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West Oxon Woodturning Association.

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3rd June 2025 Martin Saban-Smith visited us again and turned a hollow form out of Cherry. The shape was (loosely) based on Febanocci principles which gave it a pleasing classic shape. It was balanced on a small Blackwood stand which contrasted the Cherry grain.

6th May 2025 we had a 'Club Night' which included a tool sharpening session courtesy of Dave Drummond. We were also able to take a look at our recently acquired lathe. We also projected some woodturning videos onto the wall of the hall. Tea, coffee and biscuits were available all evening.

1st April 2025 Keith Fenton came to demonstrate on what was his 7th visit to Elderbank Hall. He showed the delicate touch required when making double ended 'sculptures' from Boxwood. In addition he had some narrow vertical columns made from branchwood.

These items are very decorative. Suggestions for possible uses are invited. Answers on a postcard please...

29th March 2025 - WOWA put on a promotional sale and display. We were kindly hosted by the Mayor of Woodstock in her Parlour. We managed to fill two huge tables with our wares. The weather smiled on us so the footfall in the centre of Woodstock was brisk and we made numerous sales. We chatted to interested members of the public about the noble are of Woodturning. Leaflets with our contact information were available to take away.

5th November 2024: Rick Dobney came down from Barnsley and made a small hollow vessel out of a piece of Ash. After sanding the outside, he scrubbed it with a brass wire brush to 'etch' the grain. Using an airbrush, he coloured it with a blend of purple and blue. When dry he applied liming wax, most of which he later removed. The end result accentuated the attractive grain of the Ash. The hollowing out was mostly achieved using a ring tool. After fitting the lid, he turned his attention to adding an aluminium finial. This finial was turned from aluminium stock using standard woodturning tools, and polished with 600 grit using Rhynogrip Redline (widely available).

A final buffing with Autosol Metal Polish (available here) made it a 'stand out' piece.

1st October 2024: Steve Heeley travelled down from Cannock in the Midlands. He turned a candlestick out of a nice piece of Ash. The central section was textured and painted black. Sanding the black part resulted in an interesting pattern which highlighted the texture.

Steve set up a table with samples of his previous turning which we were entreated to "Look but do not touch or handle."

On 3rd September 2024, Bryan Milham visited us and demonstrated how to turn a hollow form. He brought along a piece of Yew which being recently felled was quite 'wet'. He first turned the outside which showed a nice grain pattern. After drilling a hole about 1" diameter he proceeded to hollow out the interior. Using mainly homemade tools and unable to see inside, he was turning by 'feel' and sound. The short handles of his tools caused more catches than the West Indies cricket team, but he persisted until the walls of his hollow form were the correct thickness.

After a break for tea and biscuits, Bryan made a childs puzzle toy from different woods.

On 6th August 2024 Tony Jones travelled from Gloucestershire to demonstrate a "bowl through a plate" like this one :

Unfortunately, during Tony's setting up, his chuck adaptor became jammed onto the club's chuck.

No amount of mechanical persuasion (and not a little hammering) would free it. The meeting had to be abandoned.

On 2nd July 2024, after just over a year Martin Saban-Smith visited us again. He demonstrated the contruction of a lidded box made from Ash. Martin has a variety of international expressions for describing the fit of the lid on a box e.g. French; 'Toulouse' and Russian; 'Popov'.

In the second half he made a 'dewdrop' clock balanced on a matching plinth using Padouk.

The classic roman numerals and gold trim contrasted the grain of the Padouk perfectly.

On 1st June 2024 WOWA had its first virtual demonstration via a Zoom link. Chris Parker demonstrated from his home workshop in Lancashire. He also has a 3 camera setup so all the action was well covered. He turned an offset bowl in Ash and a burl bowl with a natural edge where the burr is.

Chris showed us how to create a tempory offset fixing for the chuck using hot melt glue but he had to compromise and use screws to secure it safely. As you can see the burl bowl has a nice ripple in it which only appeared when some Tung oil finish was applied.

If you missed this demonstration you can watch it retrospectively if you contact Larry for the link.

On 7th May John Boyne-Aitkin made his second visit to us. He demonstrated spindle turning and made a Pomander out of a piece of Maple. He also showed us his modified grinder which he had made into a buffer/polisher. He had reversed the direction of rotation by mechanically repositioning the hardware on the grinder (NB. simpler to reverse the field winding if you can access it). This meant it rotated away from the chisel and allowed a high gloss hone to be obtained.

Unfortunately, John ran out of time to finish the inside and the necessary holes...

On the 4th of May 2024 we had a table at the Craft Fair in the Corn Exchange in Witney. Several members volunteered to help set up and our 'stall' in the morning. We had plenty of quality items to display, in fact we needed more space. The fair opened at 10 o'clock but there wasn't a tidal wave of customers clamouring to see our wares. The flow of people gradually increased however, with the afternoon being the busiest period. Several members visited the stand and we chatted with some old friends. Other more experienced 'Crafters' commented that it was particularly quiet - possibly due to it being a Bank Holiday and people going away for the weekend. We had three serving 'teams' of two during the day to ensure no Sales slipped through our clutches !

However, we still made a small profit after deducting our costs and generated some interest in the noble art of Woodturning.

As you can see we had plenty of examples of our skill and talent on display with a wide variety of items.

On 2nd April Paul Sweet travelled up from Somerset to demonstrate for us. He turned a Spalted Beech blank into an attractive bowl with handles 'built in'. He achieved this effect by turning an 'overhanging' rim then cutting off the excess with a coping saw.

Paul also brought along a selection of other pieces which featured translucent blue resin

For our first external demonstration of the New Year, Les Thorne visited us again on 5th March. Although primarily a spindle turner, he turned an Ash bowl with a decorative Padouk ring. His demo was interspersed with good advice and anecdotes from his 20+ years as a professional production turner.

Afterwards Les showed us how to create continous beads in the outside of a bowl using a special technique where the gouge doesn't leave the surface of the wood.

After our Christmas/New Year break our first meeting was 6th February 2024 when Dave Drummond entertained us. He explained the trials and tribulations involved when making Windsor chairs. He started by showing us a 'simple' stool which has angled legs and stretchers to make the whole thing strong.

The stool was a 'stepping stone' to moving on to traditional Windsor chairs. Dave clearly has infinite patience and he apparently 'wasted' several lengths of Ash when steaming the curved sections. Grain direction is crucial! The multiple different angles, whilst occasionally measured, were largely done 'by eye'.

Dave also made a Double Windsor chair, or Windsor Settee, which was even more complicated. With sculpted seats they were both very comfortable (I checked).

After a tea break Rob showed us his diesel heater from his workshop. Although it is a Chinese clone of a well known make it looks like a good option for heating a cold workshop. After he had opened it up and explained how it works we took it to a doorway and fired it up. After a few minutes it was delivering plenty of heat through a fan driven outlet. It was surprisingly quiet and would not be noticed over the noise of your lathe!

On 5th December 2023 we held our Annual General Meeting. The 'business' section was dispensed with very quickly and we moved on the entertainment. This was provided by our 'resident' band the "Woodentops." The last time they visited us was nine years ago (!) which apparently was their first 'gig'. Using guitar, ukelele, and double bass, they sang several familiar numbers interspersed with jokes and comedic observations. Refreshments in the form of sausage rolls and mince pies were kindly provided by Pete Brown, ably assisted by Chris Frankum.

7th November 2023 Chris Parker came down all the way from Lancashire (again) to demonstrate some colouring and texturing techniques.

He used Sycamore because it is fine grained and takes colour and textures well, but any close grained wood will work.

Finally, as an experiment he showed us how to create spirals and, by reversing the lathe direction, you can make reverse spirals.

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3rd October 2023 Rick Dobney came from Chesterfield to demonstrate the intricacies of turning off centre. He explained the various combinations of spindle off centre work and how to get clean edges on the different sections.

On 5th September Bryan Milham visited us for the second (?) time. On a very hot and humid evening, mostly using the skew chisel, he showed us how he makes sewing kits from separate pieces of wood. When assembled together they form a 'tree' with cross members to hang scissors etc. on with brass pins for bobbins. An elliptical needle case (not shown) completes the kit.

2nd August 2023: Tony Jones made his first visit to us. He made a flared 'vortex' bowl out of Sycamore.

July 4th 2023: Keith Fenton made his 8th visit to WODC. He turned two bowls from salvaged Walnut trees.

He punctuated his demonstration with humorous anecdotes from his many years of professional woodturning.

June 6th 2023; On what turned out to be only her third demonstration, Kate Kitchen showed us some basic techniques.

She made a couple of poultry toys from walnut and sycamore - a duck and a chicken.

April 4th 2023, we had a demo from Martin Saban-Smith who turned a hollow form out of Sycamore.

He spray painted it black and embellished it with a gold motif and gold bands top and bottom. He added a Padouk lid with a hole in it.

On 7th March we had another visit from Les Thorne (this time sporting a new beard). He made a hollow

form out of very dense Sheoak. Featuring a reversible finial from contrasting sycamore with a small base.

On 1st November 2022 Bryan Milham demonstrated how to make a Pot Pouri container designed to hang in a wardrobe.

In the second half he transferred an image onto a white painted turning using water slide paper which he had previously printed out.

2nd August 2022 Emma Cooke (aka the Tiny Turner) visited us again and made a small bowl from a cube of Padouk.

This was sculpted using a number 3 carving chisel which gave it a hammered metal effect.

Adding two layers of colour and gold trim to the band made this piece stand out.

5th July Les Thorne visited us again and made an ornamental hollow form from a piece of Oak.

On 7th June 2022 Paul Hannaby visited us and made a very stylish natural edged goblet from a piece of apple wood.

Using different tools including a 'sanding grinder' he made several patterns in Ash & Sycamore bowl forms.

Christine Frankum has contributed this article "How to make a Longworth chuck" Click the image to view or download it.

Bryan Milham demonstrated spindle turning (his favourite) and made an end grain 'barrel tobacco tin' with raised bands.

After the teabreak he made a 'Ginger jar' which he painted with strange coloured stripes and an iridescent blue lid.

During his demonstraion Bryan recommended various useful tools which he uses regularly.

Pete Moncrieff-Jury visited us and almost made a large goblet using three different pieces of wood (albeit from the same tree). He also made an off centre scarf ring securing it to the chuck with hot glue. Things weren't going right for him on the night and the audience was dodging flying bits of wood several times during his demonstration!

On what 'turned out' to be his 18th visit to the club Gary Rance made an unusual bell shaped salt shaker.

After the tea break he went on to produce a delicate finial style bauble out of lemonwood.

Finally, he showed some basic turning techniques for the benefit of new members (and a reminder for the rest of us).

John Aitkin (minus his bowler hat) demonstrated a Yew hollow form with an African Rosewood threaded lid complete with delicate finial and gilt texture.

A good deal of interest and purchases from the public this year yielded a very tidy sum for the club coffers.
Lots of interesting questions and numerous contact details given. Several enquirers had lathes left to them which
were gathering dust in sheds and outbuildings. We expect some extra visitors in the next few months as they seek
help to re-assemble their lathes and get started.

Tuesday 7th July 2015.

Gary demonstrated several new ideas he'd had since his last visit to us. After a refresher demo
for the new members on spindle turning the basic shapes, he moved on to an unusual spinning top
device of his own creation (?)