What's In The Newsletter?

• Presidents Report & Program Info
• Nominations
• Caning With Ken
• Black Walnut Tree Opportunity
• Society of Periodic Furniture Makers Tidewater Chapter 

From the President ...

Spooky October greetings!  Although I'll be away for this month's meeting (training in Indiana), there'll be a lot happening.  Ken Cohen will complete his caning presentation series by working through the details of individual strand caning.  If you're looking for repair or new work opportunities, this might be an avenue to explore.

In addition, a proposed slate of 2020 TWWWG officers will be presented to the Guild (Fran Foster - President, Greg Guertin - Vice President, Treasurer - Chris Zuchristian, Secretary - to be determined).  At the conclusion of the meeting, nominations will be closed; and the election will be held during November's meeting.  Please note that a nominee is still needed for Secretary.  It's a good position, easy to do, and is a great way to participate in the Guild's planning/decision work.  So please seriously consider this opportunity.

Finally, please bring in your show/tell items.  It’s been a busy year, and there are a lot of projects coming to fruition that would be interesting to show/discuss.

Thanks,

Jim Francis

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Nominations

Jim has done a great job of rounding up personnel for the leadership of the guild but one position, secretary, still remains unfilled.

Please consider volunteering your services to the guild at the October meeting for the leadership position of secretary.  As Jim indicated in his presidential news, the position does not require a lot of work.  

At the close of the October meeting nominations for the 2020 year will close and the guild will vote on the slate in November.

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This Month’s Program “Caning With Ken…”

This month’s program will be a supplement to Ken Cohen’s June presentation on sheet caning and will feature single stranded caning.

Seats are woven with a variety of pliable materials such as strand cane, cane webbing, rattan reed, paper fiber rush, natural rush, ash, oak or hickory bark splint, Danish Modern cord, and Oriental sea grass to name a few. These materials are then woven on wooden frame seats and backs of chairs, rockers and settees.

Come on out and watch at Ken demonstrates the art of stranded caning.

Black Walnut Tree Opportunity

Back in April of this year the guild was contacted via our web page about some trees belonging to Bill Croneberger of Virginia Beach that he plans to have taken down this fall.  Bill has three Black Walnut trees in his back yard and possibly a Chinaberry tree that he wants removed to clear out the back yard.  Bill did not want the walnut trees to be cut up as firewood and has offered them to the guild free of charge.

Back in September of this year the discussion on the trees got going again and I asked Paul Garrity to visit with Bill and see if the trees were worth harvesting.  After Paul and Bill met, Paul confirmed that this was a good opportunity for the guild to proceed.  Below are the comments from Paul about the trees.

I saw the three BW trees and an additional tree that they may take down called Chinaberry (pronounced like it reads). I checked the walnut trees for metal; there may be some in the largest log (figures).

I say it's worth it. Conservatively, there is 500 board feet (of both trees). I would be charging about $480, but it could be less if we can get the logs lined up in the place I chose. So that's less than a dollar a board foot. The customer will be taking the trees down and will probably do them in stages. I told him to paint the ends after he cuts them to logs. The only negative could be the amount of sapwood present; I won't know that until the tree is felled.

Good call to pursue this. Let's keep in touch.

Paul

I have been in contact with Bill and his latest plans are to have the trees taken down either at the end of October or early November.  We will be needing strong backs with weak minds, pickup trucks and trailers to harvest the trees and clean up the mess.  With rough swan Walnut going for $8.00 and up per board foot this is a great opportunity to see if the logs will produce the desired results.  As Chris Vickers of Somerton Ridge used to say, “You never know what’s in a log until you open it up”.

The other interesting opportunity with the harvesting is the Chinaberry tree if Bill elects to bring it down.  The Chinaberry tree is actually a nuisance tree that was introduced to the US.  It spreads rapidly and chokes out other plant life.  It is considered a nuisance tree in the state of Texas.  The berries it produces are toxic and when cutting it up you should wear protective gloves and breathing masks.  On the other hand it has beautiful wood and would be a great wood to experiment with on some project.

Gary Stephens

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The Society of American Period Furniture Makers Tidewater Chapter will have their fall meeting at Hope Plantation in Windsor, NC on November 2, 2019 starting at 9:00 AM. 

If attending, please RSVP Barry Daniel at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

As of press time the guest speakers were Matt Hobbs, Andrew Ownbey, Barry Daniel and our own Jim Francis.  Topics will vary from architecture to restoration.  As I receive more information about the meeting I will publish it in a e-mail blast.

Editor

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