SPLINTERS
Tennessee Valley Woodworkers
     Vol. 18/ Issue 8         August  2003        Editor: Tom Gillard Jr. 

Meeting Notice:
The next meeting of the TN Valley Woodworkers
Will be held, August 19th, at 7:00 p.m. in the
 Duck River Electric Building, Dechard, TN
All interested woodworkers are invited!

The following people have agreed to serve as contacts for their particular skills.  If you have questions, suggestions for activities, or other comments relating to these skills, please call these folks.  Their interest is to help the club better serve their area of expertise.  Your participation with them will help them achieve that goal.

          Design: Alice Berry                       454-3815                 Finishing:    Phil Bishop           967-4626
          Turning: Tom Church                    967-4460                 Carving:      Harry May           962-0215
          Sharpening: Bob Reese                 728-7974                 Joinery:       Ross Roepke       455-9140
          Health and Safety: Maurice Ryan   962-1555

September 22 thru 27 -- Coffee County Fair.  TVWW has a building in the Morton Village section of the fairgrounds.  Morton Village is behind the livestock barn and the main arena area.  We will be exhibiting and demonstrating there during the week but will have a concentrated effort on Friday and Saturday (26,27th). There is talk of there being some turning classes during the week.

Robert (Bob) Petry and Brian and Ben from McMinnville.

During biblical times, Solomon sought thuya for his temple. Today, workers still seek its burls.
According to the scribes of ancient Rome, woodworkers considered precious the wood thuya (Tetraclinis articulata). Even in 100 B.C., Marcus Tulius Cicero, a noted Roman statesman, paid 300,000 denarii (about $60,000) for a table made from this native wood of Morocco and Algeria’s Atlas Mountains.
However, thuya’s premium price was no doubt attributable to Solomon, who ruled Israel about 800 years before Cicero lived. To augment the Lebanese cedar in his new temple, Solomon sent axmen to Northwest Africa to seek exciting wall material. There they discovered the greatly figured and fragrant thuya, or thyine wood, as it’s called in the Bible. Solomon’s laborers cut great quantities, setting thuya’s popularity–and demand–for the following centuries.
Thuya, a type of cypress, never grows very large. At best, it attains a 50' height and develops a 1' -diameter trunk that’s very often twisted. Its yellowish brown to red heartwood, though, always has desirable figure and works easily to a smooth finish.
Today, little thuya wood leaves its native land in board form. Instead, workers dig beneath the ground to retrieve the tree’s root burls. These are sliced into thin, bird’s-eye figured veneers for marquetry and custom furniture. It seems that the root of the thuya tree has a tendency to copice (develop new sprouts) under-ground. Where these sprouts die off, a beautiful burl always forms.
Illustration: Jim Stevenson (WOOD On-line)

Stones River Woodworkers Club will meet at the Farm Bureau Insurance Building, 818 S. Church Street (Highway 231) Murfreesboro, TN at 7:00 PM.  The Stones River Woodworkers will have their Aug. meeting on 8/26/03.
This month's speakers presenting the program will be Representatives from General Industrial Supply. They will bring down some of their equipment for demonstrations and will discuss the products and services they offer.

Harry Hodge, Stones River Woodworkers Club

Bob Beswetherick brought in a Mandolin he built that he thought had a real good sound quality.  It had a Spruce top and Pudock in the neck and the rest of it was made of Popular.  He wanted to make a Mandolin with a pearl type finish and he used finger nail polish thinned with acetone for the coloring and he finished it with tung oil.  It had a Western red cedar top and the top and back were made out of 4 pieces of wood matched.

Newt Wright brought in a clock that was started with a kit and than he dressed it up by carving chips and dots on it and he also installed some inlay, which he built a router plate to be able to do the inlay work.

Dean Lutes turned a vase out of cedar and a bowl out of dogwood.  He also made a cross for a local church out of Dogwood.

Bill Davis made a Walnut CD holder out of Black Walnut and tried staining the sapwood to make the color even through out the holder.  He also cut out an UT symbol out of Cherry and put it on the end of the holder.

Marion Riley made a cabinet out of Black Walnut with a catch made out of Apple.

Harry May carved an Indian face out of Catalpa wood.

Doyle brought in his joiner blades to show what could happen when you try to use the joiner on crotch wood that had metal buried in it.  He also showed a vase he made out of Box Elder and he filled voids with clear epoxy that had graphite and filler in it.  It made black filler for the voids.  He turned it rough first and than filled the voids and than finished turning.

Tom Cowan showed a large turned Black Walnut bowl that was turned out of some very beautiful wood.  He put one coat of oil on it.  It was turned on Loyd Ackerman’s lathe since it was too big for his.

Jeff Roehm showed us his new toy, which was a rotor jig, which makes dovetails, sliding dovetails, mortis and tendon.  The rotor slides back and forth and up and down.  The bottom moves the wood back and forth so it works like a poor mans milling machine.  The Wood Rat People make it in England. He’s had it about 1-½ years and he likes it and this way he does not have to have a different jig for each different project he does.

Dave Whyte is back from his illness and we welcome him back.  He made a jig for making large ovals and a smaller one for making smaller ovals and this one is made out of Walnut.  He also made a jig for making stiles and can adjust it to use on any table saw.  It has hold-downs on it and the end piece moves in and out dependent on size of wood you are using.  He showed another jig that is used for cutting circles on the band saw.  He also made a jig for using when cutting small pieces to be used for inlay material so you do not cut your fingers.

Ken Gould brought in a bowl he turned out of a piece of Branford Pear and as it is drying it is created a unique pattern on it.  He made a toolbox with dovetails and it is made out of white oak, red oak and cherry.  He used Sassafras for the center lift out shelf.  He used his maker mark for the front, which is his initials and made from forged steel.  The handle was made of forged steel that he twisted.  He went to the John Campbell workshop for black-smithing and he recommends any of their workshops to the members.  He took a colonial class and made two colonial lamps, which use wicks and grease and candles for light.  They were made with a hammer, anvil and cold forge just as they did in the Colonel times.

Bob Leonard showed a hole cut in plywood that you could use this type of thing for holding legs in place for gluing.  Just make two rings and slip over top and bottom of project to hold legs in place.

(Click here for pictures)
Sears: 6 x 48" belt / 9" dia. disk sander
Comes with a few extra disks
It has the stand to go with it.
Contact:  Tom Gillard Jr.
455-6651(H), 393-0525(W)
          $125.00