Minutes
for May 14, 2013 meeting
of the Tennessee Valley Woodworkers
Vice President Karen Browning called the meeting
to order at 7:02 PM.
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Members in attendance: (57)
- Guests: (1) Carol
Carden, Mulberry, TN
- New Members: (0)
Reminders:
- Vice President
Browning reminded all guest to sign the guest sheet.
Club events for 2013:
- Annual Club Picnic
and Auction is re-scheduled for Saturday June 22 at Falls Mill. For those
who arrive early, the Mill will be open for tours. See the club newsletter
or website for the latest information. Volunteers were requested to help
with drinks, setup, etc.
- Turning Bee date will
be June 8 at Larry Windland’s shop. Lathes/instructors are needed as well as
volunteers to help with setup, etc. Call (931) 563-7445 if you can help.
Driving directions and more details
to follow. Bring a chair and sack lunch. The club will furnish donuts,
coffee, and cold drinks.
- Coffee County Fair
will be September 16-21.
- The TVW Exposition
will be at University of the South in Sewanee Sept 8-15. Contact Dan Maher
to help or sign-up your display items.
- Shop Tours: reserve
Saturday May 25 for tours of Goeff Roan’s shop in Sewanee and Dean Lutes’
shop in Tracy City, followed by a tour of Paul Fults’ new cabin. Meet at
8:30 am for a scrumptious breakfast at the Monteagle Diner, 740 W Main St. A
show of hands indicated that twenty five members would probably participate.
Call Doyle McConnell with any questions. More shop tours are coming up in
the future.
- The June program on
Finishing will be presented by a trio of talented TVW members, Doyle
McConnell, Matt Brothers, and Phil Bishop. Don’t miss it.
- Fall Seminar has been
scheduled for Saturday Oct 19, at Tom Cowan’s Artisan Studio, in Cowan,
featuring the expertise of Ronnie Young and Scott Tinker. The registration
fee includes pastries, coffee, cold drinks and lunch.
- The Flute Circle will
meet at 1:00 pm on Tuesday, June 25th at the Cowan Artisan Studio.
- Christmas Party will
be December 13.
Carvers Events:
- Meetings are held at
Phil Bishops shop the 1st Saturday of each month.
- Cornbread Festival
will be April 27-28 in South Pittsburg.
- Dogwood Festival will
be May 3-5 in Winchester
- Polly Crockett
Festival will be September 21-23 in Cowan.
- Huntsville Show will
be sometime in November.
Announcements:
- Vice President
Browning encouraged everyone to us the TVW Forum. The more participation,
the better the database becomes. Contact Loyd Ackerman if you have trouble
with log-on.
- Ross Roepke has seven
sheets of ½-in walnut plywood to give away. See him if you are interested.
- Membership was
encouraged to visit Henry Davis and the Club library.
- Our sympathy to Chuck
and Martha in the loss of their daughter.
- John Mayberry is not
doing well. Hospice has been called.
- Maurice Ryan is now
at home and doing well.
- Phil Bishop has
health issues.
Old Business
- Dues for the 2013
year are due and payable. Bob Addington reported that sixty-one folks have
not yet paid, amounting to $610 that could be used for club activities.
Where else can you get so much free information and entertainment for just
$10? What a deal!
- See Larry Windland if
you intend to participate in the Turning Bee and have not signed up. Also,
he has maps and directions to get to his shop.
- Tools for Sale on the
club web page and on the meeting room table. Contact Loyd Ackerman.
- See Chuck Taylor if
your picture has not been taken for the website.
New Business
Show and Tell for the February meeting:
Tom Gillard – brought a
dandelion weeder with a new handle that he turned after destroying the original
with his riding lawn mower.
Jim Everett – showed
pictures of items he has made for his back yard including a arbor arch for
honeysuckle, a cedar boardwalk, a lily pond, log planters, barn birdhouses, a
homemade tree for birdhouses, a porch on the back of his shop, and a barn
intarsia.
Ross Roepke – brought a
Carolina wren carving by Tom Anderson that he bought at a craft show.
Doyle McConnell – brought
a walnut finial that he turned and ebonized. He made the ebonizing solution by
soaking 0000 steel wool in vinegar for a week and applying it to the turning.
Jim Van Cleave – pair of
relief carvings, one about a quarter inch deep and the other about three
quarters deep, and discussed the effects of depth on shadows and how they affect
the 3-D illusion.
Allen Odell – brought a
carving bench that he designed and built from engineered beam cutoffs. He added
clamps, hold downs, a power strip and an umbrella to give him a first class
bench.
John Duval – brought a
cedar vessel and a finial that he turned on his new lathe.
Bob Stancil– brought a
bowl that he turned and showed the grain pattern on a cutoff scrap that looks
like the face of Jesus.
Gary Runyan – brought a
shoulder plane that he made from apple wood. The removable nose also allows it
to be used as a bullnose plane.
Bob Addington – showed
pictures of a table he built for the CNC machine that he sold to Richard Gulley.
The table was equipped with storage drawers, shelves, and a special drawer for
the CNC control panel.
Phil Myers – brought a
makeup mirror that he repaired for his wife. He started by turning a new base
from a pine 2x12 and finished with a bit of turning help from Chuck Taylor, a
lot of wood putty, and some reddish primer and clear urethane.
Program:
Reproducing a Thomas Elfe 1750 Double Chest
Presented by Ronnie Young
- The speaker was
introduced by Milner Carden, a longtime friend for 30 or 35 years and and
co-worker of his late brother and TVW member, Jim Carden. “I consider him to
be one of the best.” said Milner.
- Ronnie always made
himself available to help stack lumber after work or on weekends, and he has
built several pieces of furniture for Milner and Jim over the years.
- Tonight’s subject
furniture piece is a Double Chest built by Thomas Elfe around 1750 in
Charleston, South Carolina. The Elfe piece is an almost exact copy of chests
being built in England during that period. Young first saw the piece in the
museum at Colonial Williamsburg and aspired to build it someday.
- Elfe family came to
America from England in the mid 1700s, settled in Charleston, and set up a
high-end furniture-making business there.
- According to speaker
Young, the English were much better craftsmen than American furniture
makers, and the American furniture of the period did not touch what was
being produced by English industry. He feels that the best American
furniture makers were found in South Carolina, not in Boston, Philadelphia,
or other East coast cities.
- The chest and Elfe’s
construction techniques are well documented in two books;
Southern
Furniture 1680-1830: The Colonial Williamsburg Collection (Williamsburg
Decorative Arts Series) by Ronald L. Hurst
and Jonathan Prown and
Thomas Elfe Cabinetmaker
by Samuel Humphrey.
- Young began the
reproduction project by thoroughly researching the original chest and how it
was put together. After studying the information in the books, he made a set
of 8 ½ x 11 sketches, followed by a set of accurate full-size drawings. In
“constructing” the chest on paper in the larger drawings, he was able to
plan all the joint details and find any problem areas before actually
cutting wood.
- Elfe made the
original piece from Santa Domingo mahogany, with black Cyprus as the
secondary wood. Young used Honduran mahogany as the primary wood and
substituted local yellow poplar for the black Cyprus. The project required
twice as much poplar than it did mahogany.
- The piece is
basically “two dovetailed boxes with a bunch of stuff attached sitting on a
base frame” and topped with a scroll. Young found that Elfe also produced
the double chest with a flat top. He emphasized the importance of a strong
base to support the heavy piece and prevent any future sagging.
- Young modified the
base design to include solid two-inch scrolled feet, rather than the
three-quarter inch glued-on feet of Elfe’s original.
- Like Elfe, Young used
cut nails for assembly in places where the fasteners would show. Otherwise,
where the fasteners were hidden by molding, he chose modern square-drive
screws instead of the original nails.
- As in the original,
the drawer fronts were made from secondary wood and covered with
book-matched crotch grain mahogany.
- Reproducing the
fretwork panels that Elfe used around the top of the piece was one of the
most difficult tasks in the project. After several failed attempts, Young
succeeded in sawing the pattern from three-quarter-inch stock and “slabbing”
off the required thin slices with his band saw.
- For attaching the
fretwork panels, glue was applied to a Formica surface and rolled out into
uniform layer. The fretwork was then pressed into the glue, peeled away and
applied to the chest. Elmer’s white glue was used to provide sufficient open
time.
- Authentic brasses and
other hardware was purchased from Ball and Ball Antique Hardware
Reproductions, Exton, Pennsylvania.
http://www.ballandball-us.com/ and from Horton Brasses Reproduction
Hardware, Cromwell Connecticut.
http://www.horton-brasses.com/?link=header Horton is usually cheaper,
but Ball and Ball has a better selection.
- Young turned and
carved the top finial to represent acanthus leaves and a pineapple by
following on-line instruction from Mary May’s School of Traditional
Woodcarving. The site currently provides eighty-one instructional videos for
carving furniture elements, etc. Access is free for the sixteen beginner
episodes, but all other sessions require a membership @ $7/week, $10/month,
or $110/year.
http://www.marymaycarving.com/carvingschool/
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Finally he described his process for achieving an authentic looking finish.
His finishing schedule is copied below from the Society of American Period
Furniture Makers (SAPFM) Peach State
(Georgia) Chapter website,
http://www.peachstatesapfm.info/references.htm
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Sand to 180 or 220 with the last sanding being by hand.
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Dampen the wood surface with a sponge, allow to dry and sand by hand with
180 or 220.
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Using a sponge brush apply a coat of 50% odorless mineral spirits and 50%
tung oil or linseed oil. Keep the surface wet for about twenty minutes and
wipe dry with paper towels.
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DISPOSE OF THE OILY PAPER TOWELS AT ONCE IN A BUCKET FULL OF WATER. THE OILY
TOWELS ARE A FIRE HAZARD!!
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Allow to dry for at least three days in a warm dry environment.
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Lightly sand with fine Scotchbrite pad to remove any raised grain.
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For Walnut, Cherry, and Mahogany, spray on one or two coats of a 2# or less
cut of dewaxed orange shellac.
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Lightly sand with 320 non loading paper.
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Spray on several coats of ML Campbell "dull" lacquer to build up an old
looking finish that does not require
a final rubdown the with 0000 steel wool and wax.