January Meeting of Tennessee Valley Woodworkers

1/15/02

There were 72 people present at the meeting. Meeting was called to order by Bob Leonard at 7:00 PM.

VISITERS: There were nine visitors and they were Lowell W. Johnson, Bob Caudill, Ed Roworth, Joel and Michele Shaver,Judy Babb, James Kemp and family, Larry Shockly, Don Powers and the presenter David Duggin.

ANNOUCEMENTS: Bob Leonard said that Ben Whiteaker has had a stroke and is in the rehab. in Nashville.

Don Helton was back with us at this meeting.

Ken Gould announced that he had purchased a new lathe and had his Sears Craftsman up for sale. It is one made by Rigid and he has a table and many accessories that will go with it. He has $400.00 in it and will sell it for $175.00

Matt Brothers announced that he knew someone that had a whole shop’s worth of Spunger equipment for sale such as band saw, joinery equipment, table saw and much more. It is 50-era equipment and most have had motors replaced.

Carter Harvey stated that a friend had unfinished oak varying sizes for sale.

Phil Bishop said that he knew someone that had a 1000-foot of cypress barn wood for sale some good and some in bad shape.

Ross Roepke brought in some spindles for anyone that wanted them.

Bob Leonard bought some wood at Bennys and passed it around in hopes that someone could identify the type of wood it was.

NEW BUSINESS: Bob Leonard stated that the executive meeting was held the prior Tuesday and that joinery would be our theme for this year. He also stated that since John Green had left the club we no longer have anyone for providing the monthly refreshments. He passed around a sign up sheet for each month for someone to provide the refreshments. Bob mentioned that he had visited the new Woodcraft store in Knoxville and stated it was very nice and had a good selection of merchandise. Bob told the members that the executive committee had decided to give a door price every month with a value of about $10.00. He had several of the prizes with him and they were a skill saw blade, hearing protection and a level. The tickets for the drawing were not brought to this meeting so will draw for 2 prizes at next month’s meeting. He also informed the members that we would be giving away a large prize at the Christmas party like we did last year with all the same rules. He passed around the sign up sheet for this. The executive board came up with 4 possible gifts, which were portable drill, mini lathe, rotor and mortising machine. The members voted as to which of the 4 the most members wanted. The portable drill got zero votes, the mini lathe got 27 and the rotor got 4, with the mortising machine getting 12 votes. The prize will be a mini lathe. We will have a spring seminar on April 20th featuring refinishing of antiques. We will have a fall seminar in October on joinery. There will also be a turning "B" and a carving workshop again this year. The picnic will be at Falls Mill this year on June 22nd. The Christmas part will be December 6th.

SHOW AND TELL:

John Mayberry brought in 2 turned bowls made out of cherry. John also brought in a piece of Walnut that had been sawed in half by a sawmill and it had a walnut imbedded in it, the walnut was cut perfectly in half in each piece. He finished it and put hinges on it so it closed with the 2 halves of walnut facing each other. Ross Roepke brought in a stool made out of Mahogany in the shape of a fiddle. Henry Davis brought in knee from an English Pub table and the piece he was making to match it and replace the missing knee. Loyd Ackerman brought in a segmented bowl and cover. He stated that when you figured out the proper angles they had to be precise when you cut them. The bowl was made out of Walnut, Cherry and Slippery Elm. This was his first attempt at making a segmented bowl and it took him 2 days to complete it.

We had a break at 7:30 and Phil Bishop provided refreshments. Thanks Phil.

PROGRAM:

Doyle McConnell introduced David Duggin from Woodbury. David is an antique dealer by appointment only. The antiques that he handles are Southern and primary Tennessee antiques. There are 4 types he handles and they are:

Chippendale made between 1780 to 1810. The Chippendale furniture can be recognized by its dove tails, applied straight bracket or ogre feet

Heppelwhite: 1810-1820. Has a French foot. Uses dovetails in it’s construction. Usually has shaped apron and uses contrasting veneers and oval inlays. It sometimes has quarter fans. Uses brass oval and later ones uses round. Has flared foot and lots of inlay.

Sheraton: 1820-1830. Case has more upright pegging. Backs set in frames and sides are paneled raised to inside. Has no inlay. Turned inside leg continues from post not applied. Pinning is typical.

Empire: 1830-1860 has columns and stepped top drawer. Deep drawer at top and graduated too small drawers. Heavy looking furniture. No inlay and uses lots of fancy veneers. Heavier pulls and sometimes sandwich glass knobs. Construction similar to Sheraton but heavier. Backs beveled panels set in frame.

Transition Pieces: These are pieces that do not fit into only one category. They combine several of the features of the 4 types.

When antique dealers talk about in the black they are referring to the Cobol varnish which is the original varnish of some pieces. Do not remove this since it will take away from the value of the piece.

Ladder-back chairs such as he showed a picture of can still be picked up for $25-40 and are a good value. They should have a hickory seat and are made out of hickory and maple.

David had us look at slides of pieces of furniture and try to figure out which of the 4 types of furniture it was.

To determine age of a piece you should look at the joinery and the early pieces should use dovetails or be square nailed. Look for hand plane marks, which will show up as waves or dip on drawer bottoms and back. Measure diameter of shafts and there should be some distortion if it is really old.

Jackson press should have both top and bottom a like and plane marks should look the same. Hardware should all be the same and panel doors the bevels should be same on both the top and bottom. Should have the same type of joinery top and bottom. If it does not have all that is listed above it has probably been married and will not be worth as much.

Restoration: Save what you can of original, if a part is broken such as bottom of a leg, do not replace whole leg, only the damaged part. Use Shellac for repair of old pieces. He said he would repair mouse eaten drawer damage.

He showed pictures of a Sugar Chest, which has dividers in it, for the storage of sugar that came in cones or cakes. Drawers were thought to be used for ledger of sugar use. Always could be locked since sugar was quite valuable in that period.

 

Slab stand or hunt boards were used to eat at standing up and were about 40 inches tall, They had deep drawers for bottles. He showed a lazy susan table that he said was very old and rare.

The meeting ended at 9:15 PM.