Meeting 10/19/21
Meeting called to order by Secretary Jim Jolliffe at 6:35 PM.
Jim welcomed all those online and to those present in UTSI’s H-111 Conference Room to our October combined in-person and online Zoom Meeting. The UTSI network was down tonight but we were able to host the (slightly disjointed) Zoom meeting as well as the in-person meeting. We appreciate UTSI’s generosity allowing the club to use H-111 and their broadcasting capability.
Visiting Guests
Christian Carroll visited with Geoff Roehm, to support this month’s program presentation. Roger Weeks is a friend of Ken Kimble’s. Pete Cokenmueller is a friend of Matt Brothers. Steve Tracy was visiting from Pennsylvania. Steve has periodically visited when he is in the local area.
Officers and Committee Reports
Vice President & Program Chair Gary Runyon noted tonight’s Program will be by our own Geoff Roehm who will present “Building a Tennessee Music Box”. November’s program will be Fred Heltsey presenting “Making Miniature Harps”. December’s program will be our annual Super Show and Tell.Gary requested members email him any future 2022 program ideas to [email protected]. He noted that programs don’t necessarily need to be from local folks due to the ability of Zoom to connect us with anyone around the world!
The 2021 Calendar is correct with monthly general meeting dates and first and third Saturday Carving meetings as well as the UTSI & Zoom annotation for the monthly meetings. The special events column included “placeholders” for the special events. The special event leads will need to discuss the timing (if at all) of holding special events and update the calendar accordingly.
Richard Gully and Jim discussed the annual Tool sale being a combined Tool/Craft Sale and moving to November either as a club program during a regular meeting or off-site at the Church of the Nazarene in Decherd, if we have enough interest. The membership supported a November Tool/Craft Sale at the Church of the Nazarene. After the meeting, Saturday November 20th was selected for the annual tool/craft sale.
We discussed a December Christmas Party. Chairman Karen Browning noted that evening functions aren’t as well attended and proposed a brunch style event to the membership. The overwhelming member response favored the brunch idea. Karen will work on the date/location and keep us updated.
Once the general meeting announcements concluded we moved to the Show & Tell portion of the evening.
Show & Tell
Paul Jalbert presented the results of our support of Tim’s Ford Heritage Days Saturday and Sunday October 9th and 10th. He noted that Chuck Taylor and Vince Zaccardi demonstrated turning tops and honey dippers, respectively. Jim Jolliffe allowed visitors to carve their own 2-3” tall cottonwood bark pumpkins and take them home. Paul had a large sweet gum log with a rope pattern that allowed multiple carvers at a time with great results. The log, when finished, will be donated to Tim’s Ford State Park. Paul has an “artist’s log” of all who carve. When a piece is complete, the “artist’s log” is attached to the carving as a record. He noted that he has supported the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and Tim’s Ford with seven large carving activities over the past 10 years. He counted up the artist’s signatures over the multiple efforts and was pleased to announced that he surpassed 1,000 carvers logging the respective “artist’s log” this past weekend! Outstanding results, Paul!!!
Jim Jolliffe showed a 16” gnome carved from basswood finished with a base coat of rattle-can lacquer, acrylic paint and finish coats of rattle-can lacquer. The large hood, beard and robe (with hands in the robe’s pockets) eliminated the need to carve eyes, ears, a mouth and hands which made the carving pretty quick and easy!
Dennis Finney showed two beautiful pepper mills and multiple pens he turned . All were finished with Mohawk sanding sealer and lacquer.
Mickey Knowles showed a variety of inlay and segmented salt shakers and pepper mills. He described the inlay process and some lessons learned. The description included raw stock that he used to inlay the turning blanks. All but one of the shakers/mills were finished sanding sealer and lacquer. The other was finished with MinWax Polyurethane which was very easy to apply and worked well. Mickey also showed a large mimosa bowl he turned and finished with teak oil.
Matt Brothers and Pete Cokenmueller showed a birdseye maple blanket chest they had built together. This was the third chest they had built. Matt previously made a walnut chest for his daughter and Pete made a cherry one for his oldest daughter. This chest was for Pete’s younger daughter. The chest had dovetail joinery on the drawers and chest which were made with a Leigh Dovetail Jig versus the hand-cut dovetails on the previous two. The drawers and blanket compartment were all cedar lined. The top was plywood with 1” solid birdseye maple banding and birdseye maple veneer based on lessons learned from the walnut chest top that warped as it aged. Helical head joiners and planers were used with no tear-out of the birdseye maple. They finished the chest with nitrocellulose lacquer.
Steve Tracy showed a two-foot, or slightly larger, coniferous tree made from pallet wood. Steve rips the boughs to 2-1/2” and then “steps” the boughs every 2-1/2” beginning from 5” long to 7.5”, 10” and so on. He says they sell great and can be used for Christmas and any other holiday. The largest tree he’s made is 10 feet tall! No finish is applied as each buyer has their own finish opportunities and decorating schemes. He noted one client attached mug hooks to her tall tree that is on her front porch year-round. She decorates it for multiple holidays including Thanksgiving, Christmas and St Patrick’s Day!
Program
Building a Tennessee Music Box (Dulcimer).
After a short break, we held a very interesting program on building a Tennessee Music Box by Geoff Roehm and his assistant Christian Carroll. They presented the history of the TN Music Box and then discussed the construction of the box and the variations of joinery (box, dovetail, rabbet, butt) and finishing techniques. The box traditionally is played with a turkey feather, pick or bow in one hand and a “dowel” in the other or fingers to form the chords/notes. The presentation included informative slides with narrative, a short video and a musical demonstration on a finished TN Music Box. It was a fascinating presentation! Thank you Geoff and Christian!
Meeting adjourned at 8:20 PM. Our next meeting is on Tuesday, November 16th at UTSI’s H-111 Conference Room (our standard meeting location). We hope to see you all there or on Zoom! The November Program will be “Building Miniature Harps” by Fred Heltsey.