West Bay Woodturners Newsletter is a monthly update on the club activities. This free resource is available to beginner and professional woodturners.
Next Meeting
Wednesday, April 16,
7 pm at Bridges Church,
625 Magdalena Ave,
Los Altos, CA 94024
Program
April: Angela Gunn will discuss “Wig Stands”, how to make one, and how they are used. Mark Koenig will share how to build a Beads of Courage Box.
President’s challenge:
April: Any textured piece. Extra credit for unusual approaches!
Upcoming Meetings and Demos
- April 12, Saturday: Scott Hampton demo from 9:30 am to 5:00 pm. Please RSVP.
- May: TBD
President’s Message
Well that was a very interesting meeting. Glad we have local woodturners available like Brad Bond who are willing to share their work. Definitely one of the more interesting demos we have had. I am planning on giving cup burrs a try in the near future and I hope a few other club members do the same. As Brad said, it is nice to get away from smooth and round!
In line with the above, the April President’s challenge will be “any textured piece”. This can be any form of texturing, like chain whipping (thanks Kelly Smith!), chattering, rotary texturing wheels, chiseling, and many others. I am hoping someone does something I haven’t seen before, so I encourage experimentation. Let’s see who has the most novel way to texture something.
For the April meeting Angela Gunn will be discussing “Wig Stands”, how to make one and how they are used. Potentially we will also have a discussion of “Beads of Courage”. Donation of these projects are ways we can all make a difference in peoples lives.
Tom Gaston, our VP, will be presiding over our next meeting while I am exploring the Silk Road in central Asia. So please contact Tom if you want to add any items to the agenda for the April meeting.
Happy Turning,
Jon Bishop
Last Meeting Review
Wednesday March 19, 2025
Woodturners newsletter notes by Laura Rhodes, pictures by Angela Gunn and Roman Chernikov
Announcements
- Guest – Vic Mitnick
- Next month Tom Gaston will be presiding because Jon is traveling.
- The President’s Challenge for next month will be texturing.
- Jim Koren, Treasurer:
- Two new members
- The WBW website now has an area for new member additions.
- Asking that all members respond to Jim’s email requesting validation of emergency contact information.
- Roman Chernikov:
- All members are invited to create login to access new members-only area of our WBW website.
- Roman has applied for our chapter to be considered for the communications and website award with the American Association of Woodturners (AAW).
- Jerry Galli:
- Reminder that the Scott Hampton demonstration will be on Saturday, April 12, 9:30 – 5:00, at Maker Nexus. Lunch will be included. Please pay the treasurer for your $30 entry fee. A few people will be able to take an individual lesson with Scott Hampton on Sunday, April 13. Contact Jerry to coordinate if you wish to participate.
- Pens for the Troops kits are still available from Jerry.
- Bob Bley:
- Bob promoted the use of our club Slack channel.
Program: Texturing Techniques by Brad Bond
See Brad’s Instagram: @qbranchwoodworks and his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@qbranchwoodworks
Brad encouraged us to use embellishments to turn boring wood bowls into something out of the ordinary. He encourages adding layers to textures to add interest. Brad uses a Foredom rotary tool with a 1/6 HP motor and a speed of 8000-12000 rpm with a large variety of bits and burs. He starts to create his coarse texture by drawing directly onto his piece and then cutting grooves using a rotary chisel with a ¼” shank. He then cleans out the grooves using carbide burs from Kutzall or Saburrtooth.
Brad recommends using a pair of needle-nose pliers to handle the hot bits when removing them from the rotary tool’s collet system.
After the coarse layer of texturing is complete, Brad adds the fine texture layer using a succession of cup burs, beginning with the big 10mm diameter bur and then working down to smaller ones. He was inspired by the work of Canadian woodturner, Chris Sisson. Demonstrating the cup bur created a cloud of smoke. Brad recommends either fans and a good dust collector, or even better, to do this type of work outdoors.
Rather than try to sand out the burned wood areas, Brad covers the entire piece with Black Speedball India Ink. He then adds a sparkle with gold leaf applied to selected domes created by the cup burs.
For inspiration, Brad recommends checking out the work of the following woodturners: Donna Zils Banfield, Andi Wolfe, and Jacques Vesery.
Presidents Challenge: Turn a whistle with a skew chisel
Other projects turned with a skew are acceptable, too.
Ed Howes made an egg-shaped whistle.
Jim Koren made a whistle and also brought in a book on the Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics for those wanting more information on how to tune their whistles precisely. He also made a miniature hollow form. At the Oregon symposium, one of the demonstrators said that the tone you get when you blow over the top of your hollow form will give an indication of how much more wood needs to be removed from the interior.
Tom Gaston’s whistle was shaped to easily hold with his teeth and had a hole for a lanyard.
Claude Godcharles made a Colombian guacharaca – a rhythm instrument played by scraping its grooves with a small wire brush. The original would have typically been made from palm. Claude’s was turned from padouk.
Larry Maggi made a walnut whistle and also showed a similar novelty turned walnut cigar.
Vic Mitnick showed two whistles. These were actually the 2nd and 3rd whistles he turned. The first made no noise. Whistle #3 featured a slide to vary the pitch.
Laura Rhodes made a whistle from a piece of Chinese Pistachio from the raffle table.
Laura also made an Inkle loom for weaving narrow bands. All the pegs on the loom were turned using the skew chisel.
Harvey Klein made a black acacia whistle – but it doesn’t make a sound.
Kelly Smith made a whole bowl full of whistles, including a large bass model. Kelly suggested using the remainder of the blank, turned to make the fipple, as a jam chuck to finish the bottom of the whistle.
Angela Gunn doesn’t own a skew chisel, but she made a whistle anyway. This was her second attempt. Her first didn’t whistle.
Alison Lee was impressed that the skew chisel is so versatile and can be used as a roughing tool as well as a finishing tool. She made four whistles, none of which made a sound. She showed her cherry one.
Show & Tell:
Jon Bishop was very happy to be back to turning bowls after making something like 30 whistles in preparation for last month’s demo. He showed a camphor bowl finished with wipe-on poly. He also made an alder bowl made from a very punky spalted blank. After getting a lot of tear-out, he had success using a Thompson Fluteless gouge with very light passes.
Tom Gaston made a sycamore platter but was upset with some compression marks left showing on the inside.
After turning an egg-shaped whistle, Ed Howes was inspired to make a dozen walnut eggs, appropriately displayed in an egg carton.
David Vannier made a wooden wig stand for cancer patients (after hearing Angela Gunn speak about the project at the SVW meeting). The top is olive, the rest is maple.
Jerry Galli made an off-center bowl (inspired by Brad) of American Elm, finished with Doctor’s Woodshop Walnut oil.
Daniel Saal showed 3 walnut bowls. He bought a slab of black walnut from an investment banker. He used his coring system (either the Oneway system or the Woodcut Bowl Saver, he has both).
Dan Boehmke made a walnut crotch bowl from a blank obtained at the “wood party” in Los Altos a few weeks ago. He tried to retain the flame figure as much as possible and finished with General Finishes Bowl Finish. Dan showed a camphor bowl with Hampshire sheen dye on the outside. He also showed a walnut calabash bowl (the third one he’s turned), also finished with General Finishes Bowl Finish.
Finally, Dan demonstrated how not to dry walnut. Last year he obtained a freshly cut amazing walnut burl plank. He immediately rough-turned several bowls which have warped extensively, preventing them from being finish turned. Brad Bond reminded him that this is an opportunity to try something different with texturing and “not let round get you down”.
Vic Mitnick demonstrated a home-made bowl depth guide.
Jon Sauer wanted to make a whistle, but ended up making 4 tops instead of unusual materials, including: honeycomb acrylic, honeycomb corian, and cardboard honeycomb. He also showed a box he made in 1994, turned on his ornamental lathe, made of diamond wood – resin-impregnated Baltic birch plywood. Jon admitted to using a jeweler’s loupe when finishing the final tiny details on his pieces.
Kelly Smith made 3 apple bowls. He experimented with texturing bowls using a chain and then painting with mild paint, but the milk paint tended to flatten the texture.
After too many times swinging the chain into his knuckles, Kelly embedded some pieces of chain into a wooden hammer to texture without injuring himself. He also made several platters using scraps glued together in a herringbone pattern. Finally, Kelly made one of his signature mushrooms from carob.
James Craig made an off-center walnut bowl with laser embellishment on its rim. He used General Finishes water-based poly as a finish to avoid darkening, which might obscure the laser engraving.
James sang the praises of Nova’s dome jaws which he purchased at the AAW symposium. He also is making a hobby of organizing his woodturning stuff. He made 3D-printed wall hanging chuck jaw holders and even brought a few of his extra prototypes to give away.
Traveling to the Oregon Woodturning Symposium, Jim Koren looked for wood along the way. He purchased a manzanita root ball and is wondering if anyone has any good suggestions on what he can turn with it and how to mount it on the lathe.
Our final Show & Tell item is a unique Whistle Racer created by local resident Bill Horgos, who sadly passed away several years ago. This charming racing car showcases Bill’s craftsmanship, featuring delicate woodturning, a carved bear driver, brass tube details, and other interesting features. It’s a lovely tribute to his talent and a reminder of the joy his creations bring to our community.
Participation Prizes
“As the Wood Turns” by David Vannier
If you aren’t on our slack channel, here is a little nudge. This month on the wood alert channel, a not went out about some willow wood in Santa Clara. A quick check, and i wasn’t sure if the wood would be any good, but like all varieties, there are 250 different species. It is also a relative of birch, which i was looking for to try another experiment on. So off i go! It isn’t too far, near my old stomping grounds from when we move out here in ‘77. As i get there, i see a pile of wood that doesn’t look like locust. I stop, and see some beautiful locus that sadly had been butchered by the tree cutters. As I’m looking at it, a guy comes up and tells me it is locus, and i can have any that i would like. He intended to split and burn it. Per him it burned better than madrone. I don’t burn, so can’t say, but it was heavy and i picked up a few pieces for hollow forms. as we were talking he pointed out that i was 2 blocks away from the willow, and there was a lot of it. Next stop, and yes it is willow. The owners was out trying to cut up some small bowl blanks. He had just gotten set up to turn on a shopsmith. Of course I encouraged him to attend one or both off our clubs. They planted the tree in ‘97. Wow, was it a big tree! One of the branches fell and crushed his truck. He intended to mill the big stuff to make lumber.
I then looked things over, and saw a branch, roughly 15” in dia, 5’ long with a 3 way crotch. What a sucker i am! Sadly, i didn’t remember my chainsaw, so i said I’d like that piece, and I’d be back with my saw to cut it into manageable sizes. Back home, load up, and back to the wood. 4 hrs after starting, i have this log cut up and home. Then Saturday I cut it into octagons, roughly 6 hrs so far. 3 hrs on the lathe, and i have 6 bowl blanks ready to dry, with 6 small cores to play with these frequently become jamb chucks. But add in 3 hours of sweeping up! Oh well i had a good time!
So if you are like me, turning is just so relaxing and enjoyable that sometimes it is worth taking a chance on wood, join slack, and watch for alerts! Thanks goes to Tina for getting us going on this. Beats our old email notes.
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
President: Jon Bishop
Vice President: Tom Gaston
Treasurer: Jim Koren
Secretary: Laura Rhodes
Member at Large: Dean Caudle
Meeting Program Coordinator: Claude G acting
Visiting artist Coordinator: Dean Caudle acting
Anchor seal: Dennis Lillis
Craft Supply: Tina
Librarian: Kelly Smith
Audio Visual: Curtis Vose, Edgar Whipple
Website: Roman Chernikov
Woodturners Newsletter: Angela, Jon, David, Laura, and Roman
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