Northumbrian Woodturners Association
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Friday 11th November Demo by Dave Willcock
Friday 10th November Demo's by Walter Vasey and Arthur Cornell
Friday 13th October Demo by Walter Vasey -  7 " Beech platter in 15 minutes!
Saturday 9th September Demonstration by Philip Greenwood RPT
Friday 8th September Talks by Ian Elliot (Solid Surface Material as a medium for Turning) and John Christie (Scrollsaw use)
Friday and Saturday 11th and 12th August 2017 Demonstration by Eugene Grimley
Saturday 15th July 2017 Demonstration by Margaret Garrard
Margaret prepares the blank for a hollowed pot.
Demonstrating the Simon Hope hollowing tool.
Margaret's hollowed pot along with her jig for finishing the base.
Spoon hollowing jig.
Margaret's napkin ring and jig.
Friday 14th July "Hands on" Evening
Chris Tait demonstrates making a box with finial.
David Lishman shows off his skills with a decorating elf.
Chris has attracted an audience.
A close up of Frank's parting tool work.
David turns his hand to a chattertool.
Saturday 1st April NWA Stall at Cowells Garden Centre Ponteland.
​

Thanks to our 2 special April Fools - Chairman Stan Oakey and Walter Hall who sold lots of items.
Stan & Walter at Cowells
Friday 10th March    In-house demonstration by Walter Vasey with running commentary by Chris Tait
Walter turned a Chinese lantern box
Saturday 11th February    Teach-in / Tutorial for intermediate turners.
A morning of hands-on turning led by Chris Tait with assistance from Nick Simpson.  The subject was hollowing green wood, mostly ash but some beech and yew as well. Unfortunately only one finished item was offered for photography!
Malcolm Howat, Chris Tait and Billy Brown
Chris tries Ian's RS2000 deep hollowing tool
Ian Elliott with his RS2000 hollower
Ian's finished vase
Bruce Coles has a go
Mick McCabe turning a thin-walled goblet
Malcolm Howat using a Big Brother-type hollower to turn a delicate vase in beech
Nick Simpson and Mick mccabe
John Mahoney tries a Crown Revolution hollower on yew
Mick McCabe and Billy Brown
Friday 13th January   NWA Members' Hobbies Evening with....
Walter Hall, Nick Simpson, Neville Bailey and Malcolm Howat

Walter Hall..................Restoration of old woodworking tools
Walter brought a range of restored wood working tools and demonstrated the principles involved with a chest drill.  Walter's electrolyte was a mild solution of washing soda.
The talk was illustrated by a PowerPoint presentation of work-in-progress photographs.
A full version of this can be found on Walter's website www.walterhall.co.uk/images/stories/Stanley_No_748_Breast_Drill_Restoration.pdf
 

Walter and his tools
Powerpoint illustration of electrolysis
Pre-treatment!
Dismantled to every last grubscrew
Cleaning with Gunk
Electrolysis to get rid of rust with mild solution of washing soda
power source for electrolysis
the vat in action!
All cleaned and rust free
ready for reassembly
spotless!
reassembled but does it work?
YES!!
Nick Simpson.......Re-creating Victorian Grain Measures
Nick circulated original Victorian grain measures and his own replicas among the audience and illustrated the method used with a work-in-progress schematic diagram. Members suggested more modern approaches but Nick believed that the originals were made along the lines of his illustration but using a hand saw rather than band saw. Nick's measures are accurate to with a few grains of corn to 1 pint, 1/2 pint and 1/4 pint (gill).

1/2 pint original
Nick with his 1 pint version
Nick's 1,1/2 and1/4 pint versions
The w.i.p. schematic
Neville Bailey......................Making your own turning tools
Neville discussed sources of high speed steel  bar and rod and demonstrated his jig and techniques for tool production. There was a lot of interest from members about the talk and techniques which could make tools for a fraction of the cost of well-known toolmakers. Please note that the angle grinder was disconnected from the mains supply.
Talking about sources of HSS
Neville's hand made tools
Setting up the jig
Malcolm Howat.......................Stickdressing
Malcolm demonstrated all the stages of the traditional Northumbrian craft of Stickdressing. He started with wooden handles and moved on to horn from cow, water buffalo and sheep. He explained how horn, which is hollow, is compressed and moulded into shape before hours and hours of painstaking rasping and carving to reach the final shape. And then it has to be carefully shaped to merge with the shank (the marriage). Malcolm showed the steps necessary to straighten a shank. Discussion was lively as it appeared that several members had dabbled in this craft.
A wooden handle straight off the bandsaw
uncompressed ram's horn
Shaping the handle with an impressive display of sticks
The marriage 1
The marriage 2
Capping pointy antler with black buffalo horn for safety
A buffalo horn handle
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