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Kiama Woodcraft Group April 2020

Kiama Woodcraft

Group Inc

WWW.kiamawoodcraft.org Box 572 Kiama 2533 kiamawoodcraft@gmail.com

April 2020 Newsletter Committee

President: Ted Batty:-97478426 Vice President: Darren Keen:- 0415 155 200

Secretary: Darren Collins :-42361466 Treasurer: Tony Walsh:-0416151380

Newsletter Editor: Tom Loosz:- 0411112041 Co-ordinator: Vacant Contributors to this Newsletter include Barry Mather, Tony Walsh, Ted Batty and the Editor (me).

Meetings at 7 pm 4th Wednesday of each month at Kiama High School:-Next Meeting TBA

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KWG Fire Old Station Sales Sept/Oct TBA

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News Update for the September/October Sales Week Ted writes:- I can report that the application for the next sale has been submitted for end of September/beginning of October. Louise has advised that she will be contacting us regarding use of the fire station under the current conditions. Just because the application has gone in, does not does not mean the sale will go ahead. If restrictions are lifted, we (I) will have to decide if it is worth going ahead with the sale. Hopefully there will be something near normality when the time comes. By my calculations, we have about 6 months of shed time to have a significant inventory for the next sale and some for the Christmas sale. No excuses for not having lots of items to sell this year, well for me at least, funny how you tend to get slacker (maybe just me?) when there is lots of time in hand. Tom

TREASURY REPORT FOR FEBRUARY/MARCH. As expected, during February our income was minimal to say the least (at 8 cents of bank interest) and our expenses quite high. This was mainly due to the lead up to Expo, such as, additional printing, internal signage, float monies and of course the hiring of the Masonic Hall. Australia Post also wanted their annual post office box fee. By mid March however our revenue stream had improved somewhat with the input of our Expos collective sales. We are now running just below last year in our working account. Specific dollar figures have been forwarded to the club secretary and will also be available to members on request.

KIAMA LIBRARY ‘CLUB CHALLENGE’ EXHIBITION. The majority of the exhibits have now been returned to their respective owners. I still have Ted’s, David’s and Mal’s at home, so if you are in need of them before we meet as a club again, please contact me……thanks Tony.

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Kiama Woodcraft Group April 2020

A Two Cent Bowl. Ted Batty

This is a design I have wanted to try for some time. The first picture shows the top of the bowl with a groove cut in the rim. I then poured a thin layer of resin in the groove and let it set. I then put two cent coins, which I had cleaned with dilute hydrochloric acid, in the groove and poured resin on top. When the resin had set, I turned away the underside of the rim to expose the resin and then the top side of the rim until flush with the resin. Although I had used a level to make sure the blank was flat before pouring the resin, it was not flat enough and I had to turn quite a bit of the rim away to true it up. I was very worried that I was going to go through the resin and hit the coins but I got there. I ended up with the rim only about 4mm thick. The bowl was then finished off in the usual way. The timber is Chinese tallow and it is 310 mm diameter and 50 mm deep. The finish is Wipe On Poly.

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Kiama Woodcraft Group April 2020

Ted Batty

These are some bangles made from a lump of coolabah that I got from Luke at Expo . The first picture shows the lump of burl and the last picture shows a couple of pendants made from the plug from a bangle.

Barry Mather Barry has been busy making children’s toys, Barry has made this outstanding wooden model truck. This would make a nice present for Christmas, better get the production line running Barry!

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Kiama Woodcraft Group April 2020

CLUB CHALLENGE ENTRY Tony Walsh

A squished up clock was not my initial choice. I fully intended to select a few chess pieces and cut them out in a progressive form using the scroll saw. Then later on during the year complete the set plus make the opposing pieces in Huon Pine. This proved to be much more difficult than first thought. Although, with some helpful instruction from Ted Hawkins was set on the right path, TIME was running out. So later, while staring at a ‘G’ clamp on the bench (I was de-rusting) and thinking back to a web site where I had seen an oval clock, then wondering when would you use an oval clock face,’ SQUEESED FOR TIME ‘ a slogan for a fictitious company called “Bitmore’ was born. I had already purchased a thread making Die & Tap set for another project, the problem now was to scale all the items together. A larger clock face or a smaller thread size would have been preferable. However, a bit of jiggery pokery sort of made the idea work. I think keeping it simple was the best move, some of the early drawings I must admit were a ‘bit out there’.

Shoe Horn Production Tom Loosz I sold my last smaller shoe horn at the last sale, so I thought it was a good time to make a few more, these are the smaller variety, measuring roughly 300 mm. I still had some acacia stenophylla commonly called Eumong or river cooba, that I had harvested a couple of years back from Warren NSW. It’s a nicely figured acacia with a pungent smell when being worked. I sliced a small log and cut out a few shoe horn blanks and started carving out the scoop with a sharp curved chisel. This wood is a bit cranky and the grain goes all over, so it’s hard to carve in one direction. (my excuse anyway)

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Kiama Woodcraft Group April 2020

Once I have a decent depth for the scoop I start planing the handle with a spokeshave and this nice plane I bought from a local hawker (JD). It’s a bit fiddly getting the shoe horn shape right but I like making shavings. When the general shape is completed I cut some of the back edges off with a band saw to reduce some sanding. I now move to the belt sander and perform a little finessing to compete the roughing out. This is where I need to watch my knuckles, it’s amazing how much skin you can lose in a fraction of a second!! Speaking from experience.

A lot of hand sanding is now the order of the day, I generally start with around 60 grit to refine the scoop, to improve the shape and to remove as much torn grain as I can before moving on to the fine grades of paper. There’s probably an easier way to do this but I think I have more control sanding by hand. I generally sand outside in a sunny spot rather than create more dust in the shed and it helps me get my vitamin D for the day. At this stage I have sanded to 60, 180, 240 320 and 400 grit. Time for a cup for coffee and a biscuit, this is hard work.

Before I coat the shoe horns I like to drill a hole in the top of the handle to take the leather hanging strap. The shoe horns are then given a coat of Danish Oil and hung in a dust free place to dry. I used plastic lidded crate and strung some wire across the inside to support the shoe horns while they dried. I coat them 3 to 4 times to give them a nice protective finish. I soon discovered the crudely taped wire version didn’t provide the support I thought it would, as I found them all in a crumpled mess the next day. The photo below shows the modern equivalent of the wire support, actually some plywood I had lying about made a nice support stand. This was a better option. Following several coats of Danish Oil I then tied a piece of leather through the pre-drilled holes ready for the big sale day. The process of making a shoe horn actually takes quite a few days. Now you can all make one!

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Kiama Woodcraft Group April 2020

The modern stand. Finished products.