Another Good Club Night - October 2005

Another good club night, what a good choice for a heading, It say's it all doesn't it and that's exactly what it is. I arrived tonight our first after our AGM to find we have four members of the committee sat at tables up to the back of the hall ready to collect money. We have obviously the most important of them which is the club membership, then we have the Masterclass, Christmas social and the Axminster trip. These four guys spent all night at the tables but where only really busy for the period before the evenings talk.

I first put my competition piece in and chatted briefly, I managed to remember to get my raffle tickets this time and checked out the tea/coffee set up as I was down to do this tonight. There where some good pieces on the gallery table tonight. I placed the competition pieces for a couple of guys which tonight is there first of many entries, Dave was at a table taking money and Steve was late because of his work, its best to get them in ASAP in order to help the judges.

Don our chairman mentioned a new idea from the committee with regards to manning the tea/coffee duties; the idea being that the monthly programme is left on a table and members can print their names along side the night they would be willing to do the teas. If all members take their turn then they only do it once every two and a half years based on two guys working together. Sounds fair enough to me, problem was it was all set up but Steve and I didn't know it was tea break until it was announced, so it was a bit slow getting started. However, the guys will be pleased to know that's all taken care of, its all written down so each new pair will know exactly how and when so check out next months report.

I've got the order of play mixed up this time with the mention of the tea roster, but you can be reassured that you are back on track at this point, So with that item out the way Ken introduced Allen Mechen, this gentleman amongst other things restores figureheads. He retired from the fire service in 1990 and has restored some 10 plus figureheads since then. His talk was assisted by a slide show giving us a very good idea of just how bad some where and how much time and effort it took to complete the work. He went to a lot of trouble researching various methods of rebuilding using chemical glues/fillers which he is able to fix to the old timber better that he could if he used new wood. The before and after picture's where incredible considering the condition they where in when they arrived, some took months to dry out. He also did some extensive research into the figureheads and passed his research on at completion.

What made the evening was what went on while he had each figurehead in his workshop for almost a year. He would write to the establishment from where it came from with regular reports, things like "she's just come out of intensive care and is doing very well" and the establishment would write back with a get well card and wishing her a speedy recovery. This would go on throughout the year ending with a party in his garden on completion with a few invited neighbours to celebrate. The last part of his talk mentioned that while working on a particular female figurehead he unusually took deliver of another. This one was a guy and came from a ship called "rattlesnake" well it wasn't long before the letters back to the establishment mentioned that she had met a sailor, before long they were dating and then engaged. And yes you've guessed it, there where the pictures of him and the two finished figureheads in his garden getting married. As if that wasn't enough Allan read out a poem describing how the two met and the events that led to their marriage, which concluded his talk. The audience erupted with laughter and applause; it has to be said it was brilliant entertainment from anybody's point of view. I have since had a number of guys tell me they where not expecting quite the same from this non-woodturning related subject but where pleasantly surprised. They thought it was very well presented and very entertaining, so well done to Ken who arranges our programme.

The tea break slotted in here nicely which gave everybody time to check out the competition entries, sort any last payments and inspect the chess set that Allan had made to show he has other interest such as woodcarving. With the tea making things on the draining board we returned to Allan Mechin. He finished with a questions and answer session. This included some interesting detail about gilding; perhaps we will see some on the competition pieces? Ken then thanked Allan for a most interesting talk, which received a good round of applause.

This was followed by a brief talk from our chairman Don. He started with the competition results. First the club night results followed by last years novice winner of the John Davis prize. The Winner was decided with the turning of a wide rimmed bowl, both entries where of good quality. Bill Thorne judged them but because of a tight schedule we didn't get to hear his comments as he had judged them earlier. Next was to answer a request for Don to explain exactly what the minimum duties where for the vice chair and chair for our club, we are looking to fill both positions at the latest by the end of our year. This may now show that with our established hard working committee behind them it isn't such a daunting task and may just inspire someone to come forward.

Don then introduced me to give a ten minutes or so chat on our Web site. As I walked towards the front I said something like "How am I supposed to follow Allen Mechin" with that they all laughed, this was comforting for me as it was my first time as a speaker. I think I did quite well, I mentioned all the bits I guessed the guys where interested in and as a result the next night we had 150 page hits. Since then there's been an increase in hits and contacting us so a plus all round.

Back to the hall, the raffle was drawn, sadly nothing for me, that's two club nights now? Lots of chat to the novice's about their competition entries, I think we have increased our entrants to six now but there are still a good number of guys out there who could be participating. The chairs where put away, somebody put the tea pots away for me, thanks whoever it was, I collected my competition entry (you will be hearing more on that piece in due course) there was the last minute chat and lights out. And there goes another good club night.

There are no pictures this time as I accidentally touched the white balance button which made them all come out yellow and I didn't have time to get Ray's pictures.

Boots - October 2005