Another Good Club Night June 2006 - June 2006

Another good club night indeed, one of the best things I ever did was to choose that tittle for these reports. When I say choose I didn't really, it was just a short sentence that summed up that first evening I sat making notes for the article, it was the perfect tittle so its stayed. Anyway, here we go again, I was late tonight and Don was putting the camera's up when I arrived. When I got there the other members had only just started to arrive so it was all hands to the pumps. The lathe was still out the back and there were a good number of chairs to put out still. The camera's and sound where pretty much set up and various tables and a few chairs out but still some way to go before the off.

More and more members turned up and with coats of they soon got into transforming the hall into a welcoming meeting place. I started sorting the tea/ coffee out with Dave, another member ask him if he needed a hand so I got on with something else. Angie had a table to put all her things on that the members had donated for her class; I set up a table for my bits. Tony showed me his turning, which was a good effort, a variety of items, which is always good because of the different experiences you will get, plus he entered the competition for the first time. That made my day because I've spent a lot of time and effort encouraging novices and it's just beginning to pay off.

So it wasn't long before we where ready, Our demonstrator for the night had set up a shop on a couple of tables and a good cross section of quality items there was to. Before I knew it the 45minutes I had left myself before the start had gone and Don was calling for quiet. There was the usual update of various club matters and some hilarious bits thrown in. This always reminds me of the warm up man you get before a live TV show. Last of all he presented Angie with a Sorby Sand Master which she was more than happy to accept. Don passed over to me for a few items and then he introduced our demonstrator for the evening.

Tonight we had John Johnson; it started being funny right from the start because John was struggling to get the microphone on. He wandered around at the back testing the sound which seemed odd to me because he was asking if we could hear him, well being in amongst us I thought, well if you can hear it then so can we? It was obvious we where in for a good-humoured evening. First on the agenda was an earring stand, he explained how he very cleverly used a 24 indexer to obtain 16 holes and how to drill precisely into the blank, obvious when your shown it but I probably wouldn't have thought of it otherwise. The timber used was Sycamore, although John thought that perhaps one of the pieces could have been Maple.

Everything was explained in detail with items passed around for a closer look. Running slightly later than we usually do John finished the piece and we stopped for refreshments. Before members could applaud I quickly butted in with a thank you, I said " John doesn't know it yet but he has donated a bag full of sanding disc's to Angie for her class" and of coarse everybody gave a hearty response, quite right to. So many thanks to John's wife for the very understanding and generous donation.

As you can imagine John didn't get much peace during the interval and his wife was busy explaining and selling things. The break is very useful as the members move around asking, purchasing, advising, booking, checking out the library, getting raffle tickets, and most importantly that cup of hot stuff and a biscuit to keep them going. I didn't get to leave my chair this time as I was collecting names for the novice summer outing to John Davis, I wonder if we could make it and annual event now I've given it that heading? More organisation! We love it don't we. And I also spent time talking about sheep; yes I did say sheep, more on that one later. At this point I'll put in the usual comment "apart from that it was quiet" again. Thanks go to Angie for getting me a cup of tea, very welcome.

So back to the demo, John asked for a marker and after some searching he proceeded to the Nobo board on the wall, he drew the shape of the bowl he was looking for with some more humorous bits thrown in. He then presented an 8" Ash bowl blank to the lathe; first he turned the base with ease which included a spigot. John used a Multi Star chucking system; I have seen these and thought they where a bit fiddly but he made it look easy? With the inside facing him now he turned the face of the rim and then the inside, without to much checking he turned it fairly thin, as it should be, that's experience for you. Before he tooled the outer rim he stained the top face of the wide rim; a number of carefully applied coats went on which was followed by a lime wax. This was then wiped of and finished, and then the rim was trimmed just enough to give a clean crisp edge to the staining, perfection. This was presented to a now becoming embarrassed Angie to help with her class activities.

Don said a few kind words and thanked John and his wife for the evening, which was well applauded by the members. I had a couple more items to mention and then it was the raffle, No ticket drawn this month, that's two meetings on the trot now? Some good prizes to, never mind. So then we had the last few bits from Don, The two tea/coffee guys tonight where Dave Jenkins and Bill Samways, thanks guys, very clean and tidy job they did to, don't tell the wives aye! And then it was the chairs, lathe and tables away, sweeping up. And I almost forgot in my hurry to get away on holiday, many thanks to Jim for the library and Eric and Peter for judging the competition, 6 novices but just two advanced, the subject was a recorder, so there wasn't likely to be to many was there. We had 65 members here tonight which I suppose could be classed as the holiday season, so not a bad turnout.

The best bit of the night for me, meaning absolutely no disrespect to John for his brilliant demo. Was that my eldest son was on his way to a meeting across the road tonight, saw my vehicle outside and took the trouble to come over and see what his old dad was up to, he popped in again at the end to look around. I was very proud to introduce him to several of our members, it made my day.

Finally, a tip from our demonstrator tonight, "When sanding, If you can smell meat cooking, take you fingers away, there getting to hot" And with that thought in mind, and I know we all do that, its time to wind up this months club night report, so with the last goodnights and lights out, there goes another good club night.

Boots- June 2006