February 17, 2026

Miles,Paul,Rick,Francis,Jim MacLean,   Lawrence

Miles's Scroll saw project

Rick-Spruce Dish

Rick Spruce,-Birch

The meeting today was excellent.

Lawrence demonstrated a charcoal pouch he made to use with the perforations carving template he showed us at last session. He used a lump of charcoal from the fire place and pulverized it and wrapped it in  cloth. One dabs it on the paper template and when the paper is removed one connects up the dots which are left on the workpiece.

Lawrence discussed the salient issues with respect to spraying finishes:

1    Use a good spray gun, one that has a regulator to enable changing the spray field.
2    Make sure ventilation is good so that the air is evacuated as needed
3    Use a good face mask to trap fumes: one with filters that are replaceable is best
4    Spray beyond the workpiece and with the grain pattern
5    Before spraying, sand the workpiece with 120, 150 paper. Using finer grits is usually not needed
6    Let the piece dry-20-30 minutes before proceeding to a new coat
7    Lay down lots of coats
6    After each coat, cut the last layer with finer sand paper and Varsol lubricant
Rick brought several of his burls and discussed how he goes about turning them...paying strict attention to grain patterns and preserving intricate patterns and knots etc

Francis discussed the issue of radon gas in a home. He has been getting high readings and has had to get a ventilation system installed.  The Passerini Company is local and will do a 90 day radon detection analysis at a cost of $500.(Paul's information)

He also had questions about the use of several chucks-The McNaughton coring system and the Barracuda type chucks. Lawrence was able to explain  how to use the systems.

Lots of discussions about the late  Leo Macneil's expertise and teaching skills and some of the past (deceased) members woodwork skills.

Lawrence demonstrated several pin chucks made of wood and jam chucks.He also demonstrated several turning tools which he made from Vehicle struts!

Lawrence took Paul's bowl out of the refrigerator kiln. The humidity was down to 10-15 % in various spots. He had coated the bowl inside and out with white glue diluted with water to prevent too rapidly  drying the wood.

Rick suggested he bring in an old school desk and use it to go through a finishing session.

Some Canadian Sources:

Bandsaw Blades 

Tufftooth blades

Woodessence

Finishing Supplies

Exotic Hardwoods Canada

Burlington Ontario

Above:  Paul's  improvised Polishing system

Sharpening-some new Picts

Lawrence's carving template

Made a wooden adaptor to attach the polishing wheel

Honing disc attached to Taig Lathe

Bowl buffing wheel

 

Woodworkers 2025 Renewal

   

                       

Pen Blanks(Apple)            Carving design /Template(Lawrence)    Birch Bowl Blank-20% Humidity

Carving/Guilding Jig

                                    Image of the week: Lawrence's jig for carving/Gold Guilding

February 3,2026:

Attendance:Paul  Murphy , Arno Raymakers Jason Hiltz, Jim MacLean, Lawrence Martell, Rick MacDonald

The group began a renaissance of the biweekly meeting in mid 2025. The meetings are held  from 1 pm to 3 pm at the workshop of Lawrence Martell in Howie Center. So far the membership is limited. The first few workshops discussed:

A home made refrigerator kiln. This was demonstrated by Lawrence during the first session and was an ingenious project.

Sharpening hand saws and bandsaw blades was discussed in the second session

Carving basics was the topic in the third session

Pen making on the Taig lathe was the fourth session

Gold Guild techniques was the topic for today. Lawrence went over the use of Moawk sizing to lay down the gold and did a demo with a small piece that Paul brought. It was a "coaster" made of either plastic of metal and had grouped squares with  a recessed design. It worked very nicely. The trick is not to apply the gold until the sizing is just a little tacky and once applied stipple the gold in by dabbing the brush into the workpiece if it is three dimensional. Use a brush  or forceps to pick up the gold. Rub the brush into your hair and the static electricity will pick up the gold. A pencil eraser works as well. Lawrence made a jig to hold a vase securely for carving and guilding -See image above

Lawrence also demonstrated how to trace a carving design  onto a workpiece. Draw the image first on paper. Use a sharp awl to put small spaced holes along the drawing lines.Apply the paper to the wood. Push the awl into the wood at the location of the holes.  Then use a pencil to  connect the dots on the wood to create the image . Refine the image. Apply several  coats of finish like lacquer before starting to carve.Then use a sharp carving tool to cut out the design. Slow a steady is the  rule.  Use a small  curved file to sand out the design smoothly. Lawrence also discussed the types of paint to use on a vase before doing the gold fill part. Acrylic paint is good: One can buy it at Michaels Arts store. One has to sand each coat to a fine finish before applying Lacquer. 

Paul had a birch bowl turning that had some defects like cracks and small voids . It was 20 degrees humidity. He convinced Lawrence to try to dry it in the fridge lathe! We also discussed various epoxies to use for filling voids in wood. Some dry rapidly with an exothermic reaction (the epoxy gets hot!). Others dry slowly:eg Boat repair epoxy which is very porous and seeps deeply into wood. It takes 72 hours to cure.

Paul had a silicone tray he uses to bathe the wood in epoxy to fill defects and fissures in small wood pieces for pen turning. The epoxy stabilizes the wood for turning so that chip out is avoided. See photo above.

Arno demonstrated the use of the Veritas MK2 Power  sharpening system. It provides a simple way to get a razor sharp edge and micro-bevel on an edge. The machine is compact but the down side is that it is expensive.

Jason Hiltz brought some  lathe tools he bought at Canadian Tire and we discussed their use. NOTE: Gently soften/round the edge of the flat tools (Scrapers and skews) so that the edge does not dig into the tool rest.

Jim MacLean demonstrated and distributed to each member some ear rings he made from Canadian coins.

We agreed to add using spray guns to our topics for upcoming sessions.

Other topics for our meetings: 

Basic grinding of tools—best grinders, various profiles and grinder safety
Bring an unusual/obsolete tool for discussionTuning the table saw -basics
Jigs : Jigs for hand tools; (eg the miter jig-how to build one that is task specific); table saw jigs for specific tasks:  bring the jig and demonstrate it eg: crosscut sleds of various types
Crown molding jigs (Lawrence!)
Sanding tips
Painting tips
Melting  and forming metal for jewellery (Jim)