Meeting January 20th, 2026
Meeting called to order by president Jim Jolliffe at 6:30 pm
Visiting Guests: Joetta Sautter
New Business:
The TVW Tom Cowan Memorial Turning Bee will be held Saturday, February 21st from 8 AM to around 2 PM at the Decherd Nazarene Church at 501 Cumberland St. Decherd, TN. Seeking lathes, turning mentors and turning “students”. Cost of $10 covers both your turning blank and lunch at noon prepared by Sherry Wendland. Please email Larry Wendland at culets@gmail.com or call/text him at 941-323-6246. Please include “Turning Bee” and your name in the text so Larry knows who you are.
Additional 40th Anniversary t-shirts are still available for purchase. They are $25 each, and sizes L, XL, and XXL are available.
We are seeking program suggestions for April, July and October. Please let us know if you have subjects/presenters. Members are encouraged to present as well. It can be an expanded presentation beyond the normal “Show & Tell”. Some projects require more time to share the process, achievements and lessons learned.
Other Announcements: Looking ahead –
Tim’s Ford’s “Spring Fling” is tentatively scheduled for 28 Mar based upon past years. We will keep you updated.
The Splinter Carvers is working to get a carving seminar in the March/April time frame.
Tullahoma’s Arbor Day Celebration is planned for Saturday, Apr 25th. We will keep you updated. Last year’s celebration focused on trees and what beauty can come from trees once they are no longer living. TVWW presented in 2025 and has been asked to set up tables/booths again this year.
Show and Tell:
Vince Zaccardi showed a Kentucky Coffee Wood bowl he turned. The wood was provided to Vince from Bob Truesdale. Vince also showed a burl bowl he turned. Both were finished with friction polish.
Rick Dickson showed a walnut console table he made from a tree harvested on his property. He finished it with water-base poly. He also showed a cherry keepsake box “prototype” he made. He experienced warping after bringing it into his home after completing it in his unheated shop. Environmental conditions can make wood move with the changes in humidity and temperature.
Rick also showed a walnut and maple finger-jointed keepsake box. He tried two different maple wood grain directions to provide better color contrast. Using maple end grain at the end of the finger joints worked best. The box were finished with an Osmo-Polyx top coat.
Rick had a hackberry tree fall while he was out of the state. His friend cut it up. When Rick got home, he noticed that the tree had great figure in the wood. He offered blanks to the members. Several harvested the bounty from Rick’s pickup bed. Thanks, Rick!
Jim Jolliffe showed a basswood carving of “Captain Joe” carved from a Rich Wetherbee roughout during his October 2025 seminar at Jim’s shop. The finish is mineral oil, so far. Jim plans to paint it to show more detail in the piece.
Program: Marquetry by Austin Chandler
The club welcomed back Austin Chandler, traditional furniture maker, to the January meeting. Austin showed us how to carve a ball and claw foot in January of 2025.
Austin had a portable “Jawhorse” vise to clamp his scroll saw jig. He used a 12” throated fret/coping saw with very thin blades. He discussed using contrasting wood that are 1/16” thick or thicker. He also suggested you make your own veneer on a bandsaw as it creates a more stable veneer base on the cut.
Austin used 2” wide painter’s tape to tape the two veneer pieces together. He used a pencil to draw a simple flower design on the maple. He used a micro Yankee drill to drill a starting hole in the veneer. He showed how to insert the blade in the hole, how to hold the fret saw and began cutting each piece out.
He then took the cut pieces to a hot cast iron skillet filled with craft sand. He placed a couple pieces at a time in the hot sand. He only put one edge of the wood and shaded the same edge sides of all the flower petals to simulate shadows from the same location of a light source.
Once completed, Austin used another piece of painter’s tape to join the pieces together. He used hide glue to glue all the pieces. He uses wax paper, a caul, and clamps to secure all pieces together. Once dry, he cut out the marquetry in an oval pattern. He traced the marquetry oval on a cherry board. He scribed the pencil oval and uses a flat chisel to carve a small relief to capture the marquetry flower. He glued the marquetry into the relieved oval with more hide glue. He uses a slurry of dark powder and hide glue to fill any gaps in the veneer pieces. He covers the filled marquetry with wax paper, caul and clamps.
Once dry, Austin uses a card scraper to level the marquetry with the board. In the question and answer period, Austin noted that the board should be stained before gluing the marquetry into the relieved spot. This allows the marquetry contrasting wood colors to remain the most vivid.
Meeting adjourned at 8:10.
The next meeting is scheduled for February 17th at 6:30 PM.