NEWS
Roy Wall, Guild President, opened the meeting by warmly welcoming everyone and recognizing the visitors. We had a great turn out this month, with 6 visitors and every available seat taken.
Mr. Ruben is starting a new Splinter Group focused on Scroll Saws. If anyone is interested reach out to Mr. Ruben to find out when and where they are meeting.
Roy talked about the “CHARM” shop and that he and Randy Stone have been working for about the past 2 months on cleaning and pricing all the tools. Many of the guild members have purchased tools and there are not many of the larger tools remaining. There are still lots of bargains to be found and the sail is confirmed for Saturday August 17th starting at 9 am and ending at noon. Roy will be sending out a newsletter to the guild members letting them know how to get to the sail.
Randy Stone briefed on the incident that took place in July that impacted many of our members who were traying to access the guild website. He explained that our site had been under attack by hackers from multiple Russian countries and as a result he had to revamp the security tools employed on the website. This process caused some glitches with the authentication and password reset tools that prevented some users from gaining access. If anyone is still having issues please reach out to Randy for assistance.
Dues – John Freeland announced that dues have dropped to half price and that he still has several membership cards and badges that have not been picked up. He is also starting the process to print next year’s cards (2025) and informed the members in attendance that if they have not paid 2024 dues, he will not be printing a 2025 card and will be dropped from the mailing lists and access to the website.
TOOLS FOR SALE
Scotty Moore has a fence and rails for an older Jet table saw. The rails are the round tube type rails. He also has a 12-inch Woodtek Lathe.
Mr. McReynolds is looking for a banjo and tail stock for a Delta 46-460 lathe if anyone has one or knows where he can find one, please reach out to him and let him know.
PROGRAM – John Wolf Caricature Carving
John has been carving for over 60 years. He started out under a mentor and teacher that focused on carving out of hard woods such as walnut, Oak and cherry. This type of carving was difficult and required a mallet and chisel to carve the wood. John became very accomplished with this style of carving, but during a trip to Silver Dollar City he was introduced to some master carvers that greatly impressed him and used completely different technics and materials to carve with. This was a watershed moment for John, and it completely altered the path he was on and how he approached carving.
John classifies himself as a caricature carver and brought in many examples of his fabulous work. He made a set of carvings that detailed the stages he goes through when carving a caricature. It was very helpful and allowed the audience to see the progression from block of wood to fully developed carving.
John said that the most important part of carving is having very very sharp tools. Cheep tools are almost impossible to put a sharp edge on due to often times the metal is too soft. He explained that if you are going to get into carving you need to invest in good tools. He recommends tools from BeaverCraft Tools out of Ukraine due to the high quality and great prices or a set from Ramelson tool. His recommendations for the type of blade if you’re just starting out carving is a Sloyd knife and a roughing knife.
SHOW & TELL
The guild members once again showed off their talent and extreme patience with the many pieces of art they have created. This biplane created by Mr. McReynolds using his scroll saw is just once example of the incredible craftsmanship on display. Photos of the rest of the items brought in for show and tell can be found HERE.
