December 2022
In December we resumed our annual holiday get together. At this meeting members had a chance to display their work and share a meal with friends and family. Due to Covid we haven’t held this event since 2019, so members were free to bring anything they’ve built in the interim. It was also open to those who wanted to bring anything they created for the bird house or shop stool challenges. Many members brought multiple projects so there was quite a display of member work to go along with the catered feast. Below are a small sample of the work presented at the event. To see more of the work on display at you can view the following video created by one of our members.
November 2022
November’s guest speaker was Scott Severns, an award-winning master craftsman with 25+ years of experience creating functional and beautiful pieces of furniture and cabinetry. He is the founder of Oak Mountain Custom Woodwork which specializes in hand made furniture, cabinetry and millwork as well as the New Jersey School of Woodwork. As a non-profit, the school’s mission is to grow the craft through instruction and hands on experience in a friendly relaxed environment. In addition, Scott is the current president of the Society of American Period Furniture Makers (SAPFM). His topic will be machine maintenance, focusing primarily on the table and band saws. If you wish to learn more about the New Jersey School of Woodwork, click here to visit their website.
October 2022
At October’s meeting, four members spoke about their approach to finishing. Each presenter talked about a particular category of finish as well as the specific product that they use. Among the various finishing aspects covered were, surface preparation, application method, sanding schedule, general formulation as well as available products in the category. Alan opened the evening with a talk about his home brew Maloof finish using a formula which was given to him by Sam Maloof himself. Here’s a link to Alan’s presentation which contains the formula for mixing your own version of the finish. Kevin spoke about using Osmo for a finish, while Freddie talked about oil finishes in particular Bush’s Oil. Both of these presenters brought examples of their work. Bob finished the night with two separate topics. First he spoke about spraying finishes. He covered tools, technique, the suitability of particular finishes for spraying and how to maintain a spray gun. He followed that up with a demonstration of how to apply a super glue finish, a type of finish that is especially favored by turners. Thanks to our four presenters for an interesting and instructional evening.
In late October we held an in person parking lot event in Pompton Plains. About 30 members gathered on a beautiful fall Saturday to participate in our annual swap meet. This is a chance for members to sell items that they no longer use and for other members to pick up needed tools at very reasonable prices. On this day, many items changed hands. This was also a chance for those participated to display the creations they had made for the bird house challenge. Below are several pictures from the event.
September 2022
Our guest speaker for September was author, teacher and Fine Woodworking contributing editor Steve Latta. A professional furniture and cabinet maker for over 30 years, he has spent the last 20 years as a professor of cabinet making and wood technology at the Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology in Lancaster Pa. Well know for his expertise on period furniture, Steve is an in-demand lecturer at places such as Winterthur, Colonial Williamsburg and The American Furniture Study Center at Yale University. His topic was flow as it applies to furniture making. Steve focused on the building of a small, one-drawer night stand. He began with lumber selection and progressed through dimensioning and joinery. He explained “which cut, in which order, and why”. The information packed into Steve’s presentation has the potential to improve the quality of our projects while reducing workshop frustration and mistakes.
August 2022
Our guest speaker for August was author, teacher and Fine Woodworking contributing editor Roland “Rollie” Johnson. A longtime professional woodworker in Sauk Rapids, MN, Rollie opened his first workshop in 1976. A self professed gear head, he’s FWW’s expert on hand and machine tool maintenance, authoring several video series on the topic as well as providing numerous tool reviews. In addition, he’s taught finishing at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Maine and has written several books on woodworking. Rollie’s topic was coloring wood. He touched on products, types of stain, how different woods accept stain and numerous other topics. While many of us were familiar with Rollie from his work at the Woodworking Shows we weren’t prepared for the depth of knowledge that he shared with us during the evening. David Levenberg has gone through the the recording and summarized Rollie’s presentation. Here’s a link to that document.
July 2022
Our July meeting took place at the Mr. Sawdust School of Professional Woodworking in Hackettstown NJ. Our host was Wally Kunkel the owner of the school. His father, Wallace Kunkel Sr. known as Mr. Sawdust, had a school in Chester NJ which is where Wally began his woodworking education eventually becoming a professional furniture maker. Following in his father’s footsteps, he now runs his own school offering a wide variety of courses. One of his specialties, which he demonstrated for us, is using the radial arm saw to cut complex joinery. In addition to a detailed tour of the school, Wally arranged for Frank Klauz to do a short presentation and Q&A on cutting dovetails by hand. Should you want more information on Wally and his school you can visit him at the Mr. Sawdust School’s website.
June 2022
June’s guest speaker was Nick DeMars, the woodworking Product Specialist at Klingspor Abrasives who spoke about all things sandpaper and sanding. Nick covered hand and machine sanding, sanding techniques and answered questions such as what sandpaper characteristics are appropriate for wood removal vs. finish prep. As Klingspor’s router bit specialist he was also able to give us an overview router bits and their uses.
May 2022
For May’s meeting we took a break from paid presenters and focused on the work of our members. Our first presenter was Tim who described his Morris Chair build. He presented on construction details as well as his personal design decisions that went into creating the piece. There were many interesting aspects to the build including his technique for getting quarter sawn faces on all of the legs. Thanks to Tim for an interesting presentation which included a short video for each step of the build. Gordon followed with a talk on a credenza that he built. The piece has 3 drawers with veneered fronts surrounded by cock beading. It also has a shelf below the drawers that’s suspended from four delecate legs. Gordon shared his approach to overcoming each of the challenges inherent in building this piece. Last was a short talk by David on an bandsaw technique for creating interesting curved designs. The technique that he described allows him to create artistic pieces composed of a variety of wood species and shapes. Thanks to our presenters for sharing some very interesting techniques and designs.
April 2022
April’s guest presenter was Shannon Rogers, the host of Shannon’s Lumber Industry Update. Drawing on his day job as the Director of Marketing for one of the oldest lumber companies in the US, J. Gibson McIlvain, he offered a deep understanding and unique perspective on the industry. In addition, he runs his own online woodworking school devoted to hand tools called appropriately enough The Hand Tool School. Shannon spoke on a variety of topics as varied as domestic and imported hardwoods, sheet goods, the economics of the lumber industry and the restoration of Notre Dame.
March 2022
Andrew Hunter was our March of 2022 presenter. A frequent contributor to Fine Woodworking and a good friend to the club, Andrew is also a well respected expert on Japanese tools and techniques. His topic was accurate joinery layout, how to ensure that your joints are well fitting and tight.
February 2022
Our guest presenter for February was Bob Behnke of Franklin International, the makers of Titebond glues. Bob was our featured presenter in July of 2018. Member surveys have rated his presentation as among the best we’ve ever had, so we invited him to present again.
January 2022
January’s meeting was our kickoff meeting for 2022. We focused on club business including elections, a review of last year meetings and our plans for 2022. That was followed up by several member presentations. Charlie spoke about a pair of shore birds that he carved for a charity auction, Pat spoke on the crusher/destemmer that he made for his wine making hobby. We had some time left at the end and were able to have another member present an overview of thier workbench review. Thanks to Jim Mueller for taking us through the build and use of his bench