February, 2003

Meeting Information: Sunday, February 23^rd

from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm

Alan Lacer: Skew chisel, lidded boxes, and hooked tools

at   Al Geller’s: see RSVP information below

We welcomed guests Joel Oksner, Bruce Purvine and Bob and Larry Sands at our January meeting.  Joel and Bruce have already joined the club and we look forward to working with all of you this year.  As of 2/7/03 we have 25 members despite losing 3 who have moved out of the county. Past president Dennis Marcus sends his regards from Jerome, Idaho and thanks all those who helped him pack up his shop.  His new shop is almost finished and the electricity should be on soon.  Chuck Stevenson announced he will be away on mission in Mozambique for 18 months teaching and supervising a school.  He is unlearning his Spanish and switching to Portuguese.  He promises to keep in touch by email.   Warren Brown gave a short synopsis of the life of turning legend Bob Stocksdale who died January 6^th at the age of 90.

Many excellent pieces where displayed at our show–n-tell, and Russ Babbitt introduced the idea of being able to ask for a critique of your own work on a volunteer basis.  We then gave Russ the benefit of our collective “vast experience” with the ways we would have changed the beautiful tall hollow form vase he had brought.  I think we all learned from the discussion of the many choices and decisions that go into the design of a piece of art.

After a short break, Al Geller began his discussion of the main topic for this meeting.  He discussed the application of abrasives (sand paper) to smooth out the imperfections left after turning so as to bring out the grain detail in the wood.  Al’s handout and discussion covered choices in abrasive type, power sanding applications, and when to turn the lathe off and sand by hand.  Following a final finish cut with a freshly sharpened gouge, he sands with progressive grits to as high as 1200 for some woods.  He then applies several coats of finish and buffs with Tripoli or White diamond compound to bring out a highly polished surface that displays the beauty of the wood.  We watched as he went through several of these steps in his shop.  By starting the year with the last step in producing a finished turning we now have something to aim for as we cover topics on the other parts of tool use, wood choice, and design during the rest of this year’s program schedule.  Thanks Al for an excellent presentation.

Program Chair Paul Myhre has arranged a demonstration by Alan Lacer for our February meeting.  Note that this is on SUNDAY, February 23^rd and will be all day with lunch provided.  We will start at 8:30 a.m. with registration, coffee, and a mini-meeting.  The demonstration will start promptly at 9:00 a.m. and will run to about 4:30 p.m.  The fee for this special meeting is $25 payable at the door with a check made out to Ron Lindsay or by cash in exact change.   We have limited seating available so only the first 25 who RSVP will be admitted.  Call your RSVP to David Frank as soon as you are committed to attend.  If you are unable to attend please call immediately to remove your name from the list and allow someone from the waiting list to be called.  The demonstration will be at Al Geller’s Home.

Alan Lacer of River Falls, WI is a professional woodturner and a Past-President of the American Association of Woodturners.  He will be demonstrating basic and advanced use of the skew chisel in the morning (his video on the skew will be available for sale).  In the afternoon he is demonstrating lidded boxes and making hooked tools.  Both sessions will be aided with our overhead mirror and also displayed on a TV monitor.  The afternoon session will also be taped for the clubs library.   Take a look at Alan’s web site for more information www.woodturninglearn.net .

Alan says: “The skew has gotten a bad rep. I know of no other tool that evokes such groans and laughs, yet leaves such a superb finish, adds such crispness to the work, or is as versatile as this angled piece of flat steel.”

Next meeting:  Saturday, March 22^nd  Warren Brown on Cyma Bowls

Location David Frank’s

Note that the membership list as of 2-7-03 was included with the email attachment version of the newsletter.  Printed copies will be available at the February meeting for those not getting email.