Serving Southeastern West Virginia
The West Virginia Woodturners Association provides woodturners in southeastern West Virginia and western Virginia with an opportunity to meet other turners, enhance their skills, and share their skills and interests in woodturning. Send an email to info@wvwoodturners.com to request additional information about the club and its activities.
Next Meeting - November 21
The November meeting will begin at 9:30 AM at Gerald Chandler's shop in Crawley. The meeting will begin with the annual election of officers and directors who will serve beginning with the January 2015 meeting. The meeting will also include door prizes, a raffle, and Show and Tell. Mike Cope will demonstrate how to turn a goblet and also several methods for determining the thickness of the base of a turning. The challenge to Club members for January will be to turn a goblet and show it at the January 24, 2015 meeting.
Dave Dudney will be talking to the Club members about the opportunities to serve as volunteers at the 2015 AAW Symposium in Pittsburgh on June 25-28.
2015 Slate of Officers
- President: Harry Newman
- Vice-President: Jerald Carter
- Treasurer: Gerald Chandler
- Secretary: Bob Nickel
- Director: Wayne Aliff
- Director: Cliff Baker
- Director: Mike Cope
- Director: David Vehrs
Additional nominations from the floor may be made prior to the election.
October 25 Meeting Highlights
Twenty members and nine guests attended the meeting which featured the Club's semi-annual wood and tool auction. The meeting also included a very informative demonstration on wood burning. In addition to the door prize and raffle drawings, Show & Tell featured a number of turnings that members had recently completed. These three turnings were given special recognition:
David Vehrs: multi-axis "rocker"
Mike Cope: 24" spalted maple
Bowl with pyrography
Woodburning Demonstration: Larry Weese
Larry Weese, a professional turner from the Mountaineer Club in Ripley, showed us how to lay out a design on a turning and how he carries out the "branding". Additional examples of his work can be seen on his website weesewoodgems.com . Larry offered these and many words of wisdom during the course of his demonstrations:
- You must do something different to differentiate your turnings from your competitor's work.
- Concentrate first on design form, shape and functionality, then tool control.
- Branding requires a high wattage tool (130 watt) to get high temperature and uniform darkness.
- A low wattage tool(50-100 watts) is needed to get the shading necessary for pyrography.
- Never bargain with a potential customer - mark the price you want to receive.
- Never cut prices on the last day of a show - your earlier customers will tell their friends and never come back.
- Don't show items you don't want to sell. Mark them with a high price, never "NFS".
Larry Weese describes the geometricpattern on the rim of a walnut plate.
Larry uses a 130 watt dual channel Burnmaster "Eagle" woodburner with a variety of tips.
The burner tips Larry often uses (left to right): knife, skew, basket, writing.
If you are an artist, you can create your own designs, but hundreds of designs are available from doverpublishing.com at very attractive prices. These patterns can be scaled to the exact size needed for a a turning.
To apply a flat pattern to a concave surface, crinkle the pattern by rolling it between your hands, spray it with 3M "77" adhesive, and press it onto the turning. The pattern should be applied to bare wood - do not apply a sealer or other finish before burning!
Anchor your hand firmly on the workpiece and carefully trace the pattern with the burner tip. If the tip seems to stick on the wood or follow the grain, turn up the heat on the burner.
Turpentine dissolves "77" adhesive. Apply it with a stiff brush, let it soak for a few minutes, then carefully peel the pattern from the wood.
Patterns showing plants or animals are well-suited for the "branding" technique that Larry prefers.
Geometric patterns are also very effective on many styles of turnings. After the pattern has been removed, light sanding will highlight the design.
Lathes and Lasagna
Lathes and Lasagna sessions are temporarily suspended since Bill is in the process of moving his shop.
General Club Information
For further information about any WVWA activity, call Bill Sproul at (304) 497-2319.
Supporting Companies
We would like to thank these companies for the support they have provided to the Club during the past year. Check out their websites when you are ready to purchase products that they stock.
Craft Supplies USA is a one-stop shopping site for everything a wood turner might need or want - lathes, tools, accessories, project supplies, materials, and more.
Woodcraft offers a 10% discount at the Roanoke store to WVWA members when they show a current membership card.
by WVWA, a chapter of the American Association of Woodturners