SPLINTERS
Tennessee Valley Woodworkers
     Vol. 18/ Issue 11         November 2003        Editor: Tom Gillard Jr. 

Meeting Notice:
The next meeting of the TN Valley Woodworkers
Will be held, November 18th, 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

    Last month the Nominating Committee announced the Candidates for Club Officers for 2004.

                          President                      Ken Gould
                          Vice President               Barbara Keen
                          Secretary                       Chuck Taylor
                          Treasurer                       Henry Davis
                          Publicity Chairman         Larry Bowers
                          News Letter Editor        Tom Gillard

    The election will be at this months meeting, campaign signs and speeches will be permitted !   Let's turn out and VOTE !

    In the last two months we have had five woodworkers join us.

In September Wendell Melton and Robert Petry became members. Both   Wendell and Robert reside in Winchester.
Bub and Ann Chittenden from Cleveland Tn. joined us in October as did Terry Tackney.  Terry is from Madison Al. and is also a member of the  Edgewater Woodworkers Club in the Huntsville area.

Ken Gould brought in an 18th century trammel 4 wick lamp he made using his black smiting knowledge and then he decided to make another wooden mechanism.  He made a reverse trammel and it could be used for the mechanism of a music stand or an adjustable feeder.  Took him much less time to make the wooden one.

Maurice and Ruth Ryan while on a trip to Wisconsin saw some neat wooden butterflies made from various scrap pieces of wood and another wooden item that struck their interests.  They brought in pictures of both pieces for us to see.

John Mayberry brought in 2 boxes with Curly Maple matched tops.  The box is made of Cherry with Black Walnut trim around the tops. They both have sliding lift out divided shelves in them.  He finished them with lacquer.

Jeff Roehm brought in a copy of an 1869 classical quitar that he is making.  It has Red Cedar, Black Walnut, Brazilian Rosewood, and Satin Wood in it.  He is doing a French polish finish on it.  He uses hide glue to put the bridge on with and said he has seen guitars 85 years old and the glue still is holding well.

Karen Kerce brought in a bowl that she started in May and stopped and put it in the shavings from the turning operation for storage.  She got back at it and finished it.  It is Cherry with a turned base on it.  She also built a barn this summer and brought a picture in of it.  She used OSB board that she got for $5.00 a sheet and than textured it to look like stucco.

Doug Dunlap brought in a project he had done long ago when he was in school for a shop project.  It was a cannon which he turned the brass for the barrel and made the carriage out of Cherry.

Don Powers brought in a couple of stylized power carvings.  One is made out of Chittam Burl, which is sometimes called yellow wood or smoke tree. The bird on it is carved out of Cherry. It only grows from here to edge of Alabama and is getting scarce.   The other is made from Chattam and cedar driftwood and mounted on an Oak block.

Hugh Hurst awhile back brought in a bedpost that he was practicing turning and he had 4 to make for a bed.  He brought in tonight one of the four.  This one he did not have a long enough piece of wood to make it in one piece.  He had to make it in pieces and found out that you had to do this a certain way or it would not be straight.  He enlisted Tom’s help for the technique of how to do this.  It ended up being 3 pieces.  You have to turn tenons on the pieces that are going to go together.

Doyle McConnell brought in a saw blade with tar and pitch on it and he showed how you could clean it by putting Ammonia in a pizza pan and then putting the blade in it.  He said the pitch just floats off with out scrubbing or anything. He said that he had worked on some very early Tennessee pieces and that he had a sugar chest that had to be taken apart since it had a wide board in the bottom and it had shrank over the years leaving a sizable crack.  He had to jack it apart and the tenon pulled a part before the glue would come loose and this piece was a 150 years old.

Phil Bishop brought in pictures of his latest restoration project.  One of them was a Horner Atlas dining room suite.  He needed to make 7 leafs for it.   He also had to do some carving on several pieces.  This suite could bring more than $88,000 at auction.  He also raised a bed 16 inches.

Steve Shores brought in some pieces that he used for his demonstration.
 

The wood of the Ohio buckeye was called “dead man’s wood” because of its use for coffins.

The state of Ohio claims the Ohio buckeye as its official tree. And Ohio State sports teams enthusiastically call themselves “Buckeyes.” But few Buckeye fans acknowledge that their tree happens to be the only one of the seven native species of the buckeye tree in the United States with an offensive, even deadly, reputation.

Buckeye refers to the resemblance of the tree’s fruit—a nut—to the eye of a deer. But unlike the fruit of the yellow (sweet) buckeye, which is eaten by wild animals and livestock, Ohio buckeye nuts contain a poison that numbs all that venture to eat it.

Late spring brings forth greenish yellow flowers amidst the leaves of the shapely buckeye tree. Yet while the beholder admires the blooms, he may hold his nose because of their foul odor. In fact, this trait has led many who live where it grows to call the tree “stinking” buckeye.

When its blooms and their odor have long gone, the Ohio buckeye in its greenery makes an attractive addition to the country landscape. But because even the tree’s twigs and bark give off an offensive odor when bruised and, along with the leaves, tend to be toxic, rural landowners have at times waged war to eliminate it from their property.

Despite Ohio buckeye’s drawbacks, its wood was favored by pioneers. It’s light, works easily, and doesn’t readily split. One use was for coffins, earning it the name “dead man’s wood.” On a livelier note, buckeye was also popular for dough bowls because it lacks odor or taste. And even the nut—carried in a pocket—was believed to ward off rheumatism.

Illustration: Jim Stevenson

'WOOD' On-line
 

    Our very first Christmas Gathering was at the home of long time members Susan and Tom Church. That was in December of 1986.  At that time the club was participating the  "Toys for Tots" project.  There were over 125 toys made by  Club members and brought to Susan and Tom's home. If the Kids that got the toys had as much fun playing with them as some of our members they really enjoyed them.
Speaking of Christmas Gatherings, let's not forget that this year's get together is scheduled for Friday December 12th.
- Christmas Potluck - At the First Church of the Nazarene Fellowship Hall, address: (4th & Cumberland).    I'm sure we'll discuss the Christmas pot-luck at our next meeting. We've been asked to bring a little something that you have made to use for door prizes - . We'll also need to know how many to plan for, so take a count of family and guests that are planning to attend. We'll try to get a total at the November meeting.

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