Stateline Woodturners
February 14, 2026 Club Meeting
Visitors: Tom Anderson introduced two visitors: John Sukavich (pardon any misspelling) from Neosho who has been turning for 10 years using one of Ben Johnson’s old lathes and Nathan Bradford of Bella Vista who has been turning for 2 years and enjoys making bowls.
Ben Johnson announced a new meeting schedule featuring Show-N-Tell first. This change is to allow time for the items being passed around to be completed prior to the break.
Show-N-Tell, Novice: Entrants were:
· Carl Hoffman with a red bud bowl from a tree downed by the tornado which cracked after turning from the outside in, which he filled with super glue. He also showed a segmented bowl (which turned out more like a goblet) made from cherry and walnut.
· Larry Smith with a live edge silver maple bowl (which warped a bit after turning) finished with Clean Armor (cured with UV light) and a spalted oak box/bowl with punky areas hardened with thin CA glue and a walnut top with finial.
· Jim Higuera with an oak bowl made from laminated pieces and a lidded box made from unknown wood with a walnut knob on the lid.
· Ken Larkin with a large thick cedar bow weighing 13 pounds finished with wipe on poly, a walnut bowl with eyes, and a spalted maple candle holder which can be flipped over for two candle sizes (started as a bowl but got to thin in the bottom – a happy accident).
· Mike Elkins with an elaborate large lidded box of purple heart, walnut, maple and wingate made with segments, laminations, cuts and re-laminations featuring chevrons and arrows built from 375 pieces with a floating bottom – finished at 4am that morning.
Mike won best in this category.
Show-N-Tell, Advanced: Entrants were:
· Ben Johnson with a live edge winged walnut bowl (where the bark held on) with a spalted maple lid.
· Tom Anderson with a lidded box made from 5 laminated layers of cherry and walnut finished with poly.
· Mike Skiba with three lidded winged boxes made from yard oak and cherry burl with very slight grooves which he used for holding.
· Frank Emeterio with his first pens (thanks to Thurman’s help) made of walnut, Osage orange, mesquite, and Japanese maple and a bird’s eye maple bowl.
· Larry Copas with an Ozark Timber bug of many parts including walnut, maple, and black shoe polish; two long armed abstract figures in walnut with an insert in their backs for hanging on the wall where their shadow adds depth; and a large piggy bank of mismatched woods with the core body made of staves like in a barrel with a threaded rod and insert in the rear for opening.
· Jim Swank with two laminated exotic wood bottle stoppers,
· Paul Moore with a walnut box with maple lid and ebony finial.
Larry Copas won in the category for his abstract wall art figures.
ESSA Hands On: This annual event at Eureka Springs School of the Arts will be April 4th. The club needs volunteers to demonstrate and introduce attendees to woodturning. They have a very nice lathe room, support our club, and this personal experience is great for recruiting new club members. The event is accompanied by a silent auction where members can sell their work.
Chainsaw Carving Contest: Eureka Springs also hosts an annual chainsaw carving contest on a Saturday in late April where work is auctioned off at the end of the day.
Rogers Historical Museum: Debe Krogman wanted to inform everyone that if you bring her something to display at the museum, the item can be accompanied by a note advertising that it is available for sale.
Ron East Moving: Ron is going to be downsizing with his move, and distributed a list of equipment he will be offering for sale from his extensive shop.
Treasurer Report: Paul Moore recapped the club financial information for January which opened with a balance of $15,333 and ended with $15,431.
Outside Demonstrator: Paul noted the Board’s discussion of hosting one outside demonstrator for the year if the cost could be kept to around $2,000. General discussion has held around this topic with various options presented: no outside demonstrator, live demonstrator, remote demonstrator, one full day or two days with a fee, or count on club members for demonstrations. A motion was made and approved for David Morris (program chair) to see if he can find one live demonstrator for approximately $2,000. Randy Wright and Thurman Hatch volunteered to teach a How to Demonstrate internal class for potential club demonstrators.
Safety Tips: Ben asked for personal experiences related to safety when turning. Members volunteered the following.
1. John Adams reported a hot metal fragment starting a fire when it landed in a pile of sawdust.
2. Ben Johnson reported using a thin parting tool cutting too deep and having a bad feeling just before he had a catch which cut his finger. Moral, stop and re-evaluate the situation when you feel something isn’t right.
3. Frank Emeterio reported wrapping a drill key chuck cord attachment around the drill (very quickly) when he had failed to unplug the drill before attempting to change the bit and accidentally pressed the trigger.
Swedish Death Cleaning: Ray Taylor highly recommended this book subtitled The 30-Day Guide to Stress-Free Decluttering, Even if You’re Emotionally Attached to Everything
(knowing most of us have trouble decluttering).
Annual Top Turning Contest: It was decided that we would hold our annual Gary Olerud Memorial Top Turning Contest at our next club meeting March 14th. This will be in leu of a demonstration. There are two categories: hand spin and string pull with rules and specifications for the tops on the club website (Member Resources > Documents > Gary Olerud Top Spinning Contest > Gary Olerud Top Spinning Contest Rules). You must make and spin your own top.
President’s Challenge: The challenge for March is eggs. Turn an egg (or a dozen) and bring for Show-N-Tell next month.
Mentor Volunteers: With many new turners joining the club we need additional mentors to pair up with them to offer personal assistance and support. Please let Ben Johnson know if you can assist in this area.
Wednesday R&D Group: There is a group of members that meet every other Wednesday to share experiences and seek assistance and support from other turners. All are welcome, with the meetings starting at 9AM at the club house, ending by noon or earlier.
Bring Back Raffle: Ken Larkin’s ticket was drawn first and he chose a box made by Ray Taylor, so Ray will get a free raffle ticket at the next meeting. There were at least 14 other winners.
Demonstration: Frank Emeterio turning a Viking bowl
Frank became interested in these bowls after watching a Glenn Lucas’s YouTube video where he discussed the bowl and demonstrated turning a replica. That video is no longer available but has been replaced with Glenn Lucas Mastering Woodturning: Dublin Viking Bowl (DVD preview). Frank watched the free video twice before it was taken down, but it can be purchased on DVD or for download here. This Facebook picture seems to be of the original 1000 year old Dublin Viking Bowl. Unique features of the original include a narrow bead at the top and the upper third of the sides curving inward. (Just imagine the tools that would have been used to create this piece a thousand years ago.)
Frank brought a walnut blank he had roughed out, filled some cracks with thin CA glue, anchor sealed the ends, centered and mounted to a faceplate, and wrapped in cellophane. He likes using a faceplate due to the solid connection. He brought two bowl gouges with Irish grinds, one with a 45 degree bevel and the other 55-60 for working the bottom. He also brought the bowl he had turned for the Wednesday R&D group at their prior meeting. He had since sanded and finished it, but it still had the tenon. He would use that bowl demonstrate his use of jam chuck to remove a tenon.
Frank first flattened the bottom, ensured that the blank was round, and flattened the top down to the faceplate. He then began by rounding off the bottom corner. He then penciled a mark for the width of the tenon and where the widest part of the bowl would be – two thirds up the side. He then removed wood to form the tenon, followed by rounding the bottom starting from the tenon going part way up the side. He then marked where the foot of the bowl would end, about 1/3 of the distance from the center. He then continued rounding the bottom from the foot mark all the way up and around the corner to the widest (highest on the lathe) mark. Next, he added the inward curve to the top third of the bowl ending at the rim where he formed the bead. He then used shear cuts to refine the bead and the sides. Last before removing the face plate he used a skew to sharpen and true up the tenon.
After removing the faceplate, Frank showed a shallow 1” hole underneath and a 1” wooden dowel he uses for centering the faceplate.
Frank then mounted the bowl by the tenon, scraped the top slightly, and started hollowing with some slicing cuts. He then used bevel cuts using his 45 degree gouge going down 2/3 of the way into the bowl, checking the distance with his homemade dowel in a stick measurement tool. He then went back to refine the inside wall on the upper third where it was concave, pointing out that this needed to be finished now because you will not be able to come back to it later. Here he noticed that his CA glue had not completely penetrated the cracks in the side, and that more glue was needed. He also mentioned that the final third with the devil’s corner was the most difficult part of the hollowing. Since he was running out of time, the vote was for him to move on and demonstrate removing the tenon from the bowl he had made on Wednesday.
To remove the tenon, he would use his home-made jam chuck – a round piece about 4” wide with rounded corners on the end. He mounted that into the lathe chuck, used a piece of rubber shelf paper between the jam chuck and bowl, brought up the tail stock, and centered the live center in the existing hole in the tenon. He turned on the lathe at a slow speed to ensure it was balanced and then tightened the tail stock. He used bevel cuts from the outside in to cut away all but the very center of the tenon. He also created two lines near the outside of the foot where he signs his work. For the remaining nub, he used a bench chisel with the lathe off. With the chisel at the base of the nub, he turned the bowl by hand until he cut through the nub. He then used a grinder with a small sanding head to remove any marks.
Attendance: Approximately 40.
Please send omissions and corrections to David Wimberly (wdw@uark.edu) so that this record can be updated on the website.