Woodturners Newsletter, March 2025

West Bay Woodturners Newsletter is a monthly update on the club activities. This free resource is available to beginner and professional woodturners.

Next Meeting

Program

President’s challenge:

Upcoming Meetings and Demos

• April: TBD
• May: TBD

President’s Message

I hope that everyone enjoyed the demo I gave in February. Working with the skew has been quite the learning experience. I encourage everyone to give a shot at the March president’s challenge, using the skew to make something. You get double credit if it makes any noise!

I discovered that giving demos is fun! Most of the time we work by ourselves in our toy rooms, in my case the garage, and seldom get to share how we actually work. So doing so in front of others can be an enjoyable experience. I found it interesting trying to explain what I was doing and why I was doing it in that particular way. Everyone should try it.

This upcoming March meeting presentation will be about texturing. Brad Bond has agreed to give a talk on his very unusual approach combining carving and texturing. It may be a little smoky so remind me to open some of the doors during his presentation! It would be a good quess that April’s president’s challenge will be carving and/or texturing.

I will be out of the country during April’s meeting, so Tom Gaston, our vice president, will be covering for me. We are looking for a presenter for that meeting so let me know if you have a topic you would like to present. Again, you do not need to be expert at it, just something you find interesting and would like to present or demo. Also, let me know if you have a topic you would like to see presented – maybe we can find someone who can do that.

Happy Turning!

Jon Bishop

Last Meeting Review

Wednesday February 19, 2025

Woodturners newsletter notes by Laura Rhodes, pictures by Angela Gunn and Roman Chernikov

Announcements

• Guest – Alison Lee
• Jim Koren, Treasurer:
  • New members: Patty O’Brian White, Pranay Argawal
  • 52 people have paid dues
  • About 16 have not yet paid dues
  • CBN wheel order from Woodturning Wonders, new editable file in progress
• Jerry Galli wants people to go to the Oregon Woodturning Symposium, March 14-16, 2025. About 6 people are currently signed up to go.
• Bob Bley:
  • Angela Gunn mentioned on the AAW site with respect to her WIT (Women in Turning) collaboration
  • Bob would like to set up more collaboration between club members and welcomes input on how to facilitate this.
  • The presidents of West Bay Woodturners, Silicon Valley Woodturners and the Santa Cruz Woodturners are meeting via Zoom to discuss better coordination.
• Roman Chernikov:
  • Would like to add a local wood carving club Santa Clara Valley Carvers to the collaboration
  • With our new WordPress website, Roman would like to submit our site for the AAW award. Submission is due March 14.
• Dean Caudle, program director:
  • Scott Hampton will be demonstrating on Saturday, April 12 at Maker Nexus. A flyer with a QR code linking to the sign-up form is available. Scott will demonstrate a tri-corner box, an erosion bowl, and a platter. Scott will be available on Sunday, April 13, for private tutoring. If interested, let Dean know via the sign-up form.
• Larry’s sanding paste was available for sale at the back table.
• Next month’s demo will be Brad Bond demonstrating texturing.

Program: Turning a whistle with a skew by Jon Bishop

Jon gave a basic lesson on the skew chisel and then demonstrated skew techniques while creating a whistle. He passed around a variety of different skew from his personal collection. The basic skew cuts include: scraping; peeling; planning; V-groove/edge; shallow cove; and beading. Jon recommended Matt Monaco’s skew videos on the Craft Supplies YouTube channel. Another member suggested Brian Havens YouTube channel for skew chisel techniques.

The included angle on the skew should be between 25 and 45 degrees and the skew angle, between 20 and 30 degrees. Some people like their skew ground with a straight edge, other like a radiused edge. There are also skew chisels made from oval, rather than rectangular stock. You can sharpen a skew chisel either with a hollow grind or a flat grind. To sharpen with a hollow-grind, set the platform on the grinder to the desired angle and mark the desired skew angle. If opting for a radiused edge, pivot to create the arc. You can also sharpen a skew with a flat or slightly convex grind using the side of a CBN wheel.

Here are the steps Jon used to create a whistle using the skew chisel:

• Put one end of blank in the chuck
• Drill 3/8 inch hole about 2 ¼ in deep with a lathe at 430 rpm.
• Use the cone-shaped live center in the drilled hole to provide support.
• Round the blank using a peeling cut.
• Smooth using a planning cut.
• Mark for the notch about 1″ in.
• Mark the end of the bored hole.
• Using a razor saw, make a 90-degree cut about to the middle of the blank.
• Make the second cut at an angle to the first.
• Clean up the notch with a file.
• Shape the whistle as desired.
• Sand and then part off.
• Use the remaining wood in the chuck to create the plug.
• Get the diameter of the drill bit on calipers.
• Using a peeling cut, get close to the diameter.
• Fine tune using a planning cut.
• Part off plug.
• Use sanding disk to slightly flatten top of plug and glue in.
• Shape the mouthpiece using a sanding disk to the desired shape.

Presidents Challenge: turn a natural (live edge) bowl or a bowl with handles

Show & Tell:

David Vannier created his own version of Sammy Long’s elegant pierced parasol featured in the February 2025 issue of the AAW American Woodturner. Dave’s version was turned from birch to a thickness of between a 1/16 inch and 1/32 inch. The ribs and edges were embellished with blue metallic paint.

Kelly Smith, as always, has been prolific. He showed two Hollywood juniper bowls, a broadleaf maple bowl, an olive vase, turned green nearly a year ago, finally finished, a couple copies Harvey’s ornament, an apricot bird’s mouth vase with a little turquoise, an apple bowl, an ash bowl, a cypress box, a maple sphere, and a whole collection of mushrooms.

Other projects by the WBW club members:

Participation Prizes

“As the Wood Turns” by David Vannier

At our last meeting you heard from several members who took a hands-on class with Tina. All expressed how much they learned and enjoyed it. I’ve been convinced for a long time that she would be a good instructor, with her clear focus on the communication side of teaching. I’d like to encourage everyone to take advantage of demos, hands-on classes, and symposiums.

Our club offers us an opportunity to learn from each other through the club meeting programs, as well as bringing in professional demonstrators for the day. Don’t miss these opportunities! There is a work/reward proposition in running the all day demo’s. Yes, there are logistics which take time. But hosting a professional, and having quiet time with them is a rare opportunity. One i would encourage you to consider. I managed the demonstrators for 5 years, and had nothing but positive experiences. Hands on classes are generally not handled by the club, and are set up to cover themselves. Over the years, I hosted a one day class with Andi Wolfe(painting and wood burning), a 2 day class with Stephen Hatcher (stone inlay), a 1 day class with Johannes Michelsen (wood hats), participated in a 1 day class with Sharon Doughtie (Celtic knots), a 3 day class with David Ellsworth (who doesn’t know David!), and most recently a 3 day class with Jacques Vesery (burning, carving, painting, and above all inspiration). As you can tell, each was memorable and I am glad I’ve done every one! I have attended a number of zoom classes. These are inexpensive, can be done from home, and can be very informative. But, staring at a computer screen has its limitations before the mind starts to wonder. So in person if at all possible. But don’t discount those Zoom opportunities.

AAW will be back at the home office this year. I was there in 2011, as I attempted to understand what was expected of us for the San Jose Symposium in ‘12. My best description of it was herding cats. If you’ve attended one, thank the people running it. A lot of unseen work goes into making it look like a smooth running machine. My favorite symposium was the Utah symposium. Nothing like gathering with fellow turners and making friends while eating ice cream and BYU campus creamery. Evening were always filled with unscheduled demo’s and of course the famous egg cup races. I never participated, and watched in fear as people threw all safety aside in a race to make an “egg cup” faster than anyone else. As an example, one turner used 2 tool rests and 2 gouges. With lathe running full out, one gouge was used to core out the cup and the other was used to shape the outside. If i remember correctly it was under 10 seconds. Don’t quote me on that. But was it a beautiful shape, ehhhh. Was it done riding a bevel, awwwww. Fun to watch, YES! Would i do it, NO! I don’t know anyone that got hurt, but it certainly didn’t demonstrate safety practices.

So my advice is, don’t miss opportunities to learn. Have fun, enjoy life.

Dave
www.daves-turned-art.com

Woodturners Newsletter Editing Notes

WBW members, please let the newsletter editors know if you have a personal website and would like it included in the President’s Challenge and Show & Tell sections of our Woodturning Newsletter. Email us at info@westbaywoodturners.com.

WBW board members and committee chairs