Does EVERYONE in Tennessee turn? Is there something in the water? (other than that special water that comes from up in the holler and has been routed through spiraling copper tubing)
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- Thread starter Dean Center
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Well, there's a lot of wood here. You gotta do something with it. Seriously, it's probably a heritage type hobby in this part of the country. A lot of us had parents or grandparents that turned or carved wood. My Dad turned and I've taught my nephew. It's also a really popular hobby. I'm just east of Nashville
Yep!
Chairmakers, too. Here's a great book, both print and PDF versions available
There are several turning clubs close enough to drive to. Our club is bursting with new members, young and old. And flat woodworking clubs. Several great craft schools nearby (John C Campbell, Arrowmont, Appalachian Center for Crafts). And WAY too much good hardwood.
But I don't know of anyone who makes moonshine...
(However, once in North Carolina in the '70s I was riding rural roads on my dirt bike and drove into a field, took one look, and made a quick 180. It looked to me like a still in the woods at the edge of the field with a sheriff's car backed up with the trunk open. Seemed like a good time to drive fast and far away.
JKJ
John is there any such thing as WAY to much good hardwood? Lol
😱😂😇
I moved to Tennessee in 2022 after 20 years in Las Vegas. I bought a place on 5 acres, most of it forested. I hadn't done any woodworking for 30 years, but I knew I would pick it up again when I moved here. What I didn't anticipate was getting addicted to turning. 😀
john lucas
AAW Forum Expert
We have clubs everywhere in Tennessee. I have 6 within a hundred miles. Well actually 9 if you count the flatwood clubs that also caters to their turner members. Then there are the Memphis and Jackson clubs. Yea we are blessed. It didn't hurt that the AAW was organized at Arrowmont which is a craft school in Tennessee. The Tennessee association of woodturners formed the next year. I've been a member of the TAW since around 95. Not sure when we formed the Cumberland Woodturners. It was probably around 97. We formed the Mid Tenn Woodturners about 10 or 12 years ago. It almost died after Covid with only 6 members but it,s coming back. We had 20 people show up at the last meeting.
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From Crossville? You should know! I'd say 90% of good wood around here goes to the dump, is shredded, or burned. The hardest thing for most is not finding it but loading and hauling. Some club members here come to my place and get big chunks (one turns cowboy hats) when we have trees down or have to be taken down. Fortunately, I have equipment to load any size they can haul.
Right now I have two walnut trees on the property line that keep dropping walnuts on the neighbors, some big sassafras trees that need to come down, a cherry on a fence row that needs to come down, and who knows what is down in the woods after the recent rains and wind. If running short, bring a chain saw and a trailer. We can saw slabs too.
I'm currently processing log sections of persimmon, cherry (as always), and some wormy dogwood.
Hey, you in the Cumberland club?
Going to TAW?
JKJ
Mine are dying. Presumably from laurel wilt disease.
I wonder how much it would be to rent a truck and drive, hmmmm? Of course I won't be doing this as the gas alone would be prohibitive, not to mention I'll need a place to store my haul, lol.
Gregory
Sassafras: odd, for many years sassafras apparently grew along the western edge of one big field here, in a rough line. Dozens of trees. I assume it was because seedlings in the field got mowed or plowed and most seedlings that got started in the woods away from the woods didn't thrive. Eventually all those near the field died, most less than 10" in diameter. (I'll probably pull them over this spring.)
However, a couple in the woods down from the field did survive, and grew large! One is in the way of a widening a drive I use for trailers; both appear quite healthy. Many hundreds of saplings elsewhere in the woods.
Sassafras wood, for those who don't know, is fairly bland, smells great when turned, and is quite stable (T/R ratio is 1.6) Fairly coarse wood, but easily turned and finished. Has a nice resonance - I've used it for music boxes, this one with walnut lid and feet.
Plenty of wood if anyone close want to help take them down. Will saw some up if you stay and help!
Sassafras at my sawmill. Most went into turning blanks.
Lots of smaller, long standing dead, and probably quite dry wood too.
The wood is rated "durable to very durable":
Sassafras | The Wood Database (Hardwood)
www.wood-database.com
And oh, as for Tennessee woodturners, people are moving here from the dry west, the rat race of big expensive cities, the frozen north, etc, - just met a woodturner that moved here from Chicago in the last few months. And I don't know about woodturners elsewhere, but here, EVERY ONE of them is nice, friendly, generous! (Except for one guy we don't talk about 🙂)
JKJ
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I don't know anything about a fight club. Was that a tv show?
I normally don't watch TV. (Once went 13 years without watching a single show)
Sometimes I'll watch if Jon Baptiste is on some program - I LOVE his music.
I do watch DVDs. I'm going through all of Alan Lacer's DVDs now. Binge watched the Hobbit, Star Wars, and Harry Potter when recovering from surgery. Watch kid's movies sometimes - they are about at my level of mentality. I won't watch violence or nasty.
My wife loves murder mysteries, books and TV. I think she's educating herself on how to get away with something in the future that may involve me...
JKJ
It was a very violent movie.
We just purchased a DVD player and I'm starting to think what turners videos I should be looking at. One good thing is my club has an extensive library of videos to loan out.
Thanks
Gregory
Yes John I’m in the Cumberland Woodturners. I’m actually a member of your club as well. I just chime in sometimes via internet. I was at your wood auction this year. And yes I’ll be at the TAW.
I forget names (forgot my wife's name once) but I sometimes remember faces! Maybe we can meet up. (I might be the one playing the piano, if it's still there - I haven't been in several years for medical reasons.)
What did you think of the auction? It was a disaster in some respects but a lot of people went home with good wood. Jake and I have starting planning the next auction, prob for October. Let me know if you have any suggestions to add to our list.
I'm working on processing more blanks now. (I like to bring nice wood)
The auction was great! The only thing I would recommend would be to start earlier so you don’t have worry about getting out so soon.
I think I need more info on this auction
The auctions have been popular, but whew!, so much work, before, during, and after. And behind the scenes - keeping up with bids, payments, labeling and stashing winning bids.
For some years I was the auctioneer, with a helper or two staging things! Flat wore me out. When I had to quit for medical reasons, Jake took over, again with helpers. When I was able we decided to work together, tag team style, so we could each take breaks. Since we're older now, that seems to work better!
One problem with starting earlier is it takes so long to set up and to tear down and clean and reset the room the "management" had to enforce a cutoff time. And some people still have a job during the day [gasp!] and might not be able to come earlier!
Maybe a different venue with more space, an all-day Saturday auction with a lunch break could be better. Don't even know if that would be possible.
Maybe work faster? Make bigger lots? Have less but better quality wood? Two smaller auctions per year? There are tradeoffs with anything I can think of.
Christey,
Every year we have a wood auction at the Knoxville club. It started out as a small benefit auction for a club member who lost his son.
Then we continued it and it got bigger and bigger! I was the auctioneer because I was loud and was not shy.
The goals are 1) to get wood into the hands of woodturners, 2) as a yearly fundraiser for the club, and 3) to have a good time!
The wood is all donated by members - I generally bring 4 or 5 big tubs/boxes of turning blanks, all dry (since that's what I do) mostly local woods I process from log sections and dry, but usually throw in a few exotics or a carton of farm eggs or Jordan Farm honey just for fun. For the last auction I also brought some round bowl blanks from one of my dry 10/4 mahogany planks, ready to chuck up and turn.
Lots of club members bring wood. Some bring green wood ready to turn bowls. There are usually some burls, spalted wood blanks, some long 2x2 maple turning squares, big chainsawn chunks, lots of stock for boxes, ornaments, and such. At one time we had a huge stock of rough-turned bowls at, dry and ready to finish turn (some pictured below), and brought some every year but I think I'm down to maybe 25 or 30 in my storage shed now. We usually have sets of high quality pen and bottle stopper blanks, a huge variety of sizes and species, even bags of "practice" wood.
There is usually so much wood it's not organized like a high-end auction where everything is numbered and people have a chance to carefully examine things and make careful notes ahead of time. Since the individual can't always see the item up close, I like to look it over and mark any defects with a big red sharpie. I write the size and species on everything I bring and provide markers and encourage others to mark what they bring, if they know, and whether the wood is dry or wet. I keep a tape handy if someone wants to know the size of something not marked. We want everyone to know what they are bidding on. I don't hesitate to say "this is junk, is it worth a penny to anyone?" or "this piece of walnut is fantastic! who will bid $30?"
Our rules for wood are no junk, no firewood or log sections, but something with at least one flat side that could be mounted on the lathe since some people don't have the tools to (This slipped a bit last time but the whip will snap this year!) The auctioneer presents either one blank or several in a lot and anyone bids as they see fit. People who view the wood ahead of time and have their eye on a specific blank can have it set aside on a special table for auctioning individually (so it won't get added into a lot). We try to make it entertaining: sometimes make special lots only for new turners, or give one for free for the person who traveled the furthest or to the person who's been turning the shortest time, and some lots limited to those always got outbid by "those rich guys"!
A few photos of some of the wood at one auction some years ago (what we have varies widely).
This pile is on my shop workbench that year, ready to pack up and take to the auction. (Doesn't include the chuck!)
I try for variety, some years I have big pieces, sometimes more smaller pieces. Depends on how much energy I have.
Sorry, I don't have photos from any other years.
I think this year we are planning for the 3rd Tuesday in August, at the Knoxville Woodcraft classroom.
We advertise the auction at several clubs local clubs. There are usually some great deals but sometimes competitive bidding between two people drives things up! I think people enjoy it - it's a different kind of club meeting!
JKJ
Oh! Road trip. This could be a ton of fun.