Mountaineer Woodturner Jan Newsletter

March business

President John Sheets called the March, 2011 meeting of the Mountaineer Woodturners to order at 10:00 with 19 members and 3 visitors present. John welcomed the members and visitors, Rick Chandler, Larry Weese, and Ken Wines to the meeting. He then asked the officers in turn if they had announcements or reports pertaining to the club.

Secretary Bill Sands requested that the members review their personal information in the club records to insure that it is correct and up-to-date. He reviewed the club's new turning DVD rental program and provided 14 DVDs for the clubs use. Tom Schottle later added the Jimmy Clewes series and John Gregor added other titles to bring the total to 34 turning DVDs.

Treasurer John Gregor reported the club has $2977.57 in the treasury and he just received $10 additional for DVD rental. John also inquired if there is interest in ball caps with the club name. The majority present were in favor of the idea.

VP Byron Young informed the club that he is negotiating with toolmaker Doug Thompson to provide a tool sharpening seminar for the club in the fall. Byron also arranged a presentation by Fred Dutton at the April meeting.

Tom Schottle provided the club with information on a wood turning cruise in August. more information is available on the cruise web site.

John Gregor noted that no one from West Virginia has been chosen in the AAW prizes drawing. Surely it will happen sometime.

Lidded Boxes, the theme for March

Byron provided a demonstration of the technique he uses to turn lidded boxes, explaining each step of the process.

After the demonstration Byron provided blanks for the members to try their hand at box turning.

Next meeting is Saturday, April 9th. Plan to attend and support your club.

John Sheets brought a hollow form that he turned to try out his new beading tool. Although it looks like a pottery vessel in the picture, it is turned from cherry.

Dave Jones had a "rescued" bowl. He ran out of thickness while finishing the bottom and added a paperclip insert to salvage the bowl. The dragonfly plate that he turned is box elder and the platter is Chinese chestnut.

John Gregor brought a spalted oak bowl

and a spalted maple vase.

Jerry Smith had two large and very nice burl pieces.

Tom Schottle brought a number of nice pieces - two bowls turned from Kentucky coffee tree wood and four lidded boxes. Two of the boxes are laminated bamboo and two are walnut. Tom also provided laminated bamboo blanks for those who wanted to try their hand at bamboo boxes.

Jim Withee displayed his pen collection. There were two hickory pens, a curly mahogany pen with beautiful grain, and a pen made from Kauri wood which has been carbon dated to 30-50 thousand years old. Ron Jones brought a well-finished slim-line pen and Dough Kemp had a nice cartridge pen.