This month’s meeting of the Nova Woodturners Guild was a long time in the making and it certainly was worth the wait! If you remember, back at our first meeting of the season members were given a 6″ X 6″ X 3″ piece of African Red Mahogany for our Annual Fun Turn. Well, this meeting was the one where everyone brought in their finished pieces… and let me tell you, there was a slew of them! There were big pieces, small pieces, multiple pieces and tall pieces. There were bowls, hollow forms, sculptures, a piece that could rock and a piece to take for a walk. So many great examples of art and craft.

What is always amazing is that there is always such a wide variety of finished pieces – there are never two pieces alike! Sure, you’re saying that everyone is different but the thing is that we all start with the same type and sized piece of wood. Pretty incredible, I’d say!

The rules for this yearly event are quite simple – to have fun and turn anything of your choice using the block of wood (you can even use additional wood to accentuate your piece) . Did I mention to have fun? Yes, it’s all about the fun.

And fun it is. From the time we get the block of wood and place it in our shop it sits there, beckoning us (threatening us? ), demanding from our every waking moment the question – “What will I turn this block into?”. Then we wait for it to speak to us… we wait… and wait… and wait… Then, if the lathe gods are smiling and the wind is blowing just right, at the very last minute it does speak to us and it’s a mad scramble to get our pieces finished on time (sometimes the finish is even still wet when it’s brought in! ). Ah, finally, it’s done, woodturning bliss. Oh, there are some that the wood speaks to immediately but do they really get to enjoy the anguish and turmoil that this block of wooden fun brings? LOL!

Seriously, the Fun Turn is a great opportunity to try something different, perhaps even turn something that you wouldn’t normally turn. This, of course, can take your skills to another level.The biggest enjoyment I get is just by participating in the camaraderie of this event. Yep, it really is a lot of fun. It really is.

I believe that we all outdid ourselves again this year. Here, see for yourself:

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The feature of this month’s meeting of the Nova Woodturners Guild was a presentation by Zalman Amit. Zalman is a local woodturner, a member of the Nova Scotia Designer Crafts Council and was one of the judges for our woodturning competition last month.

Zalman took us on a tour through three different finishing approaches that he uses on his beautiful wood turnings. These included piercing, branding and inlaying.

Beginning with an extensive overview of his piercing technique he went through the steps for achieving the best results. He explained the need for thin walled vessels, the best woods to use and vessel preparation. He also compared the pros and cons of different piercing tools, which he brought in. These included a Dremel, a Foredom and a high speed air driven handpiece. The speeds differed with these tools from about 30,000 rpms to over 300,000 rpms! The higher speed offers more control, are faster and there’s little or no burning. Here are a couple of photos of piercing that he did using the air driven tool:

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The Nova Woodturners Guild 2010 Woodturning Competition was held this past weekend and like the others before it was a great show! No, it was a fantastic show! No, it was a super show! Yeah, that was it.

There were almost fifty pieces entered by twenty different entrants with styles that ranged from furniture to sculpture and from small to large. It was an excellent representation of the club’s diversity and skill levels.

The most sought after prize, The People’s Choice Award, was won again this year by Don Moore for his Cherry Burl vase with the burned edges.

On winning, Don related the story of how this piece of wood was painstakingly turned. Apparently it had been in a fire and it was quite charred when he got it. This, as you can imagine, created quite the mess while turning. However, like a Phoenix it rose from the ashes to become this beautiful piece here:

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This month’s meeting of the Nova Woodturners Guild focused on chucking options, the upcoming Woodturning Week at Lee Valley and a well participated Show and Tell session.

David Wilkins presented an excellent tutorial on the extensive variety of chucking options available to today’s woodturner.

He spoke at length on the four prong spur drive, the two prong center, the Stebcenter, faceplates, faceplate rings, a variety of chuck jaws, worm screws, the Beall spindle tap, live center systems, vacuum systems and chuck keys. Examples of all these items were on hand with some being passed around for closer inspection.

During his talk on the subject of chuck jaws the use of the available whiteboard allowed him to better explain the importance of cutting a dovetailed tenon:

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