished with satin lawyer, acrylic paint and matte spray.
– One basswood Santa finished with acrylic paint and then dipped in boiled linseed oil.

Seven Nativities were made from persimmon wood. The nativity scene and star were scroll sawn from the “thin” (3/8”) blank and the “thick” (5/8”) back blank was used as the base.  The star was chip carved to provide depth. Each set of three pieces will be finished by the client and then glued together to be used as a mantle or shelf mount in the client’s extended family households.

Jim’s last project is a carved pumpkin that missed the November newsletter.  I showed the picture to a lot of folk but somehow omitted it from the November newsletter.

Judy Bennett – sent me several pictures of her intarsia work. I love these. She makes great use of the wood’s color, grain and thickness to create very realistic scenes. (Pic1, Pic2, Pic3, Pic4, Pic5)

 Loyd Ackerman – says “I didn’t get a lot done in the shop this month.  I was able to finish the clock I started last month.  The piece uses a 3” movement with old fashioned face which appeals to me for some reason.  My original idea was to use a glaze over the lacquer finish but when the finish was done – a coat of sanding sealer plus 3 coats of satin lacquer – the color was sufficient so I didn’t glaze it. 

The face of the clock box is carved with a ring around the clock just using wingding fonts inside two rings.  The 3d carving at the bottom of the face board and in the crown are just clip-art from Vectric’s gallery.  All, of course, done on the CNC machine. 

The cherry applied half columns on the front of the side members are a split turning.  The finials, also cherry, are just a simple turning.

The back of the clock case is plywood.  Two brads embedded at the top of the insert hold the back in and the decorative brass machine screw at the bottom is threaded into the bottom member of the clock case.”

Tom Gillard – Tom relates another hike in the woods –

On the second weekend of November, Paul and I, along with 3 other friends, went on another backpacking adventure, this time to the South Cumberland Recreation Area in Beersheba Spring.  The weather was forecast to be wonderful for the majority of the weekend.   We had two main goals for this weekend:  1: have a good time with friends in the outdoors and 2: Take a side hike in search of the virgin forest that many years ago we had heard existed within the park. These trees are around 400 years old according to the Park service.  

We hiked into the area on a Friday and spent the night amongst the owls, coyotes and the possibility of a bear in the area.  We didn’t see or hear the bear. 

On Saturday morning we packed our day bags and set off up an unmarked and off trail portion of the park.  Once we left the trace of an old logging road the going got VERY rough.  We were walking on a boulder field which was covered with leaves, moss and ferns.  Needless to say, we had to really watch our step or we would go up to our knee between rocks.  We finally got into the area where the trees were located.  In our head we were expecting something like the Redwood forest, but these trees were spread out.  There wasn’t a lot of undergrowth, so the canopy must be pretty dense.  The trees listed in the chart below were the largest ones we saw. 

We didn’t start measuring the height until later, but they were significant. We ate lunch on the edge of the creek that flows through the area before dropping under the rock bed and disappearing.  We spent about 7 hours hiking into the gorge and back to camp that day. 

We spent Saturday night listening to the coyotes again.  On Sunday we got packed up to leave just as the light rain started to fall.  Three hours later as we got to the top of the Great Stone Door the rain stopped.  We changed into dry clothes for the ride back to town.

It was a great weekend and we did get to see some large trees.

Some of the trees we saw:
 Red Oak  13 ft circum  49.7″ dia
Poplar     11’5″ circum  43.6 ” dia
Hemlock  11’2″ circum  42.7″ dia
Shagbark Hickory  8’0.5″ circum  30.7″ dia  9 Toms tall
Poplar  9’7″ circum  36.6″ dia    16 Pauls tall
Poplar  11’7″  circum  44.2″ dia  12 Toms tall

Conversion factors for tree height-
1 Tom = 6.0 ft    1 Paul = 0.9165 Tom

Internet Links of Interest

Several sent me some interesting links:

Larry Bowers – Sent me an email with several pictures of how some folk stack their firewood. They have too much free time on their hands!

Pete Miller – sent me an email regarding the Washington monument. This is not the exact article he sent me, but very similar. We need to be mindful that the constitution does not speak regarding separation of church and state. Rather, it intended to protect our religious liberty from the government. (Not the government from the church.) That aside, the history of the construction of the Washington monument is interesting and worth the read.

I saw an article on organizing your shop at Wood magazine.

TVW YouTube Channel

I have another sad story about this month’s video. Loyd Ackerman was kind enough to deliver a video to me so I could post it this month. I copied it to my computer and gave him back his usb drive. Now I can’t find the file – sigh. I’ll get it straightened out and posted.

Carver’s Corner

The Splinter Carvers continue to meet first and third Saturdays of the month from 8:30 am to 10:30 am (whether Jim’s there or not).  The shop is located at 201 Jolliffe Acres Ln, Tullahoma. Tools and wood are available at the meetings, just bring yourself and try your hand at carving!

Sweeping Up

This month I have one for the men –

And one for the ladies –

That’s all for this month. Watch out for SPLINTERS!

Submissions to the newsletter are more than welcomed. Send funnies, tips, or other content that may be of interest and you may see it in a future edition of SPLINTERS.