Woodturners Newsletter, June 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

May: TBD

President’s challenge:

Upcoming Meetings and Demos

• June:

President’s Message

Why do we all love woodturning so much? Because despite all the trials and tribulations, funnels, cracks, and general disasters, we sometimes are rewarded with surprisingly beautiful results.

Personally I needed to remind myself of this after “funneling” a very promising piece of wood. The type of incident that makes you curse in exasperation.

In these instances, it is better to take a break, at least for an hour or two, but even better for at least a day. You will find that that urge to get back to the lathe will return. You may even be able to rescue that “hopeless” piece and make something quite nice.

Keep it around to remind yourself to take it slow next time and think ahead a little bit. For instance, if I had just thought to drill a depth hole I could have avoid my mistake. Surprising how may times I need to learn that lesson, though!

On another note, I hope everyone enjoyed April’s presentation on avoiding tear out. Interesting how when you explain something like that it helps you become a better turner yourself. I guess we all learn more than we realize while working on the lathe.

I think for the June meeting we fill focus on the president’s challenge and show & tell. That is unless someone would like to give a demo or presentation. Let me know if you are interested.

Jon Bishop
WBW President

Last Meeting Review

Wednesday May 21, 2025

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

Announcements

• Guest – Maya Azubel who has taken Tina’s introductory turning class.
• Jim Koren, Treasurer’s report
  • 59 paying members, 11 haven’t yet paid
• Discussion of potential group wood slab/large blanks buy. Potential sources of North Coast myrtle and madrone, burls from the Central Valley, walnut from decommissioned groves in the Central Valley.
• Roman Chernikov, website update
  • Our galleries on our website need updating. Roman to provide a tutorial before the start of the next meeting on how members can populate their galleries.
• Bob Bley spoke about another potential source for fresh wood – check your town’s almanac to see if anyone is applying for permission to take down a heritage tree.
• Tina Chou plans to discuss our club’s successful use of Slack with the AAW leadership at the Symposium in June.
• Jan Dedek offered free madrone blanks – available at his car at the meeting break.

Program – Jon Bishop & Tom Gaston – Avoiding Tearout in Bowl Turning:

Jon gave a series of hints to avoid having tearout while turning a bowl. His main points are:

• Sharp Tools
• Tool Presentation
• Hardeners/Stabilizers
• Specialty Tools
• Better Wood

Jon had issues with some spalted alder. Some of the tearout was minimized with using the bowl gouge in a sheer cutting presentation, but the use of a fluteless gouge proved to be the best cure. Sometimes Jon uses a coat of shellac on troublesome wood to help stabilize to minimize tearout. Jon did a real-time demo on the lathe using maple to demonstrate different cutting techniques.

Tom Gaston also did a real-time demo. He had a bundle of skewers to demonstrate the structure of wood to show why the unsupported end grain often tears out. Tom’s hints include: having sharp tools; cutting with a light touch (don’t remove too much wood); grind off the heel of the tool to make it easier to turn the corner on the inside of the bowl; use a 40/40 grind.

Presidents Challenge – Charitable Item:

Laura Rhodes made a wig stand. She didn’t have any suitable blanks, so she glued up blanks from scraps of walnut and cherry that she had left over from other woodworking projects.

Kelly Smith came home from last month’s meeting and made both a wig stand and a Beads of Courage box the very next day. The BOC box was made of redwood from a tree in his yard. The wig stand is of cypress.

Steve Dahout made a wig stand for cancer patients.

David Vannier made two wig stands, each with a heavily textured top to help prevent wig slippage.

Show & Tell:

Tom Gaston showed a maple salad bowl that was initially turned ten years ago. He wanted it thinner, so he was able to create a new recess on the bottom and re-turn both the inside and outside of the bowl. Tom also showed a sunflower bowl. He shaped the petals around the rim using a KnewConcepts fret saw and then sanded them smooth. Tom also brought in a live edge bowl, possibly of pecan.

Bob Bley often has issues with his pieces shifting while mounting on his vacuum chuck, so he made a vacuum chuck integrating a spring-loaded cone to overcome this problem. He showed the new chuck, but he hasn’t yet tested it. Bob showed an elegant macassar ebony hollow form. The form was initially created as two separate bowls and he accentuated the seam between the bowls with man-made opals. The lid and finial connect to the main body with plastic threads. The lid incorporated a sphere made from the man-made opals and it was a challenge incorporating the sphere with the ebony finial.

Jon Sauer brought in a vase he made in 2014 of African Blackwood and polymer clay. He used his Rose engine lathe and it took two weeks to make. The vase was created for the AAW Symposium auction, but Jon couldn’t bear to part with the piece and so bought it himself.

Tom Mandle created a Rose Engine attachment for his PowerMatic lathe. He shared plans for the attachment and showed a bowl with the border it carved.

Tina Chou, accomplished turner and woodturning teacher, took a 101 Turning class at Craft Supply to get hints on how better to teach beginning turners. While at the class, she made several wooden eggs and the bowl to hold them. She also made a slew of medallions to play with texturing tools such as the spiraling tool and the Wagner tool, finishing them with liming wax and colored markers. She learned from Emily Ford (who makes thousands of textured, colored tops each year) and brought back a couple of Emily’s tops.

Vic Mitnick made a walnut bowl with walnut from Benicia. He finished it with walnut oil.

Nate Seagraves bought a very large olive root ball. From a small piece of it he created a “Barely There” vase with almost more air than wood. He plans to create a similarly shaped lamp base from another piece of the same root ball.

Daniel Saal showed several bowls that he’s made, several of walnut, one of madrone burl. One of the walnut bowls had an unintentionally textured rim.

Kelly Smith made two Norfolk Island pine vases, a spalted vase, a round vase, a bowl from unknown wood and three mushrooms. One of the mushrooms had a tapered stem, but he prefers the ones with an onion-shaped base.

Participation Prizes

“As the Wood Turns” by David Vannier

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