A selection of clamps	More
More	More

The MARCH meeting was a discussion of "Sanders, sandpapers and sanding techniques" led by Rob Moss and Andy Hatting.

There were many contributions and much discussion from Members. It is not easy to keep a record of this type of meeting, but some photos are given below.

Rob Moss	Andy Hatting	Chris Terry
Sand paper and disks	Assorted sanders

On 17 March the annual HOBBIES FAIR was held in the Masonic Hall, Hill Street. As usual, some of the Grahamstown Woodworkers exhibited their work and demonstrated woodturning and scrollsawing.

The ever popular Jet lathe	Scroll saw and jigsaw puzzles
Part of the display	Miniature furniture for dolls' houses
Old woodworking tools	John Gillam tries his hand
Demonstrations	General view
John Gillam and the raffle draw

The APRIL meeting was a demonstration of artistic hollow turning by Ashwin Ramhith, one of South Africa's top woodturners. Ashwin is now based in Port Elizabeth and his demonstrations are always something to look forward to. He last demonstrated to us in April 2009.

Ashwin began by giving some very constructive criticisms of turned bowls bravely brought by Rob Moss. These comments were very valuable to everyone, as were Ashwin's estimates of the prices to be expected for such work.

Ashwin then displayed some of his own pieces before demonstrating the turning of a deep hollow-form bowl from slightly wet jacaranda. He decorated the outside with a texturing tool and burnt some bands on it. Hollowing out the bowl was followed with great interest by the audience and with his flair for showmanship (?) we were shown what can happen if you thin the walls too much! The result was a rather large "serviette ring" and a much shorter bowl! Along the way Ashwin carefully explained the tools that he was using and his comments on some of the chisels were much blunter than the chisel - some of which were described as "c--p" and this did not stand for "cheap"!

We look forward to a promised future visit by Ashwin when he will show how woodwork can be enhanced with artistic decoration.

Chris Terry introduces Ashwin	The large turnout
Rob Moss's bowls	Ashwin commenting
Some of Ashwin's turnings	Another beautiful example
Hollowing stance!	Streamers from wet wood
Burning rings with wire	Drilling from tailstock
Texturing with special tool	Nearly there!
Audience inspects the break	Adding carving with an electric reciprocating chisel

In MAY we had a visit from Strand Hardware from Port Elizabeth. André Esterhuyze demonstrated the making of frame and panel doors using rail and stile router bits. He also spoke about wood movement and how to compensate for it in construction.

Gerard Wong set up a display of some items available from Strand and members were able to buy at a discount. The evening was a bit disrupted by a power outage, which fortunately did not last too long.

Gerard, Chris Terry and André	Temptation...
piled upon more...	Tempter and Tempted
André Esterhuyze	Some of the router cutters
Table top joining	Table top example
Door frame scheme	Door
Routing	Routing an mdf door
Jet dust collector	Andrew Stevens as willing helper