There are woodworking events throughout the year and all over the world and it is hard to keep track of them. My wife and I like to travel a bit and this will help coincide a woodshow with our travel plans. Hopefully you will find it helpful as well.

You can access the Events section at anytime by clicking the ‘Events’ link on the top menu, or by clicking here.

If you are aware of any wood shows, competitions, seminars or any other woodworking related event you can add an event here.

Back to the shop…

I spent some time this past week creating a few cutting boards. Cutting boards make great gifts and are fairly easy to make. I used a variety of woods and edging to make each one different. Here they are:

The board below is approximately 10″ square and made of walnut and maple:

Continue reading 'Wooden Cutting Boards For Christmas'

It’ll soon be gift giving time so I turned a couple of more pens. The one on the left is made of Cocobolo and the one on the right is made of Tigerwood. Cocobolo is a rich looking wood and makes very elegant pens when finished and Tigerwood, with it’s shades of orange and browns, creates a comforting combination.

Back to the shop…

I upgraded my grinder yesterday with the Oneway Balancing System and a new cool grinding wheel.

Apparently grinding wheels are not balanced and can vibrate, not giving the best sharpening possible and the balancer corrects this problem.

The kit comes with a balancing stand where you place the wheel on and then by positioning weights you get the wheel balanced. This took a bit of time but once done it doesn’t have to be done again.

Continue reading 'Grinder Upgraded And Balanced'

Merry Christmas to me… Merry Christmas to me…

Since the woodturning tool sharpening seminar I took back in October I knew that there was a better way of sharpening my tools. I can assure you that my ‘freehand’ sharpening leaves a lot to be desired! Since then I have been eyeing the Oneway Wolverine Sharpening System and since it’s almost Christmas I bought the basic system with the vari-grind and skew attachments.

Continue reading 'The Wolverine Sharpening System'

The December meeting, also known as the Christmas meeting, of the Atlantic Woodworkers Association was held tonight at Lee Valley.

The Christmas meeting has been the tradition among the AWA members to bring in (and show off :)) toys that they made. The toys are given later to the Salvation Army to distribute to underprivileged children. This year, as in the past, the toys were a varied mix and very professionally done. There were trains, trucks, games and hobby horses. I’m sure the children receiving them will be entertained for a long time with these! Take a look:

Continue reading 'Woodworking In Toyland'

The theme of the December meeting of the Nova Woodturner’s Guild was lathe and woodturning safety.

Ken Parsons, an experienced woodworker and wood turner who has been practicing his craft for over forty years, was the guest speaker. An expert in woodworking and cabinet making Ken also does custom production work in both spindle and face plate turning. He has learned a lot about safety in woodturning, often the hard way… as most of us do, unfortunately.

Ken covered a wide range of issues from toxicity in wood to proper clothing and various safety guidelines like:

1. Always wear a facemask when turning.
2. Keep the guards on your grinder.
3. Always use a dustmask when sanding.
4. Stand to the side when starting your lathe.
5. Ensure tightening tools are removed when starting your lathe.
6. Blow sawdust out of equipment, electrical outlets and heaters

This was a general talk that served as a reminder of the importance of safety in the workshop, something that we can never get enough of.

Back to the shop…

Here’s a couple of more pens that I turned this afternoon. Both are the American Flattop style. The one the left is made of Hickory and the one on right is made of Zebrawood.

When I first started to turn the Hickory I thought it was quite plain but when finished it showed a great contrast. I have become quite partial to it.

I expected the Zebrawood to be hard to work because it appears ’splintery’. However, it turned quite nice and created a nice ribbon affect throughout it’s length.

Back to the shop…