A Successful Day at Wokingham Tools

By Mick Pither

Members at the May meeting will be aware that we were asked to give a demonstration at the Wokingham Tools Show on 18th May. On the spur of the moment we decided to turn the occasion into a promotional event for the club and to offer members the opportunity to exhibit and sell their work and attract new members. Disappointingly, we didn't get any interest nor did we get any volunteers to help steward the day, although understandably it was a last minute invite for the following Saturday and people have got commitments. However Roy Wood (and Roy's brother who happened to be staying with him), Charlie Hayes and myself decided to go forward with the event regardless and I am so pleased we did. We all dug deep into our treasures for enough items to fill the display stands and we were able to give our new Axminster lathe its first real airing.

Roy and Charlie collected the stands on the Friday and got them ready for an early start on the Saturday. I came along with the lathe and we were up and running by the start of the show at 9am. Although only the three of us exhibited our work it really looked an impressive array of work and I am sure that it was a major contributing factor to the success of the day.

We had all envisaged a long day turning and I personally had brought along with me a large bag of wood to cover all eventualities, I thought that after a few mishaps, digins and fly-offs we might need this amount. As it happened, the sum total for the days turning was a honey dipper, a couple of door wedges and a part finished waney edge bowl. The whole day was taken up talking to other turners, hope to start turners, and people who were genuinely interested in our work and our exhibits. We were also encouraged to see so many BWA members attend the show.

We exhausted all our information/application forms (and vocal chords) and judging from the amount of interest shown I would be very surprised if we didn't get at least six new members, even if only get half that amount it will have been worth it.

For me, and I know that I speak for Charlie and Roy, it was a very well worth day and I for one will be volunteering next year without any hesitation.

Many thanks to Charlie and Roy (and Roy's brother) for all their help and hard work.