SPLINTERS

Tennessee Valley Woodworkers
   Vol. 20/ Issue 9              September 2005                Editor: Tom Gillard Jr. 

Meeting Notice:
The next meeting of the TN Valley Woodworkers
Will be held, September 20th at 7:00 p.m. in the
 Duck River Electric Building, Decherd, TN
All interested woodworkers are invited!


Please remember, in your thoughts and prayers, all our Troops around the world and those on the way home.

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:        Tom Cowan    967-4835                            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
Maurice Ryan  962-1555   Health and Safety

List of Club Officers

                                                                                                President:          Loyd Ackerman
                                                                                                V. President:       Tom Cowan
                                                                                                Secretary:          Chuck Taylor
                                                                                                Treasurer:          Henry Davis
                                                                                                 Publicity:          Larry Bowers
                                                                                                 Newsletter Editor: Tom Gillard Jr.
                                                                                                Web-Master:  Richard Gulley
Calendar of Events
September 19: CC Fair –– Manchester
October 8th:  Fall Seminar ––
December 9th:: Holiday Party / 20th: Anniversary celebration at American Legion in Tullahoma.
 
 

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The September meeting of the Tennessee Valley Woodworkers will be held at the Decherd Nazarene Church at 501 Cumberland Ave, Decherd, TN.  Cumberland Street is across from the Co-Op on Highway 41A in Decherd.  Go to the end of the straight portion of Cumberland street and the church is on the right.

Dear Members,

The Club tries to bring you two seminars each year.  One usually features presenters from within the Club, and that's real good because we have some very good talent in the Club.  On the other hand, we try really hard to bring an outside presenter to the other seminar that year.  That's also good because it brings fresh approaches into our thinking and it's just plain fun to rub elbows with people we read and hear about from the outside world.  In Spring 2004, we brought in Jerry TerHark, a renowned presenter of finishing techniques.  Jerry was as entertaining as he was informative.  That's what I mean by having fun with this kind of thing.

This year we're bringing in Andy Rae who, along with having experience as an editor on the American Woodworker magazine staff and writing several books on woodworking, happens to be a world class furniture maker and a presenter on the woodworking lecture circuit.  This combination of talents promises to be another entertaining and informative infusion from the outside world.

Matt Brothers and David Jacobs have put together a great seminar program for you.  For $40 you not only get to rub elbows with a notable, you also get refreshments and a BBQ lunch thrown it.  Their choice of the location was wise as well.  Those who attended the TerHark seminar last year will tell you that the Forrest Mill venue is the best we've ever used.

Here's an opportunity for members and guests to have a good time in a sociable atmosphere for a modest price; and did I mention learning something about making furniture?

So, pick up a registration form, attach a check, and join the fun while supporting your Club.  I hope every member will come to the seminar.

See you all at the TVW Fall Seminar.

Loyd

SHOW AND TELL:

Geoff Roehm brought and discussed scrapers that he uses in crafting his musical instruments. He also demonstrated his burnishing techniques, utilizing a homemade tool. Geoff displayed a dulcimer with a western cedar top and book-matched walnut back.
Maurice Ryan brought a small cherry bowl that he had roughed at the turning bee.
Bob Lowrance had been to the J.C. Campbell School and just finished a very detailed Indian carving.Carving2
Tom McGill displayed a butternut bowl, turned on the end grain and had used Chromatic acid to color the wood.
Dick Wollam displayed a beautiful western cedar carving of an owl.
Harry May brought and discussed a basswood relief carving that he had completed during the carver’s classes. He also showed a hand carved handle on a cane.
Fred Heltsley brought a 24-inch high pepper mill.
Chuck Taylor brought his first completed hollow vessel made from red maple and a small turned box made from holly.
Wess Rittenhouse displayed a bulldozer made from oak and walnut. He modeled the dozier after a John Deere 650.
Tom Gillard gave an updated slide presentation of a wind tunnel section that he is building in his shop, with the components in various stages of construction.
Doyle McConnell presented a slide show of one of his current projects. He made rails and footboard for an antique bed from a large slab of old poplar. He also had slides of an antique sugar press repair and a slide of his new guard and dust collector for his table saw. The guard is mounted from the ceiling.
 


                                               Wood Anecdote
Darah Darah

The species of the spice wars
Custard and eggnog would taste pretty bland without the tangy spice we know as nutmeg. But if the Dutch had had their way centuries ago, these tasty treats would have to go it alone.
Nutmeg is the ground seed of a tall and handsome tree called darah darah (Myristica fragrans). Until the late 1700s, the species grew only in the Moluccas, or Spice Islands, now part of Indonesia. It was from there that the surviving ship of Ferdinand Magellan's fleet returned to Spain in 1521. Most of the crew had starved, but the ship's hold was laden with spices, especially nutmeg, destined for the wealthy.
When Portugal wrested control of the Moluccas, its merchants distributed false maps so that spice traders from other countries would smash on the coral shoals. Eventually, the Dutch claimed the islands from the Portuguese, and they cut down the darah darah trees on every island they couldn't defend. Carrying nutmeg seeds without authority even became punishable by death.
The Dutch hold on nutmeg lasted until the late 1700s, when the French planted smuggled seeds at their island colony of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. When the British seized the Moluccas in 1796 and spirited away nutmeg seeds to Grenada in the West Indies, the spice war ended.
Today, only the Moluccas and Grenada produce nutmeg. Because only the female trees bear fruit, growers harvest all males except a pollinating few. The easily worked, walnut-like wood becomes house framing, furniture, and millwork. But unlike globe-trotting nutmeg, darah darah wood remains mostly at home.
Illustration: Jim Stevenson
Wood-Online

From Crocia Roberson:

TVW Club members will conduct workshops for the International Association of Recreation Leadership Workshops Conference ot the DuBose Conference center in Monteagle on Oct. 19-23.
Karen Kerce will teach Easy Metal Foil and Faux Leather finishes
Winfield Bennett will help participants learn to carve hiking sticks.
Bob Lowrance will teach twig roosters.
Goeff Roehm will teach twig flowers.
3-4 other members will be involved in helping with the folk art woodcarving workshops.


                                                        Shop Tip of the Day

Avoiding nail splits

Even though you hammer carefully, your nail occasionally splits the wood.

Blunt the tip of the nail by tapping it with your hammer to let the nail hit its way into the wood rather than part the material. Or, chuck a properly sized nail into a drill (you may need to cut off the nailhead), predrill holes, and then hammer and
set the nails.
   --From the WOOD magazine shop
 


 

Web Sites of interest.

Wood Central

See you on the 20 th.

click on the image to go to these sites
Special contributors to Club functions