Club chairman Steve Cassidy took everyone right back to basics for March’s club meeting and showed off a couple of little projects that can (hopefully) be completed by absolute beginners with either a scraper or a gouge.  Hopefully, these will turn out to be fun teaching projects for any members to work through with someone who they know who wants to have a go at turning

Paul Bellamy returned to Cannock Chase Woodturners for February and gave a demonstration of how to produce a “Scottish Water Flask” (mainly used for holding single malt!).  Paul worked through the steps and showed how to taper the inside of the neck of the bottle so that a cork could be inserted and not wobble or fall out.  When the task was completed, Paul explained how to coat the inside of the bottle with resin, in order to ensure that there are no leaks.

Steve Heeley returned for his traditional December demonstration and showed how to use a small light to turn an extremely thin walled goblet. The piece was made from semi-dry oak – which makes things tricky (the dryer the wood, the less light seems to shine through – making it more difficult to judge the thickness. 

To wrap up the demo, Steve the turned a small scoop, suitable for coffee, sugar, oats or rice (any dry food, really).

Cannock Chase Turners were happy to welcome Ron Till back to the club in August, and Rob's demonstration was how to turn a piece of branch wood into a small house, complete with smoking chimney (by adding a small incense cone).  The natural edge on the roof and base adds a lovely rustic look to the piece and Rob explained how best results can be obtained by using woods with contrasting sapwood/heartwood (such as yew, laburnum, or walnut).

Alan gave a demonstration of how to turn an off centre bowl.  Using his chucking technique an rather cute sun and moon pattern is left on the back which, rather than detracting from the project (as many chucking points left on a piece often do), actually added an interesting feature.  Alan walked the club through the process and explained the importance of safety when dealing with off centre work.

In February, the club was pleased to welcome Britian's Best Woodworker finalist, Wolfgang Schulze Zachau.  The project he produced was an oriental box, with a square base, round lid and decorative finial.  While walking us through the process, Wolfgang talked about some of the equipment he was using, explained his approach for taking certain cuts and gave an insight into his switch to becoming a professional woodturner.

Rounding off the year, the club welcomed back Steve Heeley for another of his excellent demos.  This time, Steve turned a pestle and mortar from ash and boxwood.  This is an interesting project for new and experienced turners alike, because it involves both faceplate (the mortar) and spindle (the pestle) turning.  Steve talked about how to achieve the correct sweeping action to remove wood efficiently, create a smooth curve on both the inside & outside of the mortar and create a pleasing and functional shape.  He also touched briefly on wood toxicity (don't try to make one in Yew!) 

Standing in for us in November was Rob Till.  Rob showed that you don't need to spend a fortune on expensive exotic woods to produce great pieces of work.  Using laminated pieces of Redwood Timber from Wickes, Rob created a stunning candlestick, that combined elements of inside out turning with classical shapes and form.  Rob explained the technique for creating the paper joints for the first stage and (with the help of some Blue Peter style items that had been made earlier), took the members through the whole process from start to finish.