Author: West Northants Woodturners

The first club evening of 2023 saw Geoff Warr providing the entertainment. His project was an ornamental cat assembled from several turned pieces. The body and head were created as spindle turned items providing the sinuous body shape and the oval head.

The ears were then created and sanded to achieve the final shape. The nose was turned and a cross hole drilled so that the whiskers could be threaded through and trapped when the nose was assembled on the head. The tail was made on a scroll saw and then sanded to a round cross section before fitting to the body with 2 bamboo pins to hold it.

The result was very cute and the demonstration showed that your imagination can produce some very interesting work.

To fill in the last half hour Geoff turned the makings of a femisphere which entailed using a 2 part blank joined by a paper joint. It was then turned to a 2 ended cone and the paper joint split. The 2 halves were to be rotated by 90 degrees to create the interesting shape. If you understood that then I didn’t explain it right. You needed to be there to see it.

The competition table seemed to be dominated by bowls of various shapes and sizes.

3rd Place went to Peter Stanton with his bowl.

2nd place went to Ken Garratt with his oak bowl with a simple pyrography embellishment. 

1st place was Roger Gilbert with his Lignum Vitae salt and pepper pots (the only non bowl items on show).

The evening was conducted by Roger Gilbert who decided to reprise a demo he saw some time ago and create a woodpecker door knocker. This was to be made from several turned items and then assembled.

The first job was to create the woodpecker body whichbhe shaped using a template. The next was to create the main support with a hole drilled though the middle for the string. A striker plate was turned and the birds beak and then a top and bottom cap. Once assembled the project looked like this:-

To use up the remaining time Roger created an off set vase made from an old oak gate post, showing how to contend with the offset and the safety when working this way. He did not get to the point of doing the base but the principles were shown very well.

The December competition was well represented yet again and 3rd place went to Bob Green with the jar.

Second place went to Geoff Warr with his snowmen and angel.

There was a joint first place with Roger Gilbert and his angel and Ken Garratt and the jewellery box.

We had a hands on evening with 2 lathes set up manned by Roger Gilbert and Geoff Warr who guided and instructed several of our members and guests in the art of turning. Mick Denton also ran a separate forum on sharpening tools. All 3 were kept fully occupied and overall the evening proved to be a success with most people gaining some insight in our hobby.

The evenings demonstration was done by Ian George who set out to make a Christmas tree decoration that looked like an inside out turned item but wasn’t. He started with a block of wood and drilled holes through 2 sides using a forstener bit.

These holes made the “windows” of the ornament. The last face was drilled with a hole to suit the tenon in the finials. The block was turned to round and shaped and finials then created to make the final article. For the remaining time of the evening Ian made a snowman with a top hat. All very impressive, the only problem is that no photo’s of the items were taken. Sorry about that.

The November competition table was full with many varied and excellent items.

3rd place went to Dave Simms with his 3 piece band.

2nd place went to Roger Gilbert with his 3 cornered bowl.

There was a joint first place with Ken Garratt’s piggy bank and Colin Humphries table skittles game.

The evening demonstration was undertaken by Bryan Brumfield who made a bowl from a piece of sycamore. The outside of the bowl was completed, sanded and finished in the usual manner. The main focus of the demonstration was to show the use of colour on the rim of the bowl inspired by the work of people such as Mick Hanbury. This part was turned flat then sanded to 240 grit to allow a key for the paint to adhere to. The whole of the top surface was ebonised (spray painted with black colour) and dried using a hair dryer. (Not sure his wife knew it was missing though). Once thoroughly dry 3 “Jo Sonja” iridescent colours were mixed with flow medium and daubed quite thickly onto the black surface in random patterns.

A piece of clingfilm was then place over the paint while it was still wet and was then moved randomly around to produce pleasing colour mix and texture effect. The hair dryer was again employed to dry the paints off. In its wet state it looked white but as it dried the iridescence against the black background started to show. Once fully dry the bowl section was turned out and sanded and finished. The whole bowl was then sprayed with clear acrylic lacquer to give a very impressive result.

It was a very entertaining and inspiring evening.

The demonstrator for the evening was Ken Garratt. During his previous demo he showed some principles of turning green (wet) wood to allow it to dry quicker. This demo is a follow on from that, taking a box blank which was now dry through to a finished box.

The October competition was also run with the table having a nice selection of projects on show.

The results were

1st Geoff Warr with his elephant ornament

2nd Roger Gilbert with a spalted beech shallow dish

3rd Dave Simms with a little box in the form of an acorn on a stand

 

The evenings demonstration was done by Dave Simms with a stylish clock made in several pieces and then assembled.

The first item to be made was the outer ring which was turned out of a bowl blank. The holes for the pins were drilled before finalising the ring dimensions to ensure that the ring did not split or the holes breaking out. The clock housing piece was created from the stub left by the outer ring. Each were turned to a finish and sized such that they left a gap of 13mm. 

Dave then turned the spacer pieces which were drilled to accept 7mm brass pen tubes which act as the support / bearing sections. The end pieces are turned in the same way and a base section turned to support the whole lot. This was then assembled to produce the clock, so overall the evening was of great interest and shows what can be done with a little imagination and ingenuity.

 The September competition table was well subscribed this evening with a varied mix of projects all of which had their merits.

First place went to the mouse by Bob Green.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Second Place went to a cat (there seems to be a theme appearing here) by Geoff Warr.

Third place was a Zebrano bowl by Peter Stanton.

 

The evening demonstration was done by Roger Gilbert who stood in for Richard Coleman who is currently unwell, so our wishes go to him and trust you have a speedy recovery. Roger set about demonstrating the making of a table lamp using the inside out turning technique.

This is where 4 square pieces of wood are temporarily joined together with a paper glue joiint and turned to shape. The joints are then opened and the pieces rearranged at 180 degrees to each other and the glued back together. The blank was previously prepared as the glue must be fully cured and this enabled Roger to complete the form to its final shape.

The final result is a “see through” spindle to make the vertical element of the lamp.

   

The top and bottom solid sections were drilled to accept a brass tube through which the flex would run.

Roger then turned the base and married the 2 pieces together with appropriate holes for the flex to be run to place.

This was an entertaining demonstration which showed a technical piece of turning and construction to best effect.

The evening was a demonstration of rough turning by Ken Garratt. A couple of box blanks were turned ready for drying and after the break a natural edge dish made from branch wood from a Bay tree. The evening finished with a rough turned vase from Laburnum.

Unfortunately the details and results for the August competition were not noted by me at the time. This will be  published when available.

The evening was hosted as a demonstration from one our members, Adrian Finch, who introduced his project as a quaich. This is a traditional Scottish celebratory drinking vessel with 2 handles to allow the drink to be passed around the group. (Unfortunately Adrian did not supply any whisky to pass around).

The project was to create a bowl with a wide brim which is then partially cut away to leave 2 small handles . Sounds simple but was tricky to complete, however, Adrian managed this with great skill even with all of the light hearted heckling and barracking from some of the audience.

                                         

Overall a very entertaining and educational evening and we would hope that it gives some inspiration to the people there. Maybe we will get some quaich’s put in for the August competition table.