TVWW

Meeting 12/21/21

Meeting called to order by President Carl Blumenthal at 6:30 PM.

Carl welcomed all those online and to those present in UTSI’s H-111 Conference Room to our November combined in-person and online Zoom Meeting.  We appreciate UTSI’s generosity allowing the club to use H-111 and their broadcasting capability.

We had two visitors.  TVW Member John Hartin introduced Jay Reynolds.  Joetta Sautter introduced herself.  She is the wife of TVW member Chris Sautter.

Officers and Committee Reports:  Vice President & Program Chair Gary Runyon noted tonight’s  Program will be “TVW Member Super Show and Tell”.  He noted that Don Farr will present a program on Making a Grandmother Clock in January.  Gary requested members email him any future 2022 program ideas to deertracefarm@gmail.com.  He noted that programs don’t necessarily need to be from local folks due to the ability of Zoom to connect us with anyone around the world!

The 2021 Calendar has come to a close.  The 2022 calendar was presented and is correct with monthly general meeting dates and first and third Saturday Carving meetings as well as the UTSI & Zoom annotation for the monthly meetings.  We will work to schedule leads and special events during the January meeting. The special event leads will need to discuss the timing (if at all) of holding special events and update the calendar accordingly.

Jim Jolliffe announced a tentative slate of 4 of 7 club officers.  He showed:

President – Jim Jolliffe, Vice President – Gary Runyon, Treasurer – Darren Earle, Secretary – Open.  After much discussion, Joe Ferrarro volunteered to support the Secretary position that he has held previously.  Richard Gulley moved the nominations be closed and the slate elected as proposed.  John Hartin seconded.  The club voted all officers in by acclamation.

Please note:  Three other officer positions required filling with incumbents or new folks.  The three officer positions and their incumbents are:

Newsletter Editor Chair – Richard Gulley, Membership Chair – Chuck Taylor, and Publicity Chair – Michael Layfield.

These positions will be filled at the January 18^th meeting.

We had a festive December Christmas Party!  Chairman Karen Browning and her crew did a fantastic job of providing the ham and soft drinks in a beautifully decorated location at the Decherd Church of the Nazarene. The club members brought delicious sides/desserts to share.  We had plenty to eat coupled with blessed fellowship.  Members sang Christmas Carols under Santa’s (Richard Gulley) leadership.  Each attendee got a custom-made ornament to take home to their trees.

Gary Bennett made a “public service announcement” to the club membership.  He and his wife Judy had major damage to the trees on their property.  It is going to be $35,000 or more to have the trees and root balls removed based upon estimates!  He encouraged any of the club members to bring their chainsaws, trucks and trailers to harvest all the wood they want!  Much of it is red oak.  Gary and Judy live at 667 Motlow College Rd, Wartrace TN 37183.

Once the general meeting announcements concluded we moved to the Super Show & Tell portion of the evening.

Super Show and Tell (all photos are posted on the website):

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.

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 “transitional” hand plane which is approximately the size of a #4 plane.  He refinished the wood body 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!

Meeting adjourned at 7:45 PM. Our next meeting is on Tuesday, January 18^th  at UTSI’s H-111 Conference Room (our standard meeting location).  We hope to see you all there or on Zoom!  The January Program will be “Making a Grandmother Clock” by Don Farr.