Day 2 St Ignace

Well we are set up for day 2 here. The sky is clouding up and it's cooler. Hopefully the buyers will be warming up. Some of our wares are pictured below.

St Ignace Art Show

We have 2 booths at the show. On to sell turnings and one to demonstrate wood turning. 2 day show. Traffic has been light today. Hope tomorrow is better.

Vases by Tom Cadwalader

The vases are  turned from maple, purple heart and the box is oak that was on the bottom of Lake Superior for a number of years.

August Mtg by TJC

At our August meeting we had another great demonstration.  Our August demonstrator was Steve Promo.  Steve showed us how he makes his larger bird houses.  It was a very informative demo.  Below are some stills from the demo.  A video will be available in the coming weeks.  Again if you weren't present....you missed another great demo.

Starting with a fairly round cedar log.  Where does he find timber with the center already marked?  That was one of the questions asked of Steve during the demo.

July Meeting

Ok so I am just a little late with this post.
At our July meeting our demo was done by Gary Weiermiller. Gary showed us how he does his seed pods.
Gary first turned the seed pod, which was basically a review of his blind boring demo. Then Gary showed us how he refined the shape and added detail through carving. It was a very interesting demo. Below are some pictures from the demo as well as the show and tell table. If you weren't present....,you missed a great demo.

Shear Scrapper by Tom Cadwalader

I was looking through the newest issue of the Woodturners catalog the other day.  In the tool selection guide I saw a Shear Scrapper.  The description read:

"A shear scrapper is simular to a standard scrapper with the burr on top side of the tool used to cut the wood.  Shear scrappers have a semi-rounded underside that allows you to roll the scrapper on it's side, which changes the angle of the cut from scrapping to a shearing cut resulting in a smoother surface in some cases"

This tweaked my interest, as I had just had a very difficult time with some end grain tear out issues in the las few pieces I had turned.  I looked through the various tools offered,  including those that were endorsed or somehow designed by well known turners.  To my surprise there were hardly any shear scrappers offered.  Why weren't all of them offering shear scrappers ?  Maybe they aren't the answer to my tear out problem after all.

Shear scraping has to be better than scrapping.  How are other turners getting the shearing cut from their scrappers.  I have seen our demonstrators making shearing cuts with gouges, but scrappers don't normally have rounded bottoms.  Are others modifying their scrappers to allow them to be rolled into a shearing position ?

I welcome others to comment,  all of this sanding of end grain tear-out is not fun.

Tom Cadwalader

Some new turnings by Tom Cadwalader

An Ash bowl ( or open vessel ?)  12" x 4 1/2"  The textured banding is  also has ruby Rub'N Buff for contrast.

Cherry Burl natural edge bowl.  5 1/2" x 4 "

Open Vessels from spalted pecan.

The larger one is 9 " x 5" and the smaller one is 4 1/2" x 2 3/4"