Greetings

I have high hopes that 2022 is going to be an improvement over 2021. Not that last year wasn’t an improvement over 2020. There does seem to be some change for the better. I saw a quote the other day to the effect “when I said ‘things couldn’t get much worse’, I didn’t mean that as a challenge.” So, I’m crossing my fingers, praying hard, and hoping for a good year. Let’s get started with SPLINTERS!

December 2021 Meeting

The Super Show & Tell was great! Considering the duress and distress that everybody is going through, it’s amazing that you still turn out such great work.

January 2022 Meeting

We will have our next meeting on Tuesday, January 18^th from 6:30-8:30.  Don Farr will be showing his process for building a grandmother clock.

December 2021 Show & Tell

Here are the items that were shown in last month’s Zoom/Live meeting. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but the “timing” of the Show & Tell Pics has gotten off. When we weren’t meeting, the newsletter described the items for that month. Once we started meeting again, the newsletter described pictures of the items shown the previous month. For example, the Gallery named 2021-12Dec on the website contains the pictures from November. If I can find a way to correct that’s not too labor intensive, I’ll fix it. If not, …

 However, it you view the online newsletters, the links lead to the correct items. Now on to Show & Tell.

Jim Jolliffe showed a Santa ornament, star & moon Santa ornaments, a bark house ornament and a cottonwood bark wood spirit. The Santa ornaments are basswood finished with BLO, acrylic paint highlights and lacquer.  The bark ornament was finished with lacquer and acrylic paint highlights.  The wood spirit hair and beard were sprayed with lacquer.  The face remained natural.

Larry Wendland showed a spalted birch serving tray finished with wipe on poly.  He also showed several highly colored box elder turnings from wood he gathered in Wisconsin and finished with wipe on poly.

Chris Sautter showed one of 14 “tanto style” pencil boxes he made out of cherry for his grandkids.  He went to a local trophy shop to get laser etching applied to the lids.  The boxes hold 12 colored pencils and have a “secret” compartment that the kids enjoy!  The boxes are finished in Danish Oil. Chris also showed one of 12 cutting boards he made from cherry, walnut, and maple “cutoff” pieces. The boards were finished with Walrus Oil.

Mickey Knowles showed bowl he made from butternut with walnut and pine laminated strips that were both horizontal (aligned with the bowl edge) and vertical through one half of the bowl!  The inspiration was from a bowl he saw 7-8 years ago.  It turned out beautifully.  He finished the bowl with sanding sealer and lacquer.  Mickey showed “inverse turned” tulips that begin with 3.5” square by 13” long blocks.  He used maple and walnut for the flowers and colored them with artisan dyes. The stems were made from dogwood.  The flowers were finished with Minwax. Mickey also showed two different tops he made.  One has a ball bearing that spins for a LONG time!  His other top, without a ball bearing, still spins well. (Picture)

John Hartin brought something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue to show.  Something old was his paternal grandfather’s draw knife that was forged from a wagon box bolt to become the drawknife.  The village blacksmith forged the blade! You could see one end of the knife still had the threads from the wagon box bolt!

Something new was a wooden cross that symbolized the new life one can gain through Jesus Christ.

Something borrowed was a turned, lidded box from a North Carolina woodturner John met at the John C. Campbell Folk School.  The lid’s knob and box bottom was made of cherry. The lid was made of pear wood.  The lid had coffee grounds as dimensional treatment.

Something blue was a Scandinavian “blue spalted” maple spoon.

Paul Jalbert showed a pair of bi-planes he made from patterns in the Great All American Wooden Toy Book.  He made the two identical planes from cherry with acrylic paint highlights and finished in Danish Oil.  Because they are identical, he included unique tail numbers for each of them.

Henry Davis showed an antique cherry magazine rack he made in 1954 as a high school sophomore in wood shop!  The rack had survived well.  He was unsure of the finish applied some 67 years ago.

Darren Earle showed a beautiful, large turned and bleached maple bowl.  The source of the wood was a tree that had been dead, standing for 30 years!  The lesson he learned was that the depth of the bowl drives tool stability challenges.  The tool flexes when far away from the tool rest and can break under the turning stress!  The “win” was that the bowl turned out smooth and round.  He applied a shellac finish.

Gary Runyon showed a curly cherry “cricket table” with three triangular drop leaves.  The table would allow the user to carry the table to the cricket match and set up to enjoy tea or other beverages during the match.  He applied Minwax Antique Oil finished and thought that would work for this end table.  He noted there were spots on the top due to “dog drool” he didn’t anticipate when placing the table next to the couch where his dog liked to rest!  He plans to try to improve the finish and seal it differently to protect it from the dog.

Dave Duesterhaus showed an etched Plexiglas sign in the shape of a circular saw blade that read “Pawpaw’s Workshop” on the top half of the blade and “Measure, Cut, Cuss, Repeat” on the bottom.  The Plexiglas also had a saw, hammer and chisel etched in it and was illuminated by color LED lights.  The center was mad of maple and had a hand plane outline in it.  His son made it for him as a Christmas gift.

Bill Guffey showed a few gifts he made this year.  He showed a bowl, and a salt & pepper set made from 150 year old white oak that fell on the family home place.  The bowl was made of crotch wood and he used coffee grounds to fill in small cracks. He also made a magnifying glass with a walnut handle.  All were finished with lacquer.

Jeremy Price showed several bowls he turned.  One was made from spalted maple sourced from his great grandparents’ home place located at the Twin Creeks marina area.  He harvested 13 bowl blanks from the downed tree.  The finish on this bowl was Odie’s Oil and Odie’s Wax.

Jeremy also showed a cherry bowl, a catalpa bowl/vase and a walnut bowl.  The walnut was provided by Darren Earle.

Richard Gulley showed a couple of caricatures that he started with in his original “wood shop” that consisted of 4 pocket knives!  He carved “Ma & Pa”.

Richard showed his Christmas gift to himself which was a Festool palm sander.  He noted the vibration was virtually non-existent compared to others he has used.  He said that comfort allowed him to sand for hours without hand fatigue!

He showed a drying rack/casserole dish holder he fashioned.  He wasn’t sure of the proper orientation, so decided to leave an engraved name off the rack/holder as it may be upside down depending on the use!

He also showed a “transitional” hand plane which is approximately the size of a #4 plane.  He made a new cherry body and handle and conditioned the metal and sharpened the blade.

Reilly Earle showed a 2’ by 2’ floor panel with a Celtic Knot inlay pattern of ambrosia maple and walnut.  He scroll sawed the knot pattern which resulted in the desired panel and its mirror-image from the waste wood!  The installation looked great!

Internet Links of Interest

Here’s a simple safety tip from Fine Woodworking in video format. Simple, but could be effective.

https://www.finewoodworking.com/2022/01/05/safety-speed-bumps 

 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

I found these Peanut cartoons on Pinterest. The quotes probably aren’t from Charles Schulz, but I think they’re relevant.

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.