There were 62 people in attendance and Doyle McConnell called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM.

VISITORS: There were 2 guests. They were Jake Reddekopp and Addison J. Kemp and they joined the club after the meeting. We also had a new member Ed White at the club meeting.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Doyle announced that he had a nice turn outs for his dovetail work shop and that he will try and finish them up this Saturday.

Hugh Hurst said the spring seminar will be April 26^th starting at 8:00 AM and should be finished by 3:00 PM. It should be a very good seminar with Gary Runyon, Doyle McConnell and Bob Reese contributing. The seminar will be held at Franklin County High School. (To get in use the back door by the stadium.)

The picnic and auction will be held at Fall Mills on May 24^th starting at 4:00 PM. (Come earlier if you want to go on a tour of the mill.) Doyle asked that more handcrafted items be brought to auction off.

Henry Davis said his workshop on joinery, making a plant stand, would be starting soon. You should see him to arrange to attend one of the workshops. Tom Gillard will provide wood for the planter if you need some or you can bring your own. Henry is also helping a friend get rid of her husband’s woodworking tools. He will get a date from her when people could come and see them.

Loyd Ackeman and Richard Gulley have been adding items to Webb site and invite everyone to log in and enjoy it. Try out the bulletin board. It is a good communications device. Richard will set up a workshop on how to use the Webb Site if any of the members would like one.

CoCo in Madison is having a shop and swap trade tools etc. on Saturday in their parking lot. It is in the Madison Square shopping Center.

OLD BUSINESS: None.

NEW BUSINESS: The fair board has offered to let us build a building on the fair grounds, with them supplying the wood. It could be 16x24 and we could use it anytime we want for seminars or what ever. Doyle will be looking for volunteers to help put it up.

The list was passed around for signing up for the Tormek door prize to be given away at the Christmas party.

Tom Cowan made a table out of quarter-sawed Mahogany, which he also designed. He scratched a bead around it and textured the balls on the legs. He said it had lots of elements of William and Mary incorporated in it. It was stained with a mix of red oak and cherry. He finished with lacquer.

Loyd Ackerman made a spalted Maple bowl that he bleached and he finished with a water base finish. The water based seemed to keep it from getting a yellow cast. He also turned a bowl from Box Elder and bleached it also and put on a water base finish.

Steve Shores showed pictures of a fireplace he made with burl inlaid out of Red Oak.

Kelly Clark made a hot dish carrier out of Maple with Walnut handles and stained with Colonial Maple.

Bob Lowrance sent his wife to get some wood at WoodCraft and she came back with a book on carving birds and another on carving faces. He showed the Wren and a face that he had carved out of Basswood.

Billy May showed a bear he had carved out of Basswood and used shoe polish to color it. He also showed a carving of the head of Geronimo made out of White Walnut with a Black Walnut base.

Russ Willis showed a Mandolin case that he made out of Cherry.

Hugh Hurst spent the winter in South Texas where he wanted to get some Mesquite wood. He finally got some and he turned a natural edge bowl out of some of it. He said bark stays on it very well. He turned a bowl out of ornamental Cherry. He also turned one out of Maple with a different shape to it, which he likes. He turned a Walnut one with the same basic shape and finished with Lacquer.

Ross Roepke made 3 crosses out of Popular and Walnut to be used at church for Easter.

Mary Ellen Lindsay carved a relief carving out of New England white pine. It is a picture of two trout and she used colored pencils to put the color in it and sealed with Polyurethane.

Loyd Murphy turned a vase out of Bodock. He made 3 vases and sprayed them with Deft Lacquer.

David Jacobs made a blanket chest, which he lined with Cedar and the front is out of 15-inch board of Black Walnut. He went to Doyle's dovetail workshop and the joints on the blanket chest were dovetails.

Doyle McConnell cut some burl that he had and made book matched pieces 4 ways and he has some more pieces that are book matched that he gave as door prizes.

Bob Leonard got a piece of Red Oak firewood and it was figured so he used it for a wooden knife. He got the wood from Doyle's firewood pile.

PROGRAM: Ken Gould introduced Jeff Roehm from Roehm Guitars. Jeff presentation was on Craftsmanship and guitars. He quoted several people about what is worth doing is worth doing well. He showed a sign that was commercially made but looked like a very good craftsman made it. A craftsman made the machine that made it by hand. He also showed with the sign a guitar and a ukulele and a broad axe. He asked which of these items exhibited the highest degree of craftsmanship and which took the longest to make and which was the most valuable. The sign was done on a C and C machine that took two years to make and the sign made with it took only 7 `1/2 minutes to cut. The C&C machine was all hand made and was made extremely accurate to a 1000 of an inch precision. Craftsmanship behind what appears to be craftsmanship. The guitar took 60 hours to make and he designed and made it himself. Mike Longworth who has since passed away made the ukulele. He rediscovered how to inlay and the inlay on the ukulele took 70 hours. The broad axe he has no idea how long it took to make but he would venture to say that the person that made it was an absolute master craftsman. (Folded steel like a Samurai Sword) He made the handle and it is off set two ways. Usually it is a tool that is used to rough-hewing. He uses it for shirring the wood and it leaves a very smooth surface. Taste has a lot to do with what you like. You need some sort of standard to measure craftsmanship by. How much time it takes to crafts something does not necessary mean the longer it takes the better it is. Craftsmanship is not tool, time or the materials you use but has more to do with the intent of the persons making it, the persons buying it and how close the product meets the expectations of maker and buyer. There are many different types of craftsmanship so it is hard to define it. Jeff made a jig that was an elegant solution for gluing his boards together and keeping them dead flat. With this jig he made which, is made with strings and wedges, and dirt cheap to make he can make them fast and flat and also stack them. He can do 10 to 15 an hour with is elegant solution. He also found a way to facilitate inlaying abalone around the sound hole in the yoke. The Abalone is broken a part and put into the circle he made with super glue. Reconstituted Abalone is called abland. The sound hole rosette is made in a log mold. He makes one piece and than pattern route them and stack them up. The mould takes 1 ½ -2 hours to make. He makes solid lining not kerf type. He learned a lot of different things by experimentation. He found the solid lining to be cheaper, easier and faster to do than kerf lining. You have to be willing to think differently to experiment and come up with different ways of doing things to be able to save time and money in the long run. Holly and Sassafras are two types of wood that bend easily. He made a bender to do the solid linings with. Uses a heat blanket on it. It heats all of the wood at the same temperature and time. It is very fast to do and takes about 3 minutes for a ukulele side. He thinks of craftsmanship in terms of hitting a preset target.

He wants the fastest most efficient way of doing his craft. Sometimes our egos are involved in what we do but he does not involve himself in ego trips. He met Frans Kinberg in Chicago and as he was talking to him Fran was carving on a violin that he was beveling an angle on. In one pass Fran peeled off the bevel like you would peel an apple while he was looking at Jeff. Jeff does not conform to someone else’s opinion of his craft and just gets involve for the process instead of the product. The process is every bit as important as the product. Craftsmanship is partly individual and also what we as a society demand as quality. Standards are not necessary obvious.