Tony Handford was the demonstrator for our November meeting.
As usual he had something big and this time around it was a large apple tree root.
I had to go and help sort out some personal business at 10 o’clock so I didn’t get a photo of it in the raw but picked up where he had turned the back end and the chucking spigot and was turning the outer shape. The photos show two views of it so far.

He went on to hollow it out using both bowl gouges and Roli Munro tools and using his hollowing tool support as he got deeper in to the vase. As with most of his work every cut has to be done with care due to the very irregular shape of the log. Sanding is only done with the lathe stationary using both a power sander and hand sanding where Tony prefers to use Abronet. More photos to show the stages to finish the vase including the use of a non slip mat on the jam chuck when finishing the base and a carving tool to remove the final pip from the base. And last of all the finished vase just needing a few coats of finishing oil. In the afternoon Tony set up a log of lace wood to turn a natural edge bowl. Starting off between centres with the drive centre in the side with the bark on he turned the outer shape and created a spigot to reverse it on to so that he could hollow it out. This done he mounted it on the chuck and hollowed it out using the same tools as before but taking the wall thickness down a short distance at a time to keep the flexing down to a minimum. This way you should get a nice clean cut without any ripples being left behind. The grain on this piece was beautiful after careful sanding with Abronet. He ran out of time to completely finish it and although Tony offered to leave it for one of us to finish it off no one took him up on the offer. We had some quiet times and some busy times at Dobbies and on Sunday Chris and Dawn got in the festive mood ( Santa was calling in!!) Bert got one of the staff to draw the raffle. We raised £870.91 all told. This will be rounded up to £880 to be shared equally between MacMillan Nurses and Heart of Kent Hospice. Well done to everyone for all the time and effort put in Our next meeting is on Saturday 8th December and it is a club day with a difference. It should include a presentation by the Southern area rep of the AWGB. Please prepare some searching questions or comments to make him welcome If there is any interest in joining said organisation, let him know. So come along and enjoy the day We will have our chatty moments as well. With this newsletter you will find your renewal forms for 2019 and membership fees have not gone up. Please be sure to tick the box at the bottom if you want to be included in the club directory. I know some of you filled in the form earlier this year but this is something that will be repeated each year now. I need the forms whether you post your subs to me or pay at the next meeting by cash or card. Graham

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