Minutes for July 16, 2013 meeting
of the Tennessee Valley Woodworkers

Vice President Vince Zaccardi called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM.

• Members in attendance: (57)
• Guests: (5) Don Swing, Lincoln Co., Ruth Whittaker, P.J. Hogan, Jacob Hogan, and Don Sellers
• New Members: (2) Pat Murphy, Tullahoma and Charles Miller, Lincoln Co.

Reminders:

• Vice President Zaccardi reminded all guest to sign the guest sheet and pick up a newsletter.

Club events for 2013:

• Annual Club Picnic and Auction at Falls Mill was a great success. Thanks to everyone who helped make it happen.
• 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: Doyle McConnell announced two tours for Sat, July 27. 1) Walter Clements’ very interesting “antique” shop with a variety of 1948 vintage power tools and 2) Falls Mill special insider tour. Meet at 8:00am for breakfast at the Sunrise Café located behind the Co-Op in Winchester.  
• Coffee County Fair will be September 16-21.
• Annual Christmas Party will be December 13.
• Fall Seminar is 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 meets at 1:00 pm on the last Tuesday of the month at the Cowan Artisan Studio. Contact Ron Reimers to confirm meeting.

Carvers Events:

• Meetings are held at Phil Bishops shop the 1^st Saturday of each month.
• Polly Crockett Festival will be September 21-23 in Cowan.
• Huntsville Show will be 1^st week in November.
• Tims Ford Demonstration is Oct 12 from 11am to 4pm. Contact Ranger Josh.

Announcements:

• Vice President Zaccardi 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.
• Membership was encouraged to visit Henry Davis and the Club DVD Library.
• Precision Blade and Tools, owner Doug Walston, has relocated from Morrison to 67 Pine Lane, Altamont, TN. They reopened for business on July 8 and intend to make deliveries to Morrison, McMinnville, and Manchester on Tuesdays and Thursdays of each week. They can be contacted by phone (931) 815-8150, FAX (931) 692-2736, mail P.O. Box 199, Altamont TN 37301, email [email protected], or on the web at www.precisionblade.net. They provide custom-welded Lenox bandsaw blades and other cutting tools at very reasonable prices.
• Master Woodworkers Show will be held in downtown Knoxville Friday through Sunday, Nov 1-3, 3013. This is billed as the premiere show in the Southeast.
• The widow of Kevin Deuermeyer has items for sale, including 8/4 butternut lumber, several clamps, and other items.
• John Mayberry, a long-time member, has passed away.
• Remember Phil Bishop as he deals with health issues.

Old Business

• Dues for the 2013 year are due and payable. Hand your $10 to Bob Addington. What a deal!
• Tools for Sale on the club web page, or contact Loyd Ackerman.

• See Chuck Taylor if your picture has not been taken for the website.

New Business

• No new business

Show and Tell for the July meeting:

• Tom Gillard – showed photos of two matched raised-panel tapered podiums that he built from black walnut for a church client.  He brought the full-size mockup of a side panel and the jigs and patterns he used for cutting the angular components and discussed the problems associated with cutting and fitting the non-square stile and rail joints.
• Jim Acord – showed photos of a blanket chest that he built from white pine and finished with two coats of clear polyurethane. He used red cedar for the bottom and attached a pair of spring-loaded lid supports from Woodcraft.
• Ken Delaney – brought pictures of a sleigh bed that he built from curly cherry using plans that he downloaded from the internet. He found the plans riddled with errors and bad dimensions and had to improvise much of the construction. After rough cutting the many curved pieces from ¾” stock on the band saw, a router and template were used for the final shaping. His finish was wipe-on polyurethane.
• Bob Leonard – brought a wooden knife he made from a variety of wood species, including box elder, yellow wood, red cedar, sycamore, walnut, maple, yellow poplar, mahogany, and more. He used a band saw and an inverted belt sander to cut and shape the multiple parts, and he sometimes found it difficult to precisely match the joint angles with those tools.
• Loyd Ackerman – brought a carved walnut tray he made using a CNC router. The project took around twenty minutes of design time using true-type pattern elements and another twenty minutes for machine setup and operation. It took longer to apply the polyurethane finish than it took to make the piece. Afterwards, examination of the exhaust fan filter shows just how much dust the operation generated and why one should wear a face mask. Loyd previously commented that it takes as long to make a box as it does to make a table. He is now convinced that it takes just as long to make a tray.
• Vince Zaccardi – brought several bottle stoppers that he turned from a variety of woods. His recycled display stand was fashioned from a failed bowl that had come apart in the lathe.
• Jim Everett – brought intarsia panels he made featuring an Arabian horse and a woodpecker. He used mahogany and black walnut for the horse’s body and mane, and he enhanced the background with lighter cedar and wood burning. Jewels were added to the horse’s harness to lend a “touch of class.”
• Bob Addington – brought a CNC carved panel with a jaybird and a rope border that he made from yellow pine. After the carving was complete, he applied a mineral spirit wash to see what a natural finish would look like. He then decided to overcoat the wet surface with a light application of cherry stain. As a result, the grain was raised and the surface that had been smooth following the carving operation became rippled all over.
• Chuck Taylor – brought a small hollow vessel he turned out of apple wood and finished with five or six coats of high-gloss lacquer. He also showed two lacquer finished small bowls turned from ornamental cherry and Bradford pear.
• Larry Wendland – brought a black walnut bowl that he started at the turning bee three years ago. The bowl was finished with multiple coats of lacquer stain.
• Doyle McConnell – brought a wooden sculpture nicknamd “Fibonacci” because of its similarity to the “Fibonacci spiral” from a book published by Leonardo Fibonacci in 1202.  Doyle created the piece by carefully re-sawing and reassembling the curved pieces of a hollow vessel that was turned from a glued-up stack of plywood rings. Based on discussion and recommendations from members of the TVW Club Forum, satin lacquer was applied as the final finish. The piece represents the entire original hollow vessel (except for the shavings and sawdust).
• Reilly Earle – brought a lawn gnome that he carved from basswood. He also showed his first ever inlays, done using basswood, cherry, and quartersawn sycamore. Not bad for his first time to pick up a router.

Program:      Wood Carving,  Presented by Harry May

• President Karen Browning introduced the speaker, Harry May, a longtime member of TVW Club and the Splinter Carvers.
• Harry began by describing the custom-built carving horse that he brought for the demonstration. The horse is a sturdy frame with a comfortable seat. The attached steel carvers vise is commercially available and is designed to hold the work-piece firmly but allow for quick adjustment and repositioning.
• He brought a rather unique sharpening system that he built using a two-pad home floor buffer. The repurposed buffer unit with handle removed was mounted upside down in a plywood box, and the two buffer disks were covered with leather coated with abrasive compounds, one for grinding and the other for polishing.
• He then discussed each of the many carved pieces that he brought and described the type of wood, the tools used, and any special techniques that he applied in the carving. He applies linseed oil to finish most of his carvings.
• The pieces brought for the program included both three dimensional and relief carvings in a variety sizes:
  • Owl and leaves
  • Bear and cubs
  • Porpoise
  • Camel
  • Pocahontas, Powhatan princess
  • Sequoyah, Cherokee scholar
  • Jack Daniel (relief)
  • GEICO gecko
  • Christmas duck
  • Wood spirits
  • Cowboy
• Harry has been carving for a long time and has pieces in Alaska and Denmark.
• He described the specific tools that he prefers to use for various woodcarving tasks and showed examples that he had brought. The “V”-groove gouge is his most used tool (for carving details), while the various sizes of sweeps are used to quickly remove large amounts of wood. He uses a pocket knife to carve eyes, but sometimes uses a double skew for similar work.  
•  His wooden mallet is wrapped with nylon string to reduce noise and to cushion the blows.
• His recommends a short narrow blade chip-carving knife for beginners.
• For his demonstration, he worked on a wood spirit face. He usually carves the face first, after laying out the features with a pencil. He then “knocks off any wood that doesn’t belong”.
• He claims that carving is nothing more than “removing any wood that doesn’t look like what you are working on”.
• The primary safety rule is to “never put flesh in front of the tool”.
• Ashe worked, he described his son who works in Washington as an Aero Engineer and his daughter, a talented artist, who lives in Burns, TN.
• He finished the presentation by inviting anyone who might be interested in getting started in carving to contact him or another Splinter Carver for assistance. He invited everyone to attend the work sessions at Phil Bishop’s shop from 8:30 to 10:00am on the 1^st Saturday of each month. He suggested that the Carvers might set up a class if there is enough interest. 

The meeting was adjourned at 9:25 PM.