Meeting July 21, 2026
Call to Order
The meeting of the Tennessee Valley Woodworkers was called to order at 6:30 pm by President Jim Joliffe.
Visitors
The Tennessee Valley Woodworkers welcomed several guests to the meeting, including Bill and JJ Jarboe; Ralph Long, Manchester, who was invited by Benjamin Nation of Winchester, Tennessee; David King from Tullahoma, Tennessee; and Ryan Rolans alongside Brian Vandenbergh from Tracy City, Tennessee.
Announcements
The club announced that 40th Anniversary T-shirts remain available for purchase.
Members were provided an update on the Henry Davis Shop sale, which was noted as a partial success yielding approximately $1,200 in sales. Many items remain available, including a Powermatic lathe and various other tools. We will send out the sales flyer if anyone who couldn’t make the 3 July sale wants to buy an item at the price on the list.
The date for the Susie Murphy Shop sale is still to be determined.
A volunteer opportunity was presented regarding Horseplay, which is seeking someone to make repairs to a 5×5 mini-stable. Paul Jalbert volunteered to serve as the lead coordinator for the project.
Tennessee Forester Jack Wilkerson passed along an invitation for anyone interested in demonstrating their woodwork at the State Fair 13-22 August at the Wilson County Fairgrounds. Interested members should inform Jim Jolliffe. Participating members will be responsible for setting up and taking down their displays each day, and an email with further details is expected to go out soon. The signup link is https://www.signupgenius.com/go/409044FA9AF2AA4FE3-64846068-state#/.
Additionally, the Coffee County Fair was noted as coming up 28 Aug – 5 Sep. TVWW will set up in Morton’s Village and display and demonstrate Thursday, 3 September, Friday, 4 September and Saturday 5 September. A signup sheet will be distributed at the August meeting. Additionally, you can email Jim Jolliffe at jim.jolliffe@cloud.com. from now until the August meeting to make your support known. We will be asking for members to bring finished work and to bring lathes and/or carving tools to demonstrate at the Fair.
Other Announcements
During the secondary announcement period, health updates and community news were shared. Members were asked to keep the Zaccardi family in their thoughts and prayers following news that their daughter suffered two strokes after recovering from cancer. Update, Amy passed away Wednesday morning, July 22nd. Members were also asked to keep Dick Wollam in their prayers after he suffered a fall and was admitted to rehab next to the Southern Tennessee Hospital in Winchester, Tennessee.
Gary Runyon announced that he purchased a case of Blaster Dry Lube and is offering it to members for $6 a can. Karen Browning brought in peach wood to give away for turning and noted that she will have additional wood available in the future. Furthermore, eight 8×8 pieces of dense, 100-plus-year-old American Chestnut—reclaimed from an old barn beam at Falls Mill—will be available at next month’s auction.
Show and Tell
The Show and Tell segment featured a wide range of member projects:
- Michael Zuccaro presented a walnut ukulele featuring a bone nut and saddle, maple binding, a holly dot inlay on the back, and a French polish finish.
- Bruce Currie displayed a spalted pecan cutting board made from a tree planted by his wife’s grandfather that had fallen during a storm, finished with butcher block oil. He also presented a cedar wig stand turned for an organization that provides wigs to cancer patients, finished in lacquer.
- Rick Dixon showed a poplar jewelry box built in the spring featuring his first attempt at flocking on the interior trays, finished with an Osmo topcoat. He also exhibited a matching, cane-bottomed stool that he originally crafted and stained in the 1980s to complement a cane-bottom chair he acquired.
- Richard Gulley shared a wooden plaque crafted for a member of the Nazarene Church in Decherd who is turning 100. After realizing the original design resembled a tombstone, he made a circular door hanger. After realizing the first hanger was too large, he modified it into a smaller version, added paint details, and finished it with shellac.
- Jesse Luke Potter displayed a Slimline pen turned from a cabinet door and a stylus crafted from bodock, purpleheart, and walnut with components sourced from Penn State. Both were completed with a friction finish, CA glue, and Blue Block for a glassy appearance. He also showcased a poplar bowl turned from a blank acquired at the turning bee. After encountering a crack, he mounted it to a faceblock, filled the split with CA glue, and finished it with Howard’s Cutting Board Oil.
- Mickey Knowles presented a bowl turned from a large triangular piece of colorful white poplar originally brought in by Larry Bowers. After gluing a major crack back together, he carved a branch with leaves over the seam to conceal it, added a walnut base, and finished the piece with sanding sealer, lacquer, and beeswax.
- Gary Runyon exhibited several needle boxes turned from cherry, ash, and spalted elm. For one box with an off-center hole, he turned the entire piece off-center, plugged the hole with a dowel, and finished it with Doctor’s Woodshop Oil. He also shared a repair project for a friend’s dropped spinning wheel distaff, where he turned 3/16-inch hickory dowels, used a steady rest in his chuck to turn an ornamental groove and tenon to rejoin the pieces, and stained it to match (noting a slight grain variance due to combining old-growth and young wood).
- Jim Joliffe showed a CNC-milled plywood project featuring a Celtic knot design, finished with a polyurethane pre-finish. He also demonstrated the 3D carving capabilities of his CNC by carving a magnolia with a banner out of red oak using and 1/8″ endmill for the profile cuts, an 1/8-inch bit for the 3D carving, and an 1/8″, 60 degree V-bit to carve the letters . He noted that the process required four tool changes. He started the pattern from the center of the carving and made changes to the X and Y coordinates, by mistake, when trying to align the carving. The finished carving was off from the design due to the shifted X and Y coordinates, but was still recognizable. He expressed surprise at the high level of detail achieved on the unfinished piece.
Following Show and Tell, the meeting took a brief intermission at 7:05 pm.
ProgramWood Carving Workbench with Paul Jalbert
The evening’s main program was a presentation by Paul Jalbert on designing and building a specialized wood carving workbench. Paul opened the discussion by comparing various workbench design options, noting Allen Odell’s small, heirloom-quality Alaskan bench, temporary sawhorse-and-pallet setups for demonstrations, portable options like the Shop-Mate, and three-legged stands like the Jawhorse.
When seeking designs for his own workbench, Paul prioritized his criteria from most to least important: stability, height, size, storage, portability, and the underlying narrative of the piece. Seeking a heavy, solid, elbow-height workbench that could become an heirloom, he selected the “Just Right Workbench” plan from Woodsmith Magazine (also featured on the Woodsmith TV show, Season 18, Episode 1801). Plans may be found at https://www.woodsmith.com/article/building-the-just-right-workbench/.
Paul detailed the sourcing and drying process for the lumber. The materials were sourced from land logged by his friends Dennis and Cheryl in November 2024 and milled on April 22, 2025. The ash was milled into 1x8x12 boards along with 6x6x8 stock for the legs, while the hickory was cut into 2x14x8 slabs. To dry the green lumber—which initially held moisture contents of 46% for the ash and 80% for the hickory—Paul removed the bark, checked for insects, and stacked the wood in his basement. He utilized longitudinal and lateral airflow while restacking and flipping the lumber weekly. Using a moisture meter, he tracked the drying progression from 36% after one month down to 6.7%–7.7% for the ash by November, and 8.5% for the hickory by January (nearing the target target equilibrium of ~7.7%).
During the drying period, Paul constructed the drawers using old oak provided by Rick. The workbench construction utilized a post-and-panel method with mortise-and-tenon joinery. Using his son’s mortising machine, they completed 16 joints in roughly two hours, establishing a sturdy, square 15″ x 30″ base structure. Deviating from the original plans, Paul substituted 1-inch solid ash for the specified 3/4-inch plywood side panels. Rather than gluing the entire top at once, he glued it up one board at a time to keep it flat, securing it to the base using six lag bolts driven through interior cleats.
To enhance the visual appeal, Paul incorporated long-radius curves along the bottom rails, utilizing a radius formula found in Rodale Press’s Shop Tips. As a woodcarver, he adorned the bench with Acanthus leaf “critter” relief carvings inspired by his personal photo library of antique furniture. He noted that relief carvings on furniture require careful adjustment because people view them from an overhead angle rather than straight on.
The top of the bench was finished with four coats of boiled linseed oil, while the final finish on the ash base will be determined as the wood ages. Paul fitted the workbench with casters provided by Vince Zaccardi for mobility and a lamp clamp from Henry Davis’ shop. Future additions will include a face vise and an inset vise, though he opted against drilling bench dog holes.
The completed workbench weighs 276 pounds empty (calculated by doubling the weight from a scale placed under one side) and stands at a custom height of 38 inches to match his elbow level. Paul gave away the magazines used for the project plans.
Meeting Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 8:00 pm. The next regular meeting will feature the annual club auction, scheduled for 6:30 pm on Tuesday, August 18th.