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.
Are You Safe?
All turners are concerned about safety in the shop, but how safe are you? Take this assessment and it will probably include several topics you may not have considered. Additional articles about woodturner safety are included in the new Safety page.
***July 25 and Future Meetings Canceled***
The July 25 meeting has been canceled because of the corona virus restrictions. Ron Manning was scheduled to demonstrate how he designs and creates an inside-out turning.
The WVWA Board has decided that the summer picnic scheduled for August 22 will be canceled along with the regular monthly meetings until the pandemic health and safety challenges have been resolved.
Members are encouraged to stay active by participating in the Turning Tuesday sessions at the Lee Street studio, continue turning in their own shops, and sharing photos of their turnings so they can be included in the monthly website Show and Tell page.
Virtual Demonstrations
Since regular meetings are on hold for the next few months, members who were scheduled to present demonstrations are encouraged to create virtual video demonstrations. Cliff Baker and Jerald Carter are available to provide guidance in the production of virtual demonstrations.
Natural Edge Bowl Challenge
Four Club members submitted a total of five bowls for consideration. They were all very attractive and well done and I judged them according to these criteria: Design, uniform rim thickness, smooth transitions between curves, absence of tearout and tool marks, sanding with no visible scratches or swirls, and uniform finish appearance regardless of whether the finish were a gloss polyurethane or satin oil finish. Bill Sproul was awarded the top recognition followed by Bruce Brenneman and an unidentified turner, perhaps Dan Greene.
Bill Sproul: 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" cherry finished with polyurethane. Attractive design, excellent workmanship, and uniform finish.
Bruce Brenneman: 9" x 5" peach bowl, polyurethane finish. Very attractive grain and color, very nice finish.
Unsigned: 3 1/2" x 3 1/2" cherry burl, polyurethane finish. Attractive design, good display of bark on the rim.
July Show and Tell
Many Club members are spending time in their shops to create new turnings and are sharing images by email. Images shared through July 15 have been compiled and are displayed here. Show and Tell will be updated throughout the month as new images are shared.
Rocky Partington joined the Club recently and turned this very nice walnut bowl during a Turning Tuesday.
Ron Manning: Osage orange 4 1/2" salt and pepper shaker and toothpick holder finished with wipe-on polyurethane.
Ron Manning: 8" natural edge spalted maple burl bowl, finished with wipe-on polyurethane.
Gary DeGraff: 8" Silver maple burl bowl. Fantastic grain patterns and loads of holes, dents, cracks and fun!
Anne Turner: Close-up view of a willow burl bowl - wonderful grain patterns, features, and color.
Gary DeGraff: 8" walnut bowl, sapwood and heartwood. The wood was green which lead to a fair amount of tearout.
Jerald Carter: Quick-dry polyurethane finish on a 6" shallow walnut bowl;
two walnut and cherry holders for candles or tea lights;
five 3 1/2" to 5" honey mesquite bowls. Holes filled with powdered copper, powdered obsidian, or mesquite sawdust;
and a 12" spalted maple bowl. Punky areas stabilized with Minwax hardener, shellac, or CA glue/sawdust, lots of sanding.
Video Demonstrations
The March meeting was to include a demonstration by Cliff Baker on turning a natural edge bowl from green wood but since the meeting was canceled, he has made a 30 minute video of the process. He discusses many aspects of the project starting with a fresh log and proceeding to a finished bowl. Here's a link to the demonstration.
The May 16 meeting was canceled and in place of his live demonstration Jerald Carter has prepared a video showing how he designs, lays out, and assembles a segmented bowl. Here's a link to his demonstration.
If any Club members would like to produce a woodturning video, Jerry has offered to organize a video session with his videographer at the Harmony Wood arts in Beckley. Send him an email to start the process.
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.
TurnTex supplies acrylic casting resin, solutions for stabilizing and hardening punky and spalted wood, and associated equipment.
by WVWA, a chapter of the American Association of Woodturners