Club Night Report

Wednesday 10th January 2024

Club Night Photos for Wednesday 10th January 2024 - Guest Demonstrator: Bryan Milham

Review and photographs provided by Arthur Kingdon.

We saw a welcome return of Bryan Milham who has become our regular demonstrator at our first Meeting of the year.
The theme for this demonstration was a Sewing Stand, which Bryan has found to be a popular item for gifts or for sales.  It is also a good item for introducing a wide variety of woodturning techniques.  Bryan also emphasized that the whole item uses only small pieces of timber, in this case mainly oak, that most turners would find in their scrap box.

The base was made from a piece of plank that had been pre drilled using a pillar drill, to create a recess for expansion holding. This had been done using a carbide tipped forstner bit, which Bryan highly recommended.  They are inexpensive to buy online.  Once trued up using a bowl gouge, it was then marked out for drilling six holes around the perimeter for the rods that would hold thread bobbins and, in this case, were made of brass but wooden dowel could be used instead.

The centre stem was turned from square stock to a pleasing shape, which included a pommel at one end.  This was drilled to accommodate the two arms that were intended to hold scissors.  After turning the arms, it was onto the thimble holder, the pincushion holder and finally a thimble.  The latter (possibly more decorative than practical) was made from padouk, with the end textured using a texturing tool. A bit of upholstery for the pincushion was all that was then needed to complete the sewing stand.

All the turning was accompanied by a constant commentary on the tools in use, which included several that may be less well known. One such tool was a coving tool, simply a round bar with an angle ground onto it and which proved effective in creating coves - as the name implies. Bryan is a master at using the skew and he used several during this demonstration, including a small, palm skew. When asked which was his favourite skew, he rather surprisingly said it was his vintage, carbon steel skew.

In addition to the commentary on tools, Bryan covered many other aspects. He recommended the book "Classic Forms" by Stuart Dyas (available in the Club Library) as a source for designs that are pleasing to the eye.  Instead of curves flowing clumsily into other curves or beads, separate them by fillets or quirks.

This was an excellent demonstration which covered many aspects and which had something for everyone, whether an expert or a beginner. Thank you Bryan, see you next January.
Note. The final photograph was provided by Bryan and shows one of his finished stands, as it would look in use.

The Display Table was well supported and showed a good number of items…

Arthur Kingdon showed two oval boxes that had done well in recent competitions. The box made from Corian had won a gold medal in a recent competition held by The Worshipful Company of Turners. Tim Mortimer showed two mallets with the heads turned from lignum vitae bowling woods with the handles from zebrano and also, a hollow form (vase) in elm. John Theobald showed a lidded pot in pine which had turned out well and was a commendable effort from someone new to woodturning. Paul Kohn showed three owls that each included a secret moneybox and also a pig that was a prototype for a design of salt/pepper pot (pepper pig - get it?). Dave Newman had repurposed a moulding plane and produced a very nice beading tool and door wedge. Martin Barrett showed a bowl in ash that looked good but he described how it was a recovery job after it had fallen off the lathe - well recovered! Frans Brown, a visitor, had brought along an off centre bowl in acacia. An attractive design but that 'one final cut' had been its undoing!