Woodworkers Club of Houston

 March 2021 Projects

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Jack Bailie - Craftsman style bed side table.  Quarter sawn red oak, pinned through tenon legs.  Finished with General Finishes stain and Arm-R-Seal.

Loren Gideon - A teaspoon and spatula, I think they are cherry. Finished with some flax oil.

Hugh Parker - I finished this box just before the big freeze.

I made it for myself.

It is made from an unknown (to me) wood, that my dad used to make a friend’s kitchen cabinets in 1954.  All we knew at the time was that it was a hard wood from the Philippines.

It is a very hard wood.

Steve Wavro - Here is an Intarsia Fall Welcome sign I finished last week. It is comprised of 52 individual pieces of Aromatic Cedar, Butternut, Mahogany, Oak, Poplar, Red Cedar, Spalted Maple, and Walnut. Finished with 2 coats of amber shellac.

Pamela Gideon - My husband and I made in the last months a spring pole lathe. A forever dream of mine has been to make my own bowls, spindles, and candlesticks, etc. In between after Christmas and even during the deep freeze was a creative process of making the spring pole lathe, and finishing it!  My husband was so kind to be able to help bring this dream to life, and we worked tirelessly to complete it. Maybe in the next article I can show one of the finished bowls. 

The spring Pole lathe is a Roy Underhill design. Always making sure the designs stand the test of time, the construction is made of yellow pine, with the springs are made of hickory. The dead centers are made of O1 drill rod steel.

Mike Hardy - "Woven" serving board. 16"x13"x7/8", walnut, cherry, makore, and maple. Finished with a couple of coats of Osmo Top Oil (Osmo's food safe product). First 'fancy' board I have made, and it was fun!

Lon Kelley - These bowls are made from Douglas Fir and poplar. The fir is from the wood that David, Mike and I recovered from a local church rebuilding project. The poplar came from Andy. The fir was cut on a 45 angle to make the grain appear as a leaf. Finished in poly and wax.

Dan Schmoker - Toys for Xmas.  200 tops, 9 Wheely bugs, 9 Stacker toys, paint topped with lacquer.

From the book Turning Toys, Richard Raffen. 

David Janowitz - Thanks to Bill Teague for saving this piece of firewood and giving it to me!  We did not know what it was, but it turned out to be a Mesquite burl with amazing grain.  9 1/2" across, 5 1/2" tall

Next, another FOF wood (found on floor, of a retired woodworker,) I believe this is a maple burl, with swirling grain, some birds eye effect, and great iridescence.   12 1/2" x 3" Both finished with Tung oil.
Finally, another FOF wood project, but this one was labelled as Marble Wood, also known as Brazilian Teak.  With rotating Osage Orange handles, and finished with Tung oil.  (Yes, that is food safe; In fact, Tung oil is sometimes used as a food additive.)  2 1/2" x 19".

 Next is a fixed handle American style rolling pin made from Curly Maple.  1 7/8" diameter by 20" long.  Finished with a couple of coats of tongue oil.

Next are 4 wine bottle stoppers.  Hardware, (good quality, and some of the cheapest I have found,) is from Woodchuxwoodturning.com.  He also has the best prices on CA glue, though you do pay postage, so it is only cheaper if you buy a few things.  Anyway, from the left, Osage Orange, Mesquite burl, Walnut, and Curly Maple.  I tried a new finish, (for me,) Hut PPP or perfect pen polish.  Extremely fast, easy, and cheap, but really just a hard wax, so not durable, but it gives an instant high gloss polish.  You just apply a tiny bit from a stick of material to the spinning item, then polish it with a bit of paper towel.  Cloth is to be avoided, as it can grab, tangle, and wrap around the item in an instant, with possible finger injury.  Paper towel would just tear off.  

Last is a birthday present for my wife: a dictionary stand on wheels.  Sycamore, with one coat of tung oil to show the grain more, dried for 3 days, then finished with water based urethane.  I just didn't like the effect I got with an assortment of stains I tried.  Any suggestions?  Mortise and tenon joints to attach the post.

Sankar Padhmanabhan - My wife built this blanket ladder just before the big freeze, so it came in handy during the cold days. Ladder sides are regular 2x4 from orange box store and steps are 1” birch dowels. It has a two-tone paint finish; white for the top and gray in the bottom part.

All photos and descriptions submitted by individual members.
1Wink Wood: Bob Wink lives near a commercial woodworking facility that gives away what they consider to be scrap pieces of commercial grade plywood and misc hard woods.  Bob rescues this wood before a Grinch comes and takes the scrap for firewood.  Many woodworkers in WWCH have made good use of these excess pieces by making jigs, toys, and incorporating them into their projects as you’ve seen in many Show n Tell projects. This source of wood is what has become known as “Wink” wood.

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