Last night’s meeting of the Nova Woodturners’ Guild was the final one for the season and it was also our Annual General Meeting.

We met in one of the classrooms, upstairs from our usual meeting place in the Carpentry Room, of the Nova Scotia Community College on Leeds St.

The meeting began with plaques being given out to a few past NWG Woodturning Competition People’s Choice Award winners. Plaques for this award were just instituted with this year’s turning competition so not only was this year’s winner presented with one but past winners as well.

We then heard from the Competition and Exhibition Committee regarding some proposals on the length of service for committee members, the competition structure, financial concerns, entry fees and how the entry fee is to be used. There was great debate on these issues and motions were passed in favour of the present committee staying in place for two years and one member being replaced each year, two competition categories; faceplate and spindle will remain, the entry fees will remain the same and will continue to be donated to charity and an increase in dues will begin in the 2010-2011 season.

This was followed by a financial report and audit which, after a couple of inquiries, was subsequently approved.

A preliminary report was given about the possibility of having a ‘junior membership’ where a member will be able to bring a person under the age of 18 that they are legally responsible for (ie, son, daughter, grandchildren, etc.) to our meetings. The purpose of this would be to share our woodturning knowledge as well as interest young people in turning. There will be more on this in the future.

Continue reading 'Notes On The AGM Of The NWG'

This month’s Atlantic Woodworkers Association meeting, the last one for the season, was a mix of reports, questions and answers, show and tell, a draw and an excellent presentation on Wood Toxicity called ‘Wood – Friend or Foe’.

The presentation on wood toxicity was given by AWA member Dr. Gene Nurse. Yep, that’s right, Doctor Nurse. Gene is a long time woodworker, a past president of the club and is now retired from the medical field.

Together with his nine year old granddaughter he put together a fabulous slideshow for us that included graphic anatomy shots and cartoon dancing dogs (mmmm… we’re still not sure who did what ). Using the anatomy shots Gene clearly explained irritants and sensitivity issues with working with wood.

Several points of note were how dust particles, because of their small size, can easily clog the smaller bronchi and bronchioles and the even smaller alveoli where the gas exchange of carbon dioxide and oxygen takes place. Also, the fact that not only do irritants enter the body through breathing but through our skin and eyes (yes, our eyes!) too.

Of course, what made this presentation not only entertaining and informative was the fact that Gene spoke from experience as both a woodworker and a doctor. So not only was he able to relate medical mumbo-jumbo to us on our terms he also focused on what cautions were specific to us as woodworkers. These were emphasized through personal stories and vivid analogies, like when speaking about working with spalted woods and cautioning us about the fungus he said, “Once inhaled it will grow inside of you. It will be like having athletes foot in your lungs.” This image certainly drove the point home!

Continue reading 'Wood Toxicity Talk At The AWA'

Here’s a small hollow vase that I turned recently. It is 5 3/4″ tall 3″ at widest to 1 3/4 at base and made of Maple.

I refer to the Maple used in this project as ‘Old Man Maple’ because the tree that the wood came from used to reside behind my mother-in-laws home and it was always referred to as ‘Dad’s tree’ by my wife and her siblings. The tree had to be removed shortly after Hurricane Juan and I was able to salvage a few pieces. Since ‘Dad’ passed away several years ago anything that I’m able to turn or build from these few pieces of ‘Old Man Maple’ will be distributed among the family.

Here are a couple of more photos of this vase:

Continue reading 'Old Man Maple Vase'