The Berkshire Woodturners Association is based in Bracknell and draws woodturners from East Berkshire and South Hertfordshire



Stop Press - A number of key news items have hit the press this week.


The UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have announced that :-

"A substantial number of face masks, claiming to be of KN95 standards, provide an inadequate level of protection and are likely to be poor quality products accompanied by fake or fraudulent paperwork. These face masks may also be known as filtering facepiece respirators."

Full details can be found on the HSE website.


BWA Competitions to Re-start

Thanks to the work done by Viv Mitchell and the judges from the BWA Committee we have now caught up on the 2020 Competition schedule.

The results and the gallery of the competition pieces are available on the website

We recommend you take a look at the gallery as the standard of turning across the BWA Competion groups is exceptional, the Advanced group is also especially competitive with four BWA turners looking likely to get more than 100 points combined total for the 2020 season.

There is a possibility that the club will begin meeting again in August. The committee will make a deceision next week. Look out for details on the website and in the newsletter.

So we are hopeful that we will be able to return to "touchy-feeling' judging for the August competition rather than looking at photographs


Chestnut Weekender 1st and 2nd August2020

Terry Smart and his gang at Chestnut Products have decided to run the Woodturning Weekender as a virtual show. And the really good news is it will be free!!

Emma Cook (The Tiny Turner) and Stuart Furini will be demonstrating on both days (with different demos).

To get further details and to register visit the event website here.



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Virtual Woodturning Clubs

As a consequence of the recent spate of Interactive Remote Demonstration we now have a new phenomenon; virtual woodturning clubs!

No experience of the Woodturning 360 club, but the "Woodturning Zoom Club UK' seems to be trying to be very like a conventional woodturning club. The Wednesday 'club nights' start off with a few annouoncements and then those 'present' are divided in to breakout rooms for an hour or so chat. There is no agenda, people are from all over the world, though mainly the UK, the US and Canada, there are also a smattering of other nations. After an hour the group re-assembles for a talk by a woodturner. This might be a workshop tour, the story of how someone got started or where they hope to be going. Stewart Furini has done a piece, also a guy in the States who is helping turners in South America get started.

I have also found another virtual club based in the States called 'worldwidewoodturners' and run by Capt Eddie Castelin. To date I haven't found a link but there are a series of newsletters on Capt Eddies website here. The only problem is it starts at 1am UK time!

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Jeff Hornung demonstrated from his workshop in St Louis

This was an Interactive Remote Demonstration based on the 'system' introduced by Alan Zenreich and previously seen in use for the Cindy Drozda demo.

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Jeff Hornung

This demo will now be done direct into your home via the Internet. Before the demo takes place, you will recieve an email with a link which will allow you to connect through a programme called 'Zoom". A guide to connecting to Zoom and the conduct of the demo can be found here

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Jeff is a well-known woodturner in the United States. He runs the Walnut Log Studio from where he sells his turned items and various woodturning tools and materials, including Yorkshire Grit and Hampshire Sheen.

Jeff has also visited the UK turning at the UK and Ireland Woodturning Symposium in 2018

Jeff is active both through FaceBook and YouTube. He will be demonstrating a square plate with a bead foot and a bronze finish.

This was a shared demo with the Kennet Valley club.

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Emma Cook, 'The Tiny Turner' demonstrated turning a carvers mallet from her workshop in Yorkshire

The Interactive Remote Demonstration was shared with Kennet Valley and held on Tuesday 14 July which was the Kennet Valley club night.

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Emma Cook - The Tiny Turner

This demo will now be done direct into your home via the Internet. Before the demo takes place, you will recieve an email with a link which will allow you to connect through a programme called 'Zoom". A guide to connecting to Zoom and the conduct of the demo can be found here

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This was a shared demo with the Kennet Valley club and held on the normal Kennet Valley club night.

Emma turned a carvers mallet. She explained that the carvers mallets are far less weighty that th egeneral woodworkers mallet and teh stone masons mallet as the carvers will be using for long period and a heavy mallet would soon become uncomfortable. Also carving doesn't require a heavy mallet. Emma identified a number of refinements such a thumb indent partly for comfort and partly to maintain the alignment of the mallet.

A thorughly entertaining and educational demonstration

Not only is Emma an excellent woodturner she is also a very good woodcarver. And at the end of the evening she introduced 'Errol' a carved swamp dragon that has taken Emma a number of years to carve. Errol accompanies Emma for most of her demo. A stunning peice of work!ss.

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Up and Coming Live Remote demos

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Some Up and Coming IRDs

Note: Martin Saban-Smith's demonstrations listed are to be provided through the new Woodturning 360 'club'. There are already in excess of 100 members of this club so it is highly likely that these demos will be extremely popular. It is not clear whether there will be a limit on the numbers who can join.

This list is not complete. There are so many pro turners doing Live demos across Zoom these days it is difficult to keep up with it.

If you have a favourite turner its worth looking at their Social Media pages or their website to see if they are doing such demos.

Many of these demos will have a cost (generally around £10 or $10) and a registration process so if you are interested follow the link to register. And they do get fully booked quite quickly.

And remember IRDs from the US might be at strange time due to the time difference. Make a note of the US time zone where the demo is based and covert the time to British Summer Time. And IRDS from Australia will be at even stranger times!!

It is also worth looking at the AWGB site. They are trying to run IRDS every second Sunday and do a couple of 'Meet the Turner Sessions each week. Initially these demos and chat sessions were free to all to view but now require registration and so might now be reserved for AWGB members.

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Berkshire Woodturner's Third IRD

Malcolm Cleaver and Stewart Furini Demonstrated

Once again a shared demo with Kennet Valley.

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Malcom and Stewart's Turned Items

Malcolm's box started off as a 10" square cube of Cedar. The blank was held by two opposing corners in the headstock spindle and a live ring centre with the centre-point removed. Malcolm then turned the shape of the bottom of the bowl and then turned a tenon. The blank was then mounted with the tenon in a chuck with a gripper jaw so top of the bowl could be shaped and then the inside hollowed.

Once completed and finished a Purpleheart top was turned to fit the box and a blackwood finial turned to finish the whole thing off.

Though based on video sequences the method worked well allowing the important elements of the turning to be explained more fully and the repetitive elements skipped over. Malcolm commentated over the video sequences and answered questions from the participants

One of key pieces of advice given by Malcolm to anyone turned a winged bowl of this type was to keep fingers and knuckles on the turner's side of the toolrest as catching either in the fast spinning wings will hurt.

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Malcolm Cleaver's Triangular Winged Box

Stewart's demo was a full-blown IRD. Because of the relatively short time available Stewart only textured half of the bowl. The texturing was done with a fairly aggressive Proxxon based cutter. This was then coloured based on colours selected by the participants.

Stewart then turned a detail rim on the top of the bowl side. This again was textured but this time a little more subtly

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Stewart Furini's texture Bowl

Both items were beautifully turned and a credit to the two turners.

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Sunday 12th July Shirley Hays Garden

It was decided not try and run an auction via Zoom. Instead Shirley and Paul Hays put in a supreme effort to run a wood sale in their back garden.

So a big thank you and well done to Shirley and Paul.

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BWA July Club Night

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Most of the wood available was in the form of dry blanks from a retired woodturner. Some of the wood held by Rob Legge and Richard Maynard was also available.

The weather gods were good to us and the sun shone. Though the wood was all reasonably priced the club made a significant amount and members of BWA managed to meet in person rather than across the ether.

Not only did Shirley and Paul provide the venue but also tea, coffe and biscuits, and a tour of Shirley's workshop. It turned into a thoroughly enjoyable event and we managed to get some more wood.

Competition Status

Beginners

Totals Turner
ThTh+OpBeginners
1049Simon Armson
1020Leigh Pawson
1020John French

There were no entries in the Beginners Section for the January 2020 Club Night

Competition Status

Advanced

Totals Turner
ThTh+OpAdvanced
67130Justyn Fowler
5295Trevor Doran
4890Richard Audsley
4179Malcolm Cleaver
2856Keith Mosley
723Colin Burge
15Viv Mitchell
88Chris Cox

Competition Status

Masters

Totals Turner
ThTh+OpMasters
4089Jim Coombs
2060Harvey Grimwood
2653Stephen Evans
1717Charlie Hayes
10Peter Pearson

Competition Themes

DateTheme
JanSomething Old
FebSomething New
MarSomething Borrowed
AprSomething Blue
MaySomething Light
JunSomething Square
JulSomething Bright
AugSomething with Petals
SepSomething Holey
OctSomething with Metal
NovA Sum of the Parts
DecKeith Sherwood Comp