February 2020 - Comp 5
Spindle & Face Plate Turned

Turned piece(s) comprising of elements of cross-grain turning
and along-grain turning in each completed piece.

TABLE  A

TABLE B

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A pleasing number of entries for Table B with some of the photos above needing some description to appreciate their superb work :-
David Hamilton's barley twist candle holders are more than 24 inches high;
Joe Van Wyk's submission comprised of a piece of Wellingtonia and has a dual function - an egg holder as in the photo above but converts to a cake stand when turned over;
Alan Brooks had produced a watch stand;
and John White's split turned piece would be turned over to reveal a flat brass hanger for fitting against a wall.

February 2020 - Appraisal Table
with Paul Reeves

Vic Russell had brought a hollow form out of spalted Birch with an attractive geometric design for the top half obtained using a pyrography pen. Paul commented that like all good hollow forms, this has matt black paint sprayed internally & a hole too small for a finger to find out how smoothly the woodturner had finished the inside! Having shown us his self-made ball turning tool last month, Vic latest example is a 5" wooden globe which required many hours of sanding away the dark stain of the continents that had strayed outside of the pyro-ed coastlines. His third exhibit was a carver's mallet, which looked so pristine that most would be reluctant to use it for fear of marking such a handsome piece.

Bill Peach's Three Legged Bowl had been intended to be entered into the competition but had been misplaced on the table (for which the Organisers profusely apologise to Bill) and as acknowledgement, is now proudly shown below.

Grain & colour of John Bolt's 3" high ancient Phoenician-like Helmets were beautifully enhanced by buffing and spraying with gloss laquer.

Rick Patrick's shiny 'Banana Bowl' in cherry highlighted the sharpness of the natural edges, which can so easily be rounded off when sanding, particularly so with the lathe turning.

January 2020 - Appraisal Table
with Paul Reeves

Following last month's demonstration of Podlet Turning with John Bolt, there were several members who had tried their hands with impressive results.

Ian McClure had been the most prolific and had shown that he had definitely mastered natural edges.
Vic Russell had augmented his Podlet with a eye-catching paint job within the 'petal'
and pleasingly, several relatively new to turning were tempted to not only have a go, but also put them up for appraisal.

 

Jerry Lewis had brought in several A4 sized pictures from pyrograph & water colouring natural wood; (apologies but no worthy photos available for here).
The processes of producing a pewter topped bowl of Allan Rae were explained;
as were David Hamilton's scorched & coloured chestnut pieces.

When inspecting each others work, it seems the first instinct of all woodturners is to turn the piece upside down. A Japanese rice bowl design of Terry Miles raised the consideration of deepening the hollowed out base to follow the outside curve of the bowl and Nick Jazwinski's crotched natural edge bowl highlighted the difficulty of keeping the edge an even thickness when working with a very steep sided design.

A wood not often seen at the Club is Alder which Paul commented that he was impressed that his bowl hadn't moved or shrunk significantly.

Finally, Vic Russell had made himself a bespoke ball making tool, so exquisitely machined & finished, it must have taken many days to make. The results were just as outstanding. (I could have said "awesome" but I think we are probably too old for that kind of talk!).

December 2019 - Appraisal Table
with Graham Turner

This month's theme was Members' Christmas decorations and Tea Lights.

John Bolt & David Game had brought out their stock of Christmas Past & Present.

David Hamilton had used a bottle cutter to form his Bottle & Light ornament without any sharp edges. With the bottom section removed and an accurately turned base, it was a very effective ornament.

Following on from last month, Clive Potter made use of some of the 24 metal tea light holders (discovered hidden away in his loft) with the help of some Boxwood branches and other off cuts decorated with fallen fir cones.
Graham highlighted that if one wants to sell tea lights with naked flames to the general public, it is now a requirement to have a glass or metallic liner between the tea light & the wooden surround. Of course, LED powered lights are an alternative around this safety consideration.

Also following on from last month, Andy Ogilvie has spent another few evenings working on a Holtzapfel Ornamental Lathe to produce an intricately decorated napkin ring.  This version divided each segment into eight, but Andy reckons that by dividing each into twelve, although there would be four more parts of a segment to complete, the cutter removes so much less wood that the total time would be significantly less.  I guess in days of yore when His Lordship required 24 of them, it was well worth considering!

Humour in wood turning is always welcomed at The Club and Andy's contribution was a 'great hit'.

TABLE  A

TABLE  B

November 2019 - Appraisal Table
by Paul Reeves

It was in sadness to say farewell to Ed Walker, who will have moved away by the next meeting. He has been an enthusiastic contributor & demonstrator with several years as Table A Champion and the entire Club wish him and his family well 'up North.' He brought in a few of his previous works; an open lattice bowl constructed from a 3" cube of wood, which he cut into small square logs & painted black before glued together, put into a bowl of water into a freezer and finally mounted the icy block onto a lathe to turn out the bowl below. His other piece this month was an imaginative use of coloured tea lights within Christmas Trees.

Allan Rae has taken a shine to working with resin with his penny bowl below. He also has been incorporating Milliput (an epoxy putty) in another bowl, which coincidently John Bolt had used in his geometric platter.

Andy Ogilvie continues to renovate and get to grips with an ancient Holtzapfel Ornamental Lathe belonging to a Club Member and has managed to decorate a miniature Christmas Tree complete with engraved baubles and also decorated the small box below.

Clive Potter has been tidying out his loft space and found 60 pieces of metal cutlery bought for a song years ago, but waiting for wooden handles to be turned. He's nearly finished them but has now found 24 metal tea light holders needing wooden bases!

Following Nick Gosden's piece for the September 2019 Plywood Competition, Nick has now produced this fine piece.

October 2019 - Appraisal Table
by Paul Reeves

Following Liz Kent's demonstration, John Bolt & Paul Reeves showed their 'Dragon Bowl' designs.  Whereas Liz had used four different tools, Paul commented that using just one tool (eg 80 grit disc) could achieve the same outcome. John Bolt had made use of iridescent colours, which augmented the finished effect. The edge of the inner bowls were also different.

When there is a lot of white in an oak bowl, it is normally just about to fall apart, hence Paul's description of 'mouldy' oak. David Patrick had managed to turn his just in time.

Andrew Fairfax had sourced some oak from France.

Rick Patrick had completed a commission asked of the Club for a Crown Bowl to be turned into a Keepsake Urn.

Other Members' work:

September 2019 - Comp 3
Working Plywood

TABLE  A

TABLE  B