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Volume 31, No 05 Oct 2014 No. 307

Correspondence to

the Secretary, Trevor Lloyd

Woodgroup SA Inc web page:-

www.woodgroupsa.org.au

Opinions expressed in this Newsletter are not

necessarily those of the Editor, the Board of

Directors, or the Executive Committee of

Woodgroup SA Inc.

WOODGROUP CONTACT DETAILS

Contact the Secretary (Trevor Lloyd)

Email—3lloyds@adam.com.au

Contact the Newsletter Editor (George Pastuch)

Email - pastuch@adam.com.au

Phone—0432547877

FROM THE PRESIDENT’S SHED

DECEMBER 2014

FROM THE AGM. The Office holders for the incoming year are as follows. President – Ron Allen, Vice

President – John Tillack, Secretary – Trevor Lloyd, and Treasurer – George Pastuch. Trevor Molde is a new

member to the Executive Committee. Three additional members will be confirmed in the near future.

The forum was an interesting and lively affair and raised some issues which will become business matters for

the Executive Committee in the following months.

NEW WOODGROUP CLUB. Dennis Murray and Steve Franz, Northern Turners members and now living in

Encounter Bay and Clayton respectively have been busy with the concept of starting a new Woodgroup club

and advertised a meeting to discuss the formation of a new club in the Victor Harbor area at his house on

Saturday December 6th. Trevor Lloyd and I attended to offer support, but must admit that Dennis’s

preparation ensured the success of the meeting and as a result a new group has been formed. Welcome to the

(Continued on page 2)

Ron Allen

COPYRIGHT

PROVISIONS

Other Wood Working Clubs may use written

items by Woodgroup SA members without prior

permission, conditional on acknowledging the

article when published. No alterations shall be

made and nothing used when the author indicated

it shall not be copied. Designs however may not

be copied in any manner.

(George Pastuch - Editor)

Woodgroup SA— Member Clubs

Club Contact Phone

Northern Turners Inc Jan Beare

Western Woodworkers Inc Rena Hoare 08 8352 3207

Murrayland Turners Inc Charles Andre 08 8574 0105

Sculptors & Carvers Inc Graham Jones 08 8260 2827

Whyalla Woodies Inc Robin Sandy 08 8260 2827

Hills Woodworkers Inc Ed Horton 08 8389 7246

Copper Coast Woodworkers Inc Graham Nicolle 08 8821 4882

South Oz Scrollers Inc David Chaplin 08 8377 0529

Riverland Woodworkers Inc Brian Lock 08 8586 4916

Toymendous Inc Ron Crowhurst 08 8264 0034

Southern Turners Inc Neville Pudney

Riverside Community

Woodgroup

Brian Jones

Fleurieu Woodturners Steve Franz

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Fleurieu Woodturners.

PICNIC. After looking at several venues, we have decided to hold a Woodgroup picnic at the Joseph Fisher

reserve at Belair National Park on Sunday 29th March next year. The site has been booked and it is for our

exclusive use. It has a shelter shed and toilet block as well as good parking. More details will be provided to

clubs through their Delegates shortly, but mark it in your diary. We hope that many will attend.

Don Freeman Award. There were three excellent nominations for this prestigious award and the winner

was Aynesley Rowe. Roger Parker (President of the Southern Turners) and I visited Aynesley and

presented the award. As he is presently in aged care facilities and lacks the room to display the trophy,

Roger is going to prepare a framed photograph for him. Congratulations go to Aynesley and to the other

nominees.

Our ANNUAL EXHIBITION at the Burnside Civic Centre is underway and has proven to be very

successful. At this stage, half way through week 3, we have sold $4300 and created much interest for the

members of the public. Congratulations to three first time exhibitors at Burnside – Glenn Kutchen and

Robert Narcisi from the Northern Turners and to Garry Wood from the Hills Woodworkers. Robert’s

specialty is in clocks and Garry has some interesting weed pots from fence posts – see attached photos.

Ron Allen

Editor’s Note:- photos of the Burnside Exhibition are presented on page 3

(Continued from page 1)

SCROLL SAW BLADES

We are Australian Distributors for the Swiss made Pégas®

blades. These are available in both pinless and pinned. We also sell the German made Flying Dutchman blades. Pinless

are $4.50 a dozen, while pinned are $6 a dozen. 3” blades are $5 a dozen

Swiss Made Coping Saw blades are $5 a dozen. We also sell mini chucks and mini twist drills.

Foot switches for $65 Proportional scales for $9.50 - a handy tool

We are agents for Hegner products. All prices are plus postage.

•••Contact us for a blade catalogue•••

Please note our new email address

H H

Helen Harris PO Box 1384, Murray Bridge SA 5253

Ph 08 8531 3440 Email—ochjh@scrolling.com.au

INTERNATIONAL TIMEPIECES

Des and Margaret WHITBURN

CAN’T GET IT? / TRY US FOR :-

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QUARTZ - Basic/Pendulum/Chime

Dials – Numerals – Hands

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Barometers - Thermometers - Hygrometers

Pewterware – Pen kits – Finials – Knobs

Corkscrews – Candle Holders – Hooks

Hinges – Catches – Hangars – Small Screws

HOURS:- Tues, Wed & Thurs

9 am - 5 pm

9 Sturt Road. Cnr Sutton Road

Bedford Park, SA, 5042

Phone 08 8277 8778

Postal: PO Box 41,

Mitchell Pk, SA, 5043

Email : mwh54931@bigpond.net.au

10% discount for Wood Group SA Members

( Mail Orders for your Convenience )

3

Photos from Burnside Annual Exhibition

EDITOR’S NOTE As the end of the year draws near, our minds are drawn to Christmas, presents for love ones and if

we are fortunate, having family around us to enjoy this festive season. This will be the last

Newsletter for 2014 and I take the opportunity to wish all our members, their families and friends a

very merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year. If you are travelling over this period, take

extra care and we want to see you all again in 2015.

Woodgroup has a new company advertising their products as the advertisement below shows. Brendan is

known to a number of turners who frequented SATurn as Brendan was a frequent visitor from Victoria.

The club contribution schedule for the January Newsletter is from Toymendous and Murrayland Turners. I have

already received an article from Toymendous, but will not knock back a second one.

Again have a merry Christmas and a happy and safe New Year.

George Pastuch

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PRESIDENTS REPORT – AGM 2014 It gives me great pleasure to present this annual report of the activities of Woodgroup SA Inc.

At last year’s AGM, George Pastuch was elected as Treasurer which completed our complement of four office

holders and members of the Executive committee. At the General meeting in May, a change to the constitution

extending the size of the Executive committee, was approved. As a result it is pleasing to report that Roger

Parker (Southern Turners), Neville Pudney (Southern Turners). Kryn Buitendyk (Murrayland Turners) and Mike

Donnellan (ex-officio member representing the Web team) have attended meetings and have made a valuable

contribution. There is still a vacancy for an additional person to attend. I believe that this is a positive step as it

provides greater involvement and allows more people to become familiar with the culture of the Woodgroup.

NEWSLETTER

Early this year George Pastuch took on the role of Newsletter Editor (as well as Treasurer). Thank you George,

the Newsletter is a vital part of Woodgroup SA. I would also like to thank Roger Parker for filling in as editor in

late 2013. While talking about the newsletter, it is easy to forget about the contribution made by Mike

Donnellan with the web page – another important arm of the Woodgroup – thanks Mike.

FORUM

We preceded our AGM last year with a forum which was open to all. It was a successful event providing an

opportunity for discussion which was not hampered by the constraints of the formality of a Board meeting. As

the delegates only meet twice per year and have limited opportunity to be involved with informal discussion, we

have decided to run a similar event for this AGM.

ANNUAL GRANTS

We received three applications for Grants in 2014. The Clubs successful in receiving Woodgroup Grants were

the Southern Turners who received $700 towards the purchase of Woodlathes and the Northern Turners who

received $400 towards the purchase of a PA system.

DON FREEMAN AWARD

We had three nominations for this prestigious award. All three nominations were of a high quality and were

deserving of the award. However, there can only be one winner and for 2014 it was Aynesley Rowe.

TOOLS AND MORE SHOW

We participated again in the Tools and More Show in July 2014 and again it was a very successful event with a

large number of Woodgroup members involved. 43 individual members representing 7 Woodgroup Clubs were

actively involved at some time during the three days, and many more came as visitors. Our appreciation of all of

those who demonstrated or supervised the Gallery should be acknowledged – without their support such an

event could not be mounted.

Kym Jones and his Eventing company also needs to be acknowledged. They provided a large space – 12 m

square for the gallery and generous spaces for our Club demonstration sites. Kym sees the contribution of the

Woodgroup as a valuable feature of his show.

For all of us as Woodgroup members, this event is important in helping to highlight the value of Woodgroup SA

as a state body and yet still promoting the individual clubs and their activities.

GALLERY

There was a great deal of interest from the public in our Gallery. There were exhibits from 22 members totalling

sales of $4947.00 with average value of $75. This was a great result for a 3 day event. The only disappointing

aspect of the Gallery was the fact that all but four entries were from the Northern Turners.

EXHIBITIONS

The membership of the Exhibition sub-committee now has a wider representation from our member clubs.

Current membership is Ron Allen, George Pastuch, Graham Reed, Greg Jackson, Bill Elliott, John McTier,

Graham Jones, Ray and Rena Hoare, John Edyvean and Ron Burke. The annual exhibition at Burnside is the

major event of the Woodgroup. Because it runs for December and January it attracts a lot of interest from the

(Continued on page 5)

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Woodgroup SA Network Meeting, October 14th, 2014.

A chatty 13 members graced the meeting; apologies were received from Rena Hoare.

Roger Parker started the rounds with an unfinished cracky bowl

made from “crappy wood”, a piece of heavily weathered sleeper, and

bearing some marks of that exposure. The wood was originally

thought to be jarrah, but the wisdom that abounds at these meetings

suggested otherwise – its density, colour and grain were not typical

of jarrah, but perhaps karri. Discussion followed on the ways of

filling cracks, ranging from CA plus sawdust, through coffee grains

and 5-minute Araldite, to the same epoxy filled with crushed

minerals that can be obtained in a wide range of strong colours, if

contrast between the wood and the filler is desired. A source of 2-part

epoxy at $25 per kilogram, with an excellent shelf life (20 years plus)

was also mentioned but this scribe missed the details.

(Continued on page 6)

Public and does give us a great deal of exposure. At this event, Woodgroup SA is strongly promoted. Planning

is still underway for our oncoming exhibition which opens on December 1st. We would still like to see entries

from a wider group and could still receive late entries.

MERRY MONTH OF MAY

This is another annual event of the Woodgroup which is worth retaining and promoting. The hosts for 2014

were the Murrayland Turners and they planned and executed an excellent two day event. It was very interesting

to see how much development has taken place in their clubrooms. Congratulations go to their planning

committee. I have previously spoken about the value of the camaraderie that exists in such events and look

forward to 2015 when it will be hosted by the South Oz Scrollers. I am sure that we will hear more from them in

the near future

PICNIC

At the forum last year, the concept of having a Woodgroup picnic was discussed. I am pleased to report that we

have booked a site at Belair National Park for Sunday 29th of March. I hope that many will consider attending

just to enjoy socialising with members from other clubs. Details will be published through the newsletter.

FEE STRUCTURE

The Capitation fee was reduced from $10 to $6 per member. Another new aspect of the budget is a provision to

allow a subsidy for $100 each for clubs undertaking First Aid Training.

NEW CLUBS

We welcome a new club to Woodgroup SA. The Riverside Community Woodgroup Inc. was founded after the

demise of the New Horizons Group which was based at the Parks Community Centre (as was Toymendous and

South Oz Scrollers). The Riverside Community Woodgroup is only a very small group and joined Woodgroup

SA in early July this year. I welcome them to the Woodgroup.

At a recent Executive meeting I proposed that we should look at developing new clubs in the Barossa Valley

and Victor Harbor areas. I discussed this aspect with Dennis Murray (Past President of the Northern Turners),

now living in Encounter Bay, and I am pleased to report that he has made some inquiries. As a result Trevor

Lloyd and I will attend a meeting that Dennis has called in Victor Harbor on Saturday December 6th. I have also

had some discussion re a club starting in Tanunda.

Finally, I would like to publicly acknowledge the contribution made by members of the Executive Committee.

In particular I would wish to highlight the contribution made by Trevor Lloyd as secretary. Trevor is an

unassuming person with a laid back style and a quirky sense of humour but he has been the ultimate professional

when carrying out his duties as secretary. I have really valued his support.

Ron Allen

(Continued from page 4)

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Roger Humphris brought to light his artistically decorated

“tomboys” (for French or spool knitting) made at the recent

Lucindale TurnSA meet. He had begun using wire loops at the

working end of the tomboy, maintaining these were easier to

loop wool over instead of the traditional nails. Provided with

each tomboy was a wire “needle”, mounted in a neatly

decorated and turned handle. Several members commented on

how the 21st century has advanced the art of producing long

lengths of woollen pigtails, over cotton reels and nails, now that

wooden cotton reels are no longer made, unless you turn them

yourself!

Franco Lanfranchi exhibited two

wood sculptures, stylised “Mother

and Child” and “Dancer”, both

carved out of red ironbark

(Eucalyptus sideroxylon) early in his

carving career. They were modelled

on figures in the book “The Craft

and Creation of Wood Sculpture” by

Cecil B. Carstenson, published by

Dover in 1971. The style of both

were “modern”, almost Henry Moore-like. Another noticeable feature was

the weight of the sculptures - red ironbark timber has an air-dry density over

1200 kg/m3, so sinks in water.

Keith Grote brought along his finished intarsia wall-hanging of the

face of his grandson’s favourite figure “Ralph from “The Simpsons”,

as sketched out last meeting. Keith had coloured the parts that made up

the face, and placed them on a background of hoop pine. A cheery

piece, to brighten up a grandson’s wall!

Charles Grieg showed three items, the first one being a bowl

turned out of a red mallee burl with spectacular grain and

beautifully finished, using U-Beaut triple-E and then Glo. His

second item was also a bowl , this one out of brown mallee

burl, power sanded up to 600 grit, hand sanded to 1500 grit,

then finished with several coats of both Triple-E and Glo. His

third and larger bowl was out of possibly Bubinga, showed

attractive grain and shimmer across its base

Ray Hoare showed a nicely finished bud-vase made from an

unknown pinkish, moderately hard but dusty-to-turn wood.

(red gum was suggested, in one of its multitudinous disguises!)

He also passed around two similar bowls made from

Tasmanian oak, finished to a high gloss.

(Continued from page 5)

(Continued on page 7)

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Trevor Lloyd excelled himself this meeting with a magnificent

chess set, board and storage drawer that he had made. The pieces

were modelled somewhat on the widely used Taunton forms, with

the knights constructed in two parts, the horse’s head carved and

the base turned. The “White” set was made from Norfolk Island

Hibiscus, and the “Black” set from red gum. The contrasting

squares in the chess board were from cypress pine and teak, while

the box and drawer were made from jarrah. Trevor gratefully

acknowledged the help provided by Jeff Wrigley in timber selec-

tion and more. There was some discussion on ways to make sliding

fits (here, a drawer in its runners) non-sticky. Candle wax on the

slides appeared to be the professional answer.

John Bennett ended the show-and tell with a small pin bowl out of a scrap

of red-gum, and a piece of freshly cut trunk-wood that was passed around

for identification – from an introduced garden plant, fine grained, rough

barked, reasonably contrasty between heartwood and sapwood. It was a

piece of lemon verbena (Aloysia citrodora), a rapid grower with strongly

lemon scented leaves with culinary uses, but usually yielding only small

diameter logs

John Bennett

Networking Nights—all Woodgroup members welcome!

Venue: San Giorgio Community Center

(Henry St, Payneham)

TOPIC: Anything of interest!!!

New faces, insights, skills and experiences are always welcome!

(Continued from page 6)

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Visit to Mt.Torrens Portable Sawmilling.

A brief summary

Sunday 19th October saw Hills Woodworkers invite Woodgroup

members to join them on a visit to Michael Kowald’s milling

facility at Mount Torrens. About 50 people attended on the day.

The day started with Hills Woodies president Ed Horton

conduct ing their regular club meet ing before

introducing Michael Kowald. Michael did his apprenticeship as a

wood turner before taking up a new profession as a dairy farmer

and now generally turns for his own pleasure. We were treated to

a display of Michaels turning journey from the start to present day

displayed in the shed as the history and process of each piece was

explained.

Michael gave a demonstration of his band saw sharpening

machine before mounting the freshly sharpened blade on

to the well worked Bushmill band saw. The bushmill once

portable is now a fixture slicing through a redgum trunk

with ease.

Outside in the yard the Lucas Mill was set up to process a

customers pine trunks. While extremely portable and rela-

tively simple to set up the cutting speed of the Lucas Mill

is a lot slower than the Bushmill and the physical effort

required to move the cutting head of the Lucas Mill far

exceeds that of the Bushmill.

The demands of farming have all but curtailed the portable side of the Kowald timber business but if you can get

your logs to them they are more than happy to process them to your specifications.

Plenty of visitors took advantage of the timber that Michael had for sale at prices that were more than very rea-

sonable.

Should you have a requirement for Redgum in any form you can call Michael Kowald direct on 0418 840

031and he will do what ever he can to part you from your dollars and provide suitable timber. If you want to go

to the mill please call Michael first to ensure that he is on site as they do not have a retail outlet.

(Continued on page 9)

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A big thank you to Hills Woodworkers for the invite, camaraderie and tea and biscuits on the day.

Tony Davies

(Continued from page 8)

A NEW CLUB HAS ARRIVED

On the 6th of December at 10:00am the

initial meeting of Fleurieu Woodturners Inc.

was held at Encounter Bay.

Following advertising in the local shopping

centers and the local newspaper, The Times,

plus fliers left at the Encounter Centre the

turnout was better than I expected.

Eighteen enthusiastic souls attended and we were delighted to welcome the President and Secretary of

Woodgroup SA, Ron Allen and Trevor Lloyd. Following a brief but informative session re Woodgroup from

Ron, we settled down to discuss the workings of a new club. The new name, legal bits and pieces, fees, OH&S

were all quickly agreed to and put in place.

It was agreed that meetings will be held on the first Saturday of each month, a full 12 meetings per year.

The main sticking point was a venue. Not an easy problem to resolve, but resolved it will be. Areas to be

explored include but are not restricted too, the Encounter Centre, Victor Harbor High School, Victor Harbor

Council, Alexandrina Council. In the meantime meetings will be held at a private residence. Steve Franz was

elected President (he was in the loo at the time) and Dennis Murray confirmed as Secretary/Treasurer.

Whilst Steve gave an impromptu demonstration Dennis accepted new memberships. As a result the club has 8

members signed and sealed and another 5/6 membership forms completed with fees to be paid at the next

meeting, and I am still getting phone calls from prospective members.

The meeting wound up with a couple or 3 bottles of red wine, which will not be the norm, at 3:00pm.

It was also decided to hold the next meeting on January 10th 2015 to separate it from the New Year.

The topic will be Basic Bowls, all welcome.

Dennis Murray

Secretary/Treasurer: Fleurieu Woodturners.

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Trees ‘n’ Timber The Herbig Tree

River Red Gum

Eucalyptus camaldulensis

Recently, returning home from a visit to the Barossa

Valley via the scenic Eden Valley, I came across the

famous Herbig Tree. Although I knew it was in Springton, I had never

stopped to look at it. It is considered to be one of the most significant Red

Gums in Australia, and although not very tall – only twenty-four metres it

has a large girth with a diameter of seven metres at its base. The tree is

estimated to be 300 to 500 years old. Much of the trunk has been hollowed

out, and it only has sparse foliage, but it is amazing to look at the tree

trunk and main stems with their many small burls and see where the

cambium layer is still producing new bark and the sapwood continues to

provide water and nutrients to the upper foliage. In 1968, to ensure

protection of the tree and in recognition of its pioneer status, descendants of the Herbig family formed a

memorial trust and bought the land containing the tree. The tree is now on the National Trust's Register of

Significant Trees for historic significance and colonial occupation.

The greatest interest in this tree is the history of the Herbig family from which it gets its name.

A German immigrant, Friedreich Herbig arrived in South Australia from Gruenberg, Silesia, Prussia in 1855. He

was a tailor by trade made his way to Birdwood (then known as Blumberg) which had been settled about seven

years earlier. A few weeks later he heard of work at George Fife Angas's dairy "The Springs", 19 km to the north

of Birdwood. He made his home in a large hollowed-out base of a gnarled River Red Gum which had the hollow

opening facing away from the direction of rain, and the tree

was convenient for him as it was on the banks of a stream

and 1.5 km from the dairy where he worked.

The second part of the story involves Caroline Rattey.

Caroline was only sixteen years old and together with her

Aunt and Uncle, moved to New Hoffnungsthal, a small

German settlement near Lyndoch. They were illiterate - Rat-

tey is an anglicised form of the Polish name Ratachi. In 1857

Caroline's uncle and aunt moved to Black Springs (now

known as Springton), but she stayed at Hoffnungsthal as she

had taken a job as a maid with Johann Leske. The former

Hoffnungsthal congregation now became known as

St Jakobi which today is the name of a small private school

to the south of Lyndoch.

While minding Johann's two young children during a funeral

a stranger knocked on the door of the farm house, saying he was looking for lost cattle. He attacked Caroline,

dragged her close to the cow shed, and hung her by the neck from a wattle tree. He stabbed her above the left

breast and went inside to burgle the house. Caroline was of sturdy build, and the wattle tree was flexible so that

her weight let her feet reach the ground. She freed herself and ran about a kilometre to another farmhouse before

she collapsed. The doctor later thought that the reason that

she had not bled to death was her plumpness. It was during

this recuperation that she met Freidrich.

He married Caroline (aged 18) in 1858 and took her to live

in the tree home. The first two of their sixteen children were

born there. In 1860 he built a two roomed pine and pug hut

nearby, and as his family increased, built a stone cottage

adjacent to the hut. He leased thirty two hectares of farmland

on which stood the famous gum tree and worked it during

his free time. He purchased the property in 1867 and planted

wheat on it while he continued his work at the dairy. He

began operating as a chaff merchant, securing the contract to

supply the local coaches and mail service. Later the tree was

(Continued on page 11)

Ron Allen

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used as an out-station by them to keep straying cattle from their crops at night. Caroline gave birth to 16 children

over a 25 year period,

Friedrich took an active part in the Lutheran community, serving as President Elder and Layreader. He died in

1886, and wife outlived him by forty years and died at the age of eighty-seven in 1927. Seven of her children

predeceased her. Both are buried in the Friedensberg Cemetery at Springton.

So, although this article has little about the tree, I found the substance of the story very interesting and will see

Red Gum through different eyes when working it in the future

(Continued from page 10)

Editor’s Note—The following email was received after the Woodgroup Forum and I agree it is a topic worth

adding to our Newsletter. I have omitted the author’s name as we all do not like to be reminded of our mistakes

especially when there are dire consequences.

Dear George

I liked your idea of reporting non-workshop incidents as part of creating a "safety culture" in our clubs. There-

fore I'd be happy for you to publish the following.

As some of you will be aware I was unable to attend the recent WoodgroupSA forum and AGM. The reason was

that I had been hospitalised with concussion following a fall from a 2.1m ladder. Unfortunately I have to

confess the reason was my own stupidity in that I was standing on the very top "step" while nailing triple grips

into rafter-purlin crossings when I overbalanced. The ladder went one way and fortunately I was able to ride it

down thus avoiding what might have been a more serious incident. I can remember thinking that I knew I

shouldn't be doing this but we were in a situation where we thought that we have a very serious time pressure.

The certifier had inspected the roof framing and indicated that he would only approve it if the triple grips

(eventually 274 of them) were fitted - we were expecting the roofers the following day. As it turned out the usual

contractor malaise applied in that we didn't see them for another week but we didn't know that at the time.

While I was in hospital I remembered that I possessed an extending ladder that I should have, and subsequently,

used.

Another fact is worth mentioning. While my chiropractor was repairing the physical bodily damage he

mentioned that a lot of guys actually black-out and fall from ladders because prolonged working with the head

tilted back actually reduces blood flow to the brain and causes loss of consciousness. Remember to take a

break!