Author: Alec Mutch

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Report on our meeting on 09-01-2020, making wooden jewellery.

Our first meeting of the year took place on Thursday evening on the 09th January 2020, it was organised by Douglas Stewart and the theme was making wooden jewellery, Douglas had originally arranged for 5 turners to be working the lathes, however there were only 3 turners as the other 2 had to call off for various reasons, suffice to say there was insufficient time to organise replacements. The 3 turners were Douglas Stewart, Geoff Potter and myself, Douglas was to make a scarf clip, Geoff was to make a jewellery stand and I was making wooden ear rings.

There was an excellent turnout for the first meeting of the new year and Geoff was also collecting subscriptions for the year along with making his jewellery stand.

The following gallery of pictures accompanied with a little text should give you a flavour for how the meeting went, the pictures were courtesy of Mike Day.

Here we have Douglas Stewart as he makes a start on his scarf clip project.
Douglas had prepared his blank prior to coming to the meeting.
Douglas is now skimming the face of his project, a thin disc used as the base of his scarf clip.
The 2nd part of Douglas's scarf clip required a pin to be made from wood.
Here Douglas is finishing off the pin.
The finished disc of wood now sanded sealed and polished.
The finished product being put to it's intended use.
Douglas went on to start another clip, here he can be seen working the back.
Now Douglas is working the face of his 2nd thin disc.
Here we have Geoff Potter as he works his jewellery stand column.
Geoff used a fairly rough piece of wood that he would also turn off centre in some areas.
The shaping of the main stem in progress.
Geoff continued to refine the shape using the off centre turning methods.
Here Geoff can be seen sanding the stem.
A final sand before sealing and polishing.
In the foreground Geoff's finished stem showing some of the off centre work.
Here I am (Alec Mutch) setting up to start making ear rings.
The blank I used was made up from 6 different woods.
Here I'm making a start on the first cuts, only one tool was required for all the turning, a small spindle gouge.
Once shaped the worked piece is now sanded.
The ear ring was then sealed and polished and now needs to be cut off.
Here I'm using the spindle gouge to shear cut the base, it should not require sanding.
Here I'm parting off the ear ring with the spindle gouge, supporting it with my left hand.
A second one was made, this takes a little longer to do as it needs to match the first, here I'm applying a wax finish.

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This was only a very small journey into jewellery making, there are a number of books dedicated to making wooden jewellery that you might find fascinating , we hope this little experience has widened your view on woodturning, all of the metal parts required for jewellery making can be purchased from various sources on the internet.

Our next meeting is on the 23rd January and it’s also being organised by Douglas Stewart, the theme being making wooden toys and puzzles. There will also be a committee meeting that evening.

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This week’s meeting, 9th January 2020, making wooden jewellery.

Firstly I would like to take this opportunity to welcome all our members to our 2020 meetings, the first of which is this week.

This week’s meeting on the 9th January 2020 is all about making jewellery using wood or other turning products, it’s has been organised by Douglas Stewart and he has arranged for 4 other turners along with himself to man all the lathes. On the lathes will be Douglas Stewart, Peter Lawrence, Bill Munro, Geoff Potter and myself, we hope to show some diversity in the items that can be turned from wood or other materials in the making of jewellery.

The featured picture comes from our last Showtime meeting in 2019, that was shown by Douglas Stewart where he brought in some very fine examples of wooden jewellery he had made.

We hope to see you all there and do remember that the subscriptions for 2020 are currently being taken by Geoff Potter, anyone who has not already renewed their subscription has until February 6th to do so.

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Happy new year for 2020.

The committee for Highland Woodturners would like to take this opportunity to wish all our members, past, present and future a very happy new year, we would also like to wish the on line members a similar very happy new year, your involvement in using our web site and facebook page is very important to us.

I will remind all our members that the first meeting in 2020 is on the 9th January, it’s being managed by Douglas Stewart and the subject will be making wooden jewellery, we hope to see you all there.

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Report on our meeting on 11th December 2019, Christmas competition & Christmas raffle draw.

Our last meeting for the year was on the 11th December 2019, it was also the Christmas competition where our members were asked to make something without having a theme,in other words it was an open competition. This applied to all 3 categories of turners in our club and the entry level was very good from all 3 categories. The standard of workmanship in all 3 categories was also very good, making the judging very difficult. The judging was carried out by all the members in the club and a winner did emerge in all 3 categories. This meeting was also our meeting where the Christmas raffle draw was done, this was handled by Colin MacRae and Jim Kelman, there was a huge amount of prizes , some bought by the club and some donated from the members. The turnout for this meeting was as expected very high. To get a flavour of how the meeting went, see the gallery of pictures below, click on the pictures for a larger view and a little text. Pictures by Alec Mutch.

A view of some of the members prior to the start of the meeting.
Picture 1 of 3 showing all the raffle prizes.
Picture 2 of 3 showing some more of the raffle prizes.
Picture 3 of 3 showing even more of the raffle prizes.
These were the entries in the Novice class, a good number exhibited and very good quality.
Another view of some of the entries in the Novice class.
These were the entries in the Intermediate class, fewer in number but very good for quality.
These were the entries for the Experienced class, good number of exhibits and excellent quality.
This was the winning entry in the Novice class, it was entered by Alec McLeod. 2nd place in this class was Richard Comfort.
This was the winning entry in the Intermediate class, it was entered by David Line. 2nd place in this class was also held by David Line.
This was the winning entry in the Experienced class, it was entered by David Hay. 2nd place in the Experienced class was David Ross.
Richard Comfort won the shield in the Novice class for the total points over the year 2019 competitions.
David Line won the shield in the Intermediate class for the total points over the year 2019.
John Ruickbie won the shield in the Experienced class for the total points won over the year 2019.
David Hay won the MacGregor shield for the best entry over all 3 categories in the year 2019.

This post ends the entries for 2019, I would like to take the opportunity to thank all the committee members for the way the club has been handled this year, there are lots of tasks that have gone on unseen by the vast majority of the members that I as chairman appreciate has happened and will continue to happen, the club has been going now for some 15 years and appears to be going from strength to strength, the membership base is solid and we have had a waiting list for most of the club’s existence , this bodes well for the club’s continuance . Finally I would like to thank all the members for their attendance and we hope to see you all in the new year, our first meeting is on the 9th January 2020.

I would like take this opportunity on behalf of the committee to wish all our members online or present a very merry Christmas and a happy new year.

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This week’s meeting, Wednesday 11th December 2019, open competition.

This week,s meeting is on Wednesday 11th December, not the 12th as originally planned, it’s also the clubs Christmas competition for all 3 categories, it’s an open competition where you can make anything you desire, you may also enter more than one item in whichever category you are in, the judging will be done by all the members present.

I would ask all previous winners in any category of any competition in 2019 to enter more than one item as we do have a tie for the overall annual competition winner at present, in the event of their still being a tie after this competition the second entry will then be judged to determine the overall winner in each category.

May I also remind any of last years winners of the annual shields to return them on Wednesday to Douglas Stewart, some of you may have already done so.

The annual Christmas raffle draw will also take place on Wednesday evening after the competition judging has taken place, the tickets for this draw will also still be on sale up to the end of the judging.

Can I also appeal to all the turners who do demonstrations at the club to help Douglas Stewart out with getting sufficient turners to man the lathes to please do so, he has at present only 2 turners for the 9th of January meeting, he requires another 3 and the main subject is all about making “wooden jewellery”, but that does not mean you could not do something else if required. The same scenario also applies to the meeting on the 23rd January, Douglas has only 2 turners he requires another 3, step up and volunteer, the subject for the 23rd January is ,”wooden toys or puzzles”.

The committee would like to take this opportunity to wish all our members and all our online followers a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year. We hope to see you all in the new year.

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Report on meeting 28th November 2019 making table lamp bases.

Our meeting on the 28th November 2019 was all about making table lamp bases, the meeting was organised by Cliff Sim, Cliff had arranged for 4 turners to be working the lathes, Bill Munro, Bob Chisholm, Richard Comfort and David Ross. All were making different variations of lamp bases, 2 were working on a single piece of wood for the base whilst the other 2 were making their lamps from more than one piece. The turn out of members was good. To get a flavour of how the meeting went click on the pictures in the gallery for a larger picture and some text. The pictures for this post were taken by Mike Day.

Here we have Bob Chisholm as he makes a start on his table lamp, Bob was working on a single piece of wood for his base.
Here we have Richard Comfort as he makes a start on his lamp base, Richard was to use more than one piece.
Here we have Bill Munro as he makes a start on his lamp base, Bill was to make his lamp from a single piece of wood.
Here we have David Ross as he works his lamp base, David was to make his lamp out of more than one piece of wood.
Bob shaping his base with a bowl gouge.
Richard fitting one of his pieces on the chuck.
Bob progressing well with the shape, still using a bowl gouge.
David drilling the hole for the cable using a home made jig to get the hole in the right place.
Bill Munro working on the shape of his base with a large gouge.
Richard working one of his many pieces that makes up his base.
Bob getting to the end of his shaping, now doing a little sanding.
David Ross finishing the base part of his 2 piece lamp.
Another view of Bill Munro using a roughing gouge to shape his base.
One of the club lathes with the new extraction mounts in use, these were made for all the lathes by Dave Line.
David Ross showing the bottom part of his lamp sealed and polished.
David Ross now working on the stem of his lamp.
The stem of David's lamp held between centres.
Here David can be seen cutting the spigot on the stem to fit the base.
Here Bob Chisholm is sealing and polishing his lamp base.
This box was partly made at the previous meeting and finished off at home by Nick Simpson.
Nick brought the box in to let the members see the finished article having ran out of time at the previous meeting.
David Ross sealing the stem of his lamp.
Bob Chisholm's base completed apart for fitting all the lamp fittings and cable etc.
Bob holding his finished base ready to wire it up.

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We hope you enjoyed our lamp making meeting, the next meeting is on Wednesday the 11th December not the Thursday to avoid clashing with the general election, usual start time. This will be our last meeting for 2019, it’s also the final competition for the year, an open competition where you can make what you like, no pre conditions so lets have lots of entries, remember you can put more than one item in to the competition. This meeting will also herald the grand Christmas raffle draw where there have been traditionally lots and lots of prizes, good luck to everyone in the draw.

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This week’s meeting on the 28th November 2019,making lamp bases.

Our meeting this week on the 28th November 2019 is all about making lamp bases, they can be made from a single piece of wood or from more than one piece of wood, whatever type of lamp the turners choose to make I’m sure there will be something of interest for everyone, this meeting has been organised by Cliff Sim, Cliff has arranged for 4 turners to man the lathes, those are, Bill Munro, Richard Comfort, Bob Chisholm and David Ross.

This is a lamp I made some time ago, made from a single piece of wood with some banding inserted along with some more inserts in Milliput.

We are looking for a good turnout as usual, and remember to get your Christmas raffles and hand in any donations of products to David Hobson for his craft fair in Fortrose proceeds of which will go to the club funds. Notification to the committee members, there is a committee meeting starting at 5pm on the 28th November 2019.

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Report on our meeting 14th November 2019, main theme turned clocks.

Our meeting this week on the 14th November was mainly about making turned clocks, the meeting was arranged by Cliff Sim and he had 5 turners working the lathes. For the clock making he had John Ruickbie, Dave Line and himself, two other turners were making different things, Nick Simpson was making a small lidded box and Errol Levings was demonstrating the methods used to make oval turnings, with no overall finished product in mind. The turnout was good and according to the reports I received the meeting went very well.The pictures in the gallery below were all taken by Mike Day, these should give you a flavour of how the meeting went.

Here we have Cliff Sim setting up to start his clock. Cliff was to make a skeleton clock.
Here Cliff can be seen working the back of his clock.
Cliff now making the recess to fit the clock into.
Here Cliff is working the edge of his clock, some slight decoration could be used here.
Here Cliff can be seen sanding the face and edge of his clock.
Cliff ran out of time on his project but did have an example of one he had made earlier.
Here we have Dave Line as he is setting up to start his clock. He too would be making a skeleton clock.
Dave started by working the face of the clock first.
Here the face is almost complete, Dave is now making the recess for the clock movement.
In this picture Dave can be seen working the stand for his clock.
Having finished the face Dave mounted the surround on the bowl jaws to work the back.
Here Dave can be seen polishing the back of his clock.
Here is Dave's finished clock.
Here we have John Ruickbie as he sets up to start his turned clock. John was to make a clock using a chapter ring.
Here John has made the recess for the clock movement, now drilling the hole for the clock spindle.
Here John is working the face of his clock.
Here John can be seen making the slight recess for the chapter ring.
Here John can be seen trial fitting the chapter ring, these rings are self adhesive.
Here John is sanding all the surfaces on the face of his clock.
John uses a small saddle for the base of his clock , here he can be seen explaining how it works.
Here is John's finished clock. All fully assembles after sealing and polishing.
Here we have Nick Simpson, a new member to our club. Nick was to make a small lidded box.
Here Nick can be seen working the outside of the box.
The inside of his box now well underway.

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If you wish to see a larger picture of any in the gallery, just click the picture, this will give you a more detailed picture along with a little text. Our next meeting on the 28th November is again being organised by Cliff Sim, he has arranged for 5 turners to make lamp bases.

Remember that the Christmas raffles are on sale and we are still accepting donations of prizes and also items for the Fortrose craft fair organised by David Hobson.

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This week’s meeting, 14th November 2019

This week’s meeting on the 14th November 2019 is all about making clocks, it has been organised by Cliff Sim. Cliff has arranged for 3 turners to be working the lathes, those are Bill Munro, Dave Line and himself. They will all have their own method for making a clock and should all be different in the type of clock being made. We are looking for a good turnout as usual and do remember that the Christmas raffles are on sale, we are still looking for prizes to be donated, anything at all accepted. David Hobson is going to do a craft fair on behalf of the club nearer to Christmas, he is looking for items to sell that you the members have made, take anything you wish to donate to David at the next 2 meetings, all proceeds will go towards club funds.

Here is a clock I made some time ago, it could be something along this line that one of the turners will make.
Here is another example of a clock, this one used a miniature clock insert of only 37mm in diameter.
This is a skeleton clock, one of the most popular clocks to be made by any turner, I know that Dave Line will be demonstrating how this type of clock is made.

I’m afraid I won’t be able to attend the meeting this week, there are road works on the A835 at Garve that is closing the road between the hours of 7pm and 7am and as I live on the other side of the road works I would not be able to get home without a very long detour. However I hope you all have a good meeting and enjoy the clock making.

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Report on our meeting on 31st October 2019, working with natural edges.

Our meeting on the 31st October was arranged by Cliff Sim and our theme was working with natural edged. Cliff had arranged for 4 turners to work the lathes, those were, Bob Chisholm, Mike Day, Richard Comfort and myself (Alec Mutch). We were all doing something different but with the same theme that each item was to have some element of natural edges on it. The turnout for the meeting was very good. The pictures from this meeting were taken by David Hobson, and should give you a flavour of how the meeting went.

Here we have Bob Chisholm starting work on a Laburnum natural edged bowl.
Here we have Mike Day as he starts to make wooden mushrooms.
This is Richard Comfort's elm blank mounted ready to start.
Another view of Richard's elm blank, he is making this into a clock surround.
This is myself (Alec Mutch) starting on a wet turning in cherry.
Mike Day making progress on his mushroom.
My blank now with the inside almost complete, I am making a thin wall bowl.
Here is Bob Chisholm taking the inside out of his Laburnum bowl.
The final cuts on the inside , note the thread like shavings you get with wet wood.
Here is Richard working on the chuck recess for his bowl.
The inside now complete, no need to sand as the wood needs to dry a little first.
Mike can be seen sanding the head of his mushroom.
The inside of Bob's bowl almost complete.
Richard has cut the recess for the clock movement.
Here I can be seen setting up a light that will go inside the bowl.
The effect of the light inside the bowl shows the wood going bright red as the walls get thinner.
Another view of the inside of Bob's bowl.
Mike now working on the stem of his mushroom.
Another view of Mike working the stem.
Here I'm finishing off the base of my wet turning, it will be left for a few weeks to dry before remounting to sand and polish.
I did another similar thin walled bowl using Leylandii.
Here Mike can be seen sanding the under side of the mushroom head.
Bob Chisholm's finished bowl.
One of Mike Day's finished mushrooms.

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If you want to see some larger pictures of this gallery just click on any picture, they are accompanied with a little text. The next meeting is on the 14th November, again being organised by Cliff Sim and this time it will be about making clocks. Don’t forget to get your Christmas raffle tickets and any donations of prizes would be most welcome.