Greetings

For the “What I’m Thankful For” series, I’m going to re-plow some old ground. I think one of the first things I wrote about was good friends- especially those in the wood club. During the past several weeks I’ve come to realize how special it is to work with friends of like mind. Several came to my shop a few weeks ago and cut out parts for several bookcases for the Literacy Council. Vince was the job foreman and Paul Jalbert, Jim Joliffe, Mickey Knowles and myself made up the crew. The parts were taken to Henry Davis’ shop for assembly the next week. I was under the weather and stopped by just to see how they were doing. Henry Davis and Larry Wendland were in charge of quality control and Dennis Finney (good man) joined the crew above to assemble the bookcases. So, get together with a fellow club member and work on a project together. Working together turns acquaintances into friends and friends into friends for life.

Now let’s get started with Splinters!

August Meeting

We had a great time at the Annual August Auction. Over $1100 was raised for the club. The proceeds are used to lower the cost of seminars (and dues) as well as helping with community projects.

More info on dues coming at the September meeting.

September Meeting

We will have our next meeting on Tuesday, September 21^st from 6:30-8:30.  Our program will be on segmented turning by Don Farr of Huntsville.

Our Fall picnic will be September 25^th at Fall’s Mill. We will start setting up at 11:00 and eat lunch at 12:00. The club will provide BBQ and drinks and members should bring a favorite side or dessert for a fabulous potluck meal!!
Also, the mill and out buildings/displays (including the “new” schoolhouse) will be open for you to explore!
For directions and more information about Falls Mill, go to https://fallsmill.com

August Show & Tell

Here are the items that were shown in last month’s Zoom/Live meeting. See pictures in the online version.

Carl Blumenthal made a Man Cave stone sign out of sandstone quartzite for the evening’s auction.  This rock was personally quarried by him in Wisconsin and brought to TN. It is sandstone that transformed to quartzite. This rock is sand blasted with Aluminum Oxide sand. This graphic is unique to Carl and the first time he had ever had to do this, in which he had to blast the cave into the rock first which is all backwards from what he usually does. Usually, he blasts the words and stuff into the rock, not the surroundings. Then he had to paint the outside of the rock to give the cave look. After that he had to mask everything off except the TV, man, dish, table, and verbiage. Then he came back and blasted all that and painted it. This rock, after painted, gets washed to get all the remaining sand out of the rock.  Carl noted: To whomever acquires the rock: This rock can go outside or inside since he used a rock and concrete sealer to seal the pores to help prevent freezing water from splitting the rock or chipping out the paint.

Darren Earle showed a ~14” diameter box elder bowl that was initially turned by Tom Church in 2010.  Darren finished it in 2021 and was providing it for the auction.  The beautiful contrast of blond wood with red coloration was evident (again) after Darren turned it down recently. It is finished with paint sealer.

Jeremy Price showed a ~7” diameter cherry bowl that he turned early in his turning experience.  It was finished in Odie’s Oil and Odie’s Wax.

Chuck Taylor showed a maple and cherry music/jewelry box he made for the auction.  It has maple sides and bottom with a cherry lid and splines for the box sides. He finished it with lacquer.

Judy Bennett showed an intarsia flower she created early in her intarsia experience.  She used walnut, and maple for her project and finished it with spray-on poly.

Gary Bennett showed an oak bird house he made for the auction. He finished with poly.

Tom Gill showed turned carver’s mallet made from Black Locust and finished with wax.

Gary Runyon showed a turned, threaded acorn box made of a dogwood base and a cherry top. He also showed a turned, threaded needle box that had a wood-burned and painted flower design. His third piece was a cherry box with a slotted sliding lid.  All three were provided for the auction.

Darrell Albert made a chittum burl dish for the auction and finished it with walnut oil.

Clay Cooper brought a “Happy Campers” sign made of live edge walnut and sand blasted, painted, and sealed by Carl Blumenthal. Clay’s son takes it with him camping.

Jim Jolliffe showed a cottonwood bark Victorian Smiling Santa carving. He sprayed with 2 coats of rattle-can satin lacquer, added acrylic paint highlights and then sprayed it with two more coats of lacquer.

Internet Links of Interest

Wood magazine has a web page that recommends a wide variety of tools that are good quality yet affordable. 

Ever heard of a GRABO? I think I like it!! Check out these Izzy Swann YouTube videos –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNxj8_S4inQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYwtIWYpPvQ&t=605s

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!

Pete Miller sent this carving tip:

and this unique colored pencil “carving:

Sweeping Up

From Pinterest:

From Tom Gillard:

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!