December 2021
Our guest presenter this month was Wilbur Pan, a student of and recognized expert on Japanese tools and methods of work. Wilbur is an interesting and engaging speaker who has spoken to the club several times in past. His talk this time was on Japanese saws. Among the topics he covered were, the types of saws, why they work so well, how to maintain them and what techniques lead to the best results. Thanks to Wilbur for a fun and informative evening. If you’re interested in finding out more about Wilbur, his woodworking interests and Japanese tools, check out his blog – Giant Cypress.
November 2021
We had four members present their work this month. Freddie spoke about his experience building a canoe at the Adirondak Folk School. The school, which is located in Lake Luzerne NY is dedicated to teaching the arts, crafts, and cultural heritage of the Adirondack region. The build, which takes place over two weeks, is limited to four students. It took Freddie several years of trying to register for the class before he was finally able to secure a spot in a class. Next up was Steve talking about his shop built Microjig Ultimate Workbench. For his presentation, Steve played an entertaining YouTube video (accessible via this link), which he created to document the build process. Sri was up next speaking about the build of a round pedestal dining table. The table is made of Sapele, has a 42″ wide solid top and is stunning. Last up was Greg who spoken on the tools and techniques that he uses to flatten slabs. The slabs were cut on his sawmill and dried in the drying room on which he had presented on several months back. Thanks to the presenters for an educational and interesting evening.
October 2021
Our guest presenter for October was Ramon Valdez, a furniture maker known for integrating interesting and exquisite marquetry into his work. Ramon’s topic was the “double bevel” marquetry technique! This is a fantastic process for creating beautiful motifs that can be used to decorate a box, add visual interest to a piece of furniture or even as a stand alone picture. Among the items covered by Ramon were layout, building your marquetry in layers, application to a substrate, sawing technique, the principles of double bevel marquetry and tool set. Thank you to Ramon for an interesting evening and for opening a new way to add interest and beauty to our work. Should you be interested in learning more about Ramon, he has a broad presence on social media. As a starting point, you can check out his website, www.ramonvaldezfinefurniture.com. Also, along with fellow woodworkers Philip Morley and Ben Brunick, he is the host of the “Woodworkers Podcast”.
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The club also held two additional in-person events during October. Early in the month, aboubt 10 member gathered in the parking lot to attend Gordon’s skill building session on the art of hammer veneering. His session included a discussion of the tool set, preping the material and the hammer vereering technique. Gordon provided some veneered samples and then demonstrated the process. Gordon’s demo also covered how to join smaller pieces of veneer so that a large substrate could be covered. There were plenty of material and supplies on hand so that each attendee was able to try their hand at hammer veneering a small board.
On October 30th we held and a branding / swap meet in the parking lot. The branding activity provided members who had made items for the Hermitage Museum with the opportunity to identify their work as being created by an NJWA Club Memeber. At the swap meet about a dozen or so members offered surplus tools, books and material for sale.
September 2021
September’s guest presenter was David Fisher whose topic was “Greenwood Carving, Following, Finding and Feeling Flow”. A full time history teacher in the town in which he’s spent his whole life, Dave has become known internationally for his carving. His work, all of which is done by hand, includes bowls, spoons and vessels. Many pieces are adorned with beautifully lettered phrases.
Dave’s talk was a whirlwind tour of his technique, tools and philosophy. On tools, he shapes his work with a minimal tool set without using powered tools. Many of those tools have been passed down from previous generations and will be passed on in the future. On his philosophy, he sees the art that exists in the wood as opposed to forcing his art into the material. On technique, he uses time honored techniques of swinging and ax and pushing gouges and knives while in close contact with the material.
Dave rounded out the evening with an overview of his approach to the carved lettering that he uses to adorn his work. This was an interesting evening spent with a special craftsman. If you’d like to learn more about Dave and his work, you can visit: https://davidffisher.com.
August 2021
At our August meeting we had three member presentations. Alan gave a detailed presention on a trompe l’oeil table that he built. Trompe l’oeil means fool the eye. The table has what looks like a folded piece of linen drapped over the top. However, what appears to be linen is in fact solid wood. Alan took us through the process of constructing the layers of a solid wood top. He followed that with a detailed description of how he carved a large piece of solid wood so that it appeared to be linen. He described the tools used (power and hand) as well as his carving technique. He then went on to give a brief description of how he finished the piece. Kevin spoke about two Shaker candle stands that he built. He explained how varying the size and shape of the post and feet allowed hime to come up with two unique pieces. Scott presented on a split top Roubo workbench that he built using plans from the Woodwhisperer Guild. He covered the plans, material used, where he purchased it, construction steps and his experiences using the bench. Thanks to our three presenters for an interesting evening.
July 2021
Our guest speaker for July was woodworker and author Andy Rae. Andy began his career working as a finisher for George Nakashima and working in Frank Klaus’ workshop. Subsequent to that he was a contributor to various woodworking publications, an associate editor for American Woodworker magazine and the author of several books. Andy’s tool cabinet is the well known piece that graces the front cover of Jim Tolpin’s “The Toolbox Book”. Andy spoke about his journey as a woodworker and an author. He also shared some of the techniques he’s used for designing and building furniture. He currently has his own workshop where he splits his time between taking on commissions and using woodworking to support recovering addicts. If you’d like to see more of his work, you can find him at Andy Rae Woodworking & Writing Studios on Facebook and @andyraewoodworkingstudio on Instagram.
June 2021
The topic for June’s meeting was member workbenches. About 25 members posted pictures of their workbenches in a gallery on our website. Each member in attendance was given a few minutes to talk about their workbench. Several members did more in depth presentations. Our opening speaker was Dave Petersen who took us through the design and construction of his Roubo style workbench. There was quite a variety of workbenches build in different styles and using different construction techniques and material. The workbench gallery is still available using this link.
This was the first regular meeting where members met in person since February of 2020. In order to accommodate as many attendees as possible we provided three options for attending. Members could meet indoors at our traditional location, they could attend via Zoom or they could opt for a middle ground where viewed the meeting via Zoom from the backyard at our location in Pompton Plains.
May 2021
Our presenter for May was master carver and teacher Mary May. Last year Mary had given us an overview of carving. This meeting was more of a hands on meeting (via Zoom) where Mary took us through the steps to carving two different versions of an Acanthus leaf. While carving each version, she described the tools and techniques that she was using. Although this was an opportunity to carve along with Mary, it would be quite a challenge to carve as quickly as she did. With this in mind, the session was recorded and sent out to members so that they could go through this at their own speed.
She recently finished first book, “Carving the Acanthus Leaf”, which is published by Lost Art Press. To find out more about Mary, visit her website at https://www.marymaycarving.com/carvingschool/
In addition to our regular meeting, the club held a skill session on May 15th. Three members presented on various sharpening topics. Bob demonstrated how to sharpen turning tools on a grinder, Gordon focused on sharpening chisels and plane irons on flat stones and Charlie taught the particulars of sharpening carving tools,
April 2021
April’s guest presenter was Bob Van Dyke, the founder and director of the Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking. Bob’s topic was stock preparation, make it flat, straight and square. A Fine Woodworking contribution editor, Bob took us step by step through the process he uses to take lumber from the rough stage to being milled 4 square. Speaking from the CVSW workshop, his talk focused on the use of four machines to mill lumber, the jointer, planer, bandsaw and table saw. Bob did cover spring joints, a technique for developing highly reliable edge joints. For that process he used a hand plane. Also included in his presentation was the topic of yield, which is the amount of milled stock that can be gotten from a rough board. Bob explained how to approximate the yield, why warp and twist in a board reduces yield and how to maximize the yield. Bob also highlighted some of the situations that would lead to less than optimal stock preparation including poor machine set up and errors in technique.
March 2021
March’s guest presenter was Joel Moskowitz, the owner of Tools for Working Wood. An avid collector of historical woodworking and craft texts, Joel is also the author of the popular woodworking blog “Joel’s Blog”. In addition he manufactures his own line of tools under the brands Gramercy Tools and BT&C (Brooklyn Tool and Craft). A passionate student of woodworking history, Joel’s spoke on how early woodworking texts have informed the design and development of modern tools in particular many of the tools designed and made by his company. Among the texts that he referred to during his talk was Joseph Moxon’s “Mechanic Exercises” pointing to some of the pictures in his copy of the 1683 edition, one of only a few hundred in print. Thanks to Joel for and interesting and education evening.
On Monday March 1st meeting at 7PM, we held an open discussion and presentation of our prospective projects for the Witness Tree project. Members exchanged their ideas and were able to find out if there were any duplicate or similar items in the planning. For members who have decided on a project, we will be able to present them to The Hermitage Staff and hear their reaction and comments. Many members have posted their ideas to a photo album which can be viewed at the following link: witness tree project ideas.
February 2021
Our guest presenter this month was Tom McLaughlin who is a frequent contributor to Fine Woodworking Magazine and the host of PBS’ Classic Woodworking show. In addition, Tom is the founder of Epic Woodworking, which is a high end furniture maker and woodworking school in Canterbury New Hampshire. His topic for the evening was an overview of spindle turning which is the type of turning that is most useful for furniture makers. Tom covered numerous topics including tools, sharpening, setting up the lathe, the types of cuts used in spindle turning and using templates. Tom also discussed the importance of a fair curve in order to give your furniture a professional and pleasing look. Thanks to Tom for a great introduction to woodturning for furniture makers. If you missed the presentation, the link embedded in the meeting invitation is still active so that you can watch it at your leisure (the link for Tom’s May of 2020 video presentation is also still active).
January 2021
Our kickoff meeting for 2021 began with a reap of our 2020 activities and elections for the board of directors. Following club business, we had three member presentations.
- Greg D. walked us through the design and construction of his home drying room. The room, which is attached to his shop, was built from the ground up and allows Greg to dry wood that he has milled himself
- Ben S. spoke about a branding iron that he recently purchased. Included in his discussion was the trial and error that he went through to develop a technique that would yield a clear image on his work.
- Sri spoke on a Carolina Candle Stand which he just completed. Among the topics covered were creating the mortise and tenons for attaching the feet to the post and how to attach the top to account for wood movement.
