May 9, 2017 – North Woodside Community Center, 230 Pleasant, Dartmouth
32 members and guests in attendance. Call to order by chair at 7:05
Business & Reminders
Welcome guests. Review of agenda.
- BOD meeting update – Stephen gave summary of recent BOD meeting held at Tom Patterson’s house. Quick presentation of proposed new committee structure – will be seeking committee volunteers
- Media – Stephen presented the recent article from LocalXpress.ca
- Road Trip – a group of members went to visit Expressions of Wood in April. Great experience, interesting projects. Some sharing about what was seen. Details on website
- Graham MCCulloch recognition – Ted Monk recommends naming the library. Some discussion on whether this sets a precedent for retiring members but long-time members agree that Graham’s role in starting and supporting the organization goes beyond average. He was instrumental in getting started and has donated many of the library books as well as frequent items for raffle or sales.
MOTION: That we name the library “ The Graham McCulloch Library of Woodworking” and present a plaque, which will be placed on the library.
MOVED: Ted Monk SECONDED: Gary Dumas
Before vote, Walt Vanderkeift suggested an amendment to the motion to add that Graham all be issued a life time membership.
MOTION CARRIED
Presentation
Our guest speaker tonight was Simon Shaw, a violin maker and Paris-trained bowmaker. Simon shared some of his creations as well as the story of his journey to becoming one of approximately 100 bow recognized bow makers in the world.
He told us some of the adventures it took for him to acquire skills as well as a little of the process. We learned bows have long been made from Brazilian pernambuco, which is now an endangered species. As a result, bow makers are reusing old wood, looking for alternatives, and supporting regrowth programs of traditional woods.
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- Guest Simon Shaw presenting some of his materials
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- A variety of small tools and supplies
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- A special cello Simon built as a requirement for ceritification
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- Inlay not usually done on traditional instruments
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- Complex, beautiful inlay.
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- Some tools of the trade.
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- Members had lots of interest and questions
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- Name of bow maker on the handle positioned to be easily read by player.
Show and Share
- Gary shared a reminder of the importance of being constantly aware of safety with the example of what happened to a too-worn push stick
- Other show and tell
- Brad shared a beer mash paddle – and a plant stand project that he will be teaching at a 2 hour beginner class at Hands on Halifax. It focuses on dado join and finishes with test tubes to hold plant seedlings
- Trevor made a laser cut tic-tac-toe game with shells and starfish and an experiment he did with a segmented circle
- Darrell showed how he had turned handles for some acquired hammer heads – one handle for a poster hammer and several for small finish hammers
- Bill brought a paddle that he started for last year’s 2x 4 challenge – and finished with a spokeshave after last month’s challenge
- Stephen presented a scraper shave that he made in response to our spokeshave challenge. He found the templates on line and had copies to share for different styles shaves.
- Bob brought some wood he was trying to identify. He observed that it was not easy to work. Gary suggested it was palm and others agreed
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- Gary with a warning piece
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- Brad made a beer masher
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- Brad’s prototype for a class at Hands on Halifax
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- Trevor presented a tic-tac-toe game with shells and starfish
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- Trevor also played with making a rounded board from segmented shapes
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- Darrel made a handle for a poster hammer…
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- … and for several small hammer heads he acquired
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- Bill brought a paddle he started for last years’ 2×4 challenge
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- … finished off with help of a spokeshave
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- Stephen found a plan for a spokescraper and shared his first effort
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- Bob seeking some opinions on wood he was given
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- Don gave a short description of experience at Lee Valley with bird house building
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- Darrel has some spokeshaves for sale
Other Business
- LV Bird / Bee / Butterfly house project – Don and Dave shared their experience making birdhouses with home school group at Lee Valley before today’s meeting. It was both fun and productive for all involved
- 2nd Annual summer BBQ – will again be hosted by Ted and Debbie Monk. This year, July 22 with July 23 rain date. Potluck. Details to follow.
No 50/50 this month as everyone was so interested in chatting with our guest speaker during the break
Next Meeting / Challenge
June 13. Final meeting of the season. Presenter Don Shubaly project reboot
CHALLENGE: 2×4 challenge using 1 construction grade 2×4 and no other wood. Other embellishments are allowed. Prizes will be awarded by a draw. All participants will be eligible to win.
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