Notices June 2015

May 

Both the Watch, Try and Buy Day, and the Sue Harker demo day were not very well supported. The Committee will need to review these events and try to work out why that was the case. Any thoughts you may have on the subject would be welcome; speak to any Committee member.

As far as I am aware no member came forward to represent the Club at the Vintage Machinery show on Sunday 31 May. This means that this opportunity to promote the Club was missed.

June 

The topic this month is ‘Abrasives’ and the competition item is a bowl with textured decoration. The Wood of the Month is Lime.

July

We expect to be at the Kirkcudbright Country Fair on Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 July with demonstrations, the display boards and sale of work. Offers of help with the event would be welcome.

We don’t usually have a Club meeting in July but this year we have arranged a special evening demo on Tuesday 14 July, which would be our Club meeting evening. We will welcome Joe Laird, an accomplished turner from Ireland. This extra demo is FREE to members, £3 to visitors.

The Better Bowls workshop is arranged for Saturday 25 July with Rolf as the Moderator. We have run lots of courses for new turners but this is our first attempt at doing something for intermediate turners. This means that this is NOT A COURSE ON HOW TO TURN A BOWL – but it IS an opportunity for members who have turned a fair number of bowls to get together and share their knowledge and experience. There is room for five members, two places are already taken, leaving three places available. The workshop outline is on the Notice Board for you to read at your leisure. Speak to Rolf if you are interested in taking part. If lots of people are interested we could run another workshop at a later date.

If other members would like the Club to put on a ‘How to turn a bowl’ refresher course, we would be willing to do that. Speak to Phil H if you are interested in this; to date no-one has, so we assume you are not interested ???

August

As usual we plan to be at the Dumfries Show on Saturday 1 August with demonstrations, our display boards and your work For Sale. Offers of help with the event would be welcome.

At the Club meeting on 11 August, Roger will talk about and demonstrate Workholding ideas and gadgets. The competition item is a vase with a high gloss finish and the Wood of the Month is Apple.

ADVANCE NOTICE The next day the Club starts an exhibition and sale at the Kirkcudbright Tollbooth until 30 August. That’s over two weeks !!!!. We will need people to look after things every day during that period. Please consult your diaries, he/she who must be obeyed etc. and come to the July meeting ready to put your name down on the schedule.

And finally . . .  

The Committee would like to see the Club take part in the inter-club competition at the Border Woodturners Open Day in October. Each club’s entry must consist of five items, no restrictions. We are asking you all to bring your best work, which needn’t be new, to our September meeting. Members will mark each item as per our regular competition, then the top five pieces will form our entry for the interclub competition. So get your thinking caps on and get turning your very finest pieces.

A reminder that the Workshop is now open on Wednesdays, 7 – 9pm as well as Tuesdays. John (Jake) Twiname and Bryan Jardine are looking after this initiative which will continue if it is supported by members. So, come on Tuesday, or Wednesday, or both – your choice.

We are taking bookings for the next ‘Introduction to Woodturning’ course, starting date to be confirmed. There are several people already booked on the course, but places are still available. The course fee is £50 which includes everything you need. Speak to Phil J if you are interested in taking part.

There has been some talk about the Club running a ‘ladies only’ turning day. So, ladies if the idea appeals to you, talk to Judith !

Simon Hope is demonstrating this Sunday, 14 June, at Border Woodturners in Brampton. Please let Brian Conchie know if you are going so that he can order enough lunches, 01387 265608. If you want to order anything from Simon’s range of goodies, also let Brian know ASAP.

Texturing tools

Further to Phil J’s post last week, I’ll bring my Sorby texturing tool as well tonight. I’ll also bring a chattertool and Proxon grinder with chain saw type cutter.

Why not bring your bowl still in your chuck then mount the whole lot on one of the Club lathes. Provided of course that your chuck is either 3/4″ X 16, 1″ X 8 or M33 x 3.5mm.

Texturing Tool

As the next competition item is a bowl with textured decoration, I’ll have my texturing tool at Turning Tuesday tomorrow night (26 May) if anyone wants to try it out. I’ll leave it in the workshop for the Wednesday folks as well.

Fresh Elm – Assistance Required

The club has very generously been offered some freshly felled elm which Jake and I plan to start tackling on Sunday morning from about 9am. If you have a chainsaw and/or trailer and/or can just lend a hand moving wood about then we would greatly appreciate your assistance. (Please remember your safety gear if you are bringing your chainsaw).

The location is Barwhinnock House near Twynholm (DG6 4PF). The gateway is on the A75 west of Twyholm. If you’re heading west, go past both Twynholm exits and the gateway is on the right but it’s where the overtaking lane is so you may prefer to go past, turn at the next junction and come back.

Whilst the elm is our priority for Sunday we are hoping this will turn into a regular thing because there is quite a bit of other timber available to us including ash, beech and birch.

May 2015 Competition Results

May 2015 – A group of three mushrooms

Mature Turners

  • Phil Howard  7.9
  • Jake Twiname  7.6
  • John Brown  7.2
  • Les Reeves  7.1
  • Reg Thirlwall  7.0
  • Bryan Jardine  6.5
  • David Simpson  6.4
  • Chic Hampton 6.2
  • Eric McCowan  5.5

 

New Turners

  • Arthur Young  7.3
  • Ian Spencer  6.8
  • Susan Colley  6.4

 

Notices May 2015

April

Everyone that came seemed to enjoy the Auction and we have had some compliments on the way the day was run; special thanks to Rolf who was the auctioneer, and to everyone else who contributed to the running of the day. The sales total was £1965, with the Club making £393 from commissions. We will think about running another one, maybe in about 18 months time.

May

We are delighted to welcome Chris Pouncy from Robert Sorby once again, who will demonstrate their latest bits of kit and give you the opportunity to browse and buy. If you asked Roger to order anything specific, then you should be able to collect it during coffee break.

The Competition item was easy – a group of three mushrooms; and the Wood of the Month is Chestnut.

From tomorrow, 13 May, the Workshop will be open on Wednesdays, 7 – 9pm as well as Tuesdays. John (Jake) Twiname and Bryan Jardine are looking after this initiative which will continue if it is supported by members. So, come on Tuesday, or Wednesday, or both – your choice.

Saturday 23 May is our Watch Try and Buy Open Day, where we invite the public into the Workshop to see what we are all about, watch demos, have a go themselves and buy your work. We are going to set up a main demo lathe and several have a go lathes namely a pole lathe, a regular lathe and one for pen making. We need members to demonstrate, to tutor the have a go sessions, to look after the sales table, to run the refreshments, talk to the public, and generally help out. You can donate work for sale on the Club sales table OR you can set up a separate personal sales table, run it yourself and donate just 10% of your takings to the Club. We’ll circulate a clipboard with the list of roles and you can pick what you want to do. At the very least you can take a poster and put it up somewhere, in your car window is one idea.

Sunday 24 May is a demo day by professional turner Sue Harker. Tickets are on sale tonight from Phil J and posters are also available. We are still looking for someone to look after lunch – if you’ve been to any of the demo days you’ll know it’s not exactly rocket science. Judith can explain in more detail.

Both these events are advertised in the Spring Fling brochure; copies of which are on the bookshelves behind you.

Member John Thompson has offered us the opportunity to have a stand at the Vintage Machinery show at Park Farm, Dumfries on Sunday 31 May. This could be anything from just a table with our display boards and one person handing out programmes up to the sort of thing we do at the Dumfries Agricultural Show with a demo lathe, display of tools, sale of work etc. The Committee will have been fully occupied the previous weekend and are not really able to take up this offer. Would any member(s) be willing to represent the Club at this event ? Speak to any Committee member.

June

The topic next month is ‘Abrasives’ and the Wood of the Month is Lime.

July

We don’t usually have a Club meeting in July but this year we have arranged a special evening demo on Tuesday 14 July, which would be our Club meeting evening. We will welcome Joe Laird, an accomplished turner from Northern Ireland. This extra demo is FREE to members, £3 to visitors.

The Better Bowls workshop is arranged for Saturday 25 July with Rolf as the Moderator. We have run lots of courses for new turners but this is our first attempt at doing something for intermediate turners. This means that this is NOT A COURSE on how to turn a bowl – but it IS an opportunity for members who have turned a fair number of bowls to get together and share their knowledge and experience. There is room for five members, two places are already taken, leaving three places available. The workshop outline is on the Notice Board for you to read at your leisure. Speak to Rolf if you are interested in taking part. If lots of people are interested we could run another workshop at a later date.

If other members would like the Club to put on a ‘How to turn a bowl’ refresher course, we would be willing to do that. Speak to Phil H if you are interested in this.

And finally . . .

As listed on the back of your Programme, the Club is attending three events this year at which we will be demonstrating and selling YOUR work. Therefore we will need LOTS of items to sell especially for the Kirkcudbright Tollbooth in August which we have for over two weeks.

The Committee would like to see the Club take part in the inter-club competition at the Border Woodturners Open Day in October. Each club’s entry must consist of five items, no restrictions. We are asking you all to bring your best work, which needn’t be new, to our September meeting. Members will mark each item as per our regular competition, then the top five pieces will form our entry for the inter-club competition. So get your thinking caps on and get turning your very finest pieces.

We are looking into getting ‘Galloway Woodturners’ T-shirts and sweatshirts made to identify ‘us’ and publicise the Club. What do you think of the idea ?

The Club Secretary, Roger has been very busy on your behalf and we have three superb pros booked for demos next year – Richard Kennedy, Mick Hanbury and Dave Lowe. We may have a fourth if Nikos Siragas comes to the UK and we can agree a suitable date. Well done Roger.

 

Mushroom vs Toadstools: Competition Clarification

For the sake of clarity regarding the upcoming competition item, I thought I’d share parts of a recent discussion regarding the difference between mushrooms and toadstools:

The Botanist’s answer: There is no distinction between mushrooms and toadstools. Poisonous ones are commonly known as toadstools, but botanically they are the same.

The Storyteller’s answer: Given that mushrooms are edible and toadstools are poisonous (this being the generally accepted, non scientific difference between these fungi) I say that anyone turning a ‘mushroom’ from Yew, Laburnum etc should be disqualified and anyone making a toadstool from heavily spalted timber should be allowed. We could use the bandsaw to slice anything which we are uncertain about, and fry the suspect slices in garlic butter and if kidney dialysis is not required thereafter then the entry should be allowed.

The Accepted answer: There is no difference so both will be acceptable for the forthcoming competition. I’m not sure about truffles though.

 

Sharpening at Turning Tuesday

I intend to have a major tool sharpening session at Turning Tuesday tomorrow night working on the tools left to the Club by Robert Irving. I’ll probably use the dry grinder, with and without the jig, and both the Sorby Pro-Edges. So if you want to sharpen up your sharpening come to Turning Tuesday !

Auction News

The total taken at the auction was £1965 which gives the club £393 from commission.

The Treasurer has made up envelopes containing the cash for each Seller. These can be collected from the Club Shop at any  Turning Tuesday.

Lots 57 and 76 were left behind by John Halliday by mistake so they will be put aside for him to collect at some point.

A total of 145 lots were offered for sale, of which only 19 were unsold.

The unsold lots are numbers 8, 14, 30, 63, 66, 67, 68, 78, 81, 93, 94, 98, 105, 113, 127, 130, 134, 141, 144. If any of these items are yours, please pick them up soon, if you didn’t do this immediately after the sale.

All in all the day went very well with a lot of positive feedback received – all down to a lot of effort and preparation from the Committee.