Highland Woodturning Club

This weeks meeting on Thursday 29th October 2020 was to be a demonstration by Andy Walters of Black Isle Woodturning, this was being organised by Jim Kelman however with the Covid-19 restrictions still in place this has been changed to a virtual meeting now. Andy will not be demonstrating but we invite you all to send in some pictures of your latest turnings along with a bit of information about each article.

We are not going to put any particular criteria on what to make as long as you make something and then send them to me for publication.

We have a few very dedicated people in the club that send in articles on a very regular basis and we very much appreciate these people, however I would like to see the number of these increase, do remember that you do not have to be an expert on anything you are making, we would like to see them anyway, come on some of you novices to the club and woodturning show us what you have been doing.

We are not asking you to make anything like the Quaich, but we are asking you to make something, anything at all and do send me the pictures.

You will have up to Friday 30th October to send me your pictures, send them to me at,

a.j.mutch4321@btinternet.com

Good luck with your turning and do remember the clubhouse remains closed.

Our meeting on the 15th October 2020 was going to be mainly about making pens, it was to have been organised by Jim Kelman however with the Covid-19 restrictions still in place this meeting had to be moved to a virtual meeting.

I invited all of you to enter a pen or something else if you did not have the kit to make a pen, anything that used a brass tube like a key ring or some other item that made use of some elements of a kit, and failing all of that just to enter something you had made.

The response was as usual very poor, but I must thank all of those who did take part and some who did not take part because I have included some work from them.

You will see in the Gallery I have included some pictures of items made by our members that are clearly not a pen or have anything to do with any kit, I make no apologies for including these items, indeed to the contrary I have included a couple of items I made recently that I felt could be shown.

To see a larger picture on any of the gallery images just click the picture, you will also be able to see the text that goes with each picture.

Our next meeting is due on the 29th October, again being organised by Jim Kelman, he had arranged for Andy Walters of Black Isle Woodturning to give us a demonstration, this will not be taking place, instead we will have a virtual meeting on any subject you prefer, lets see if we can improve on the numbers taking part for this next meeting.

Do remember the clubhouse remains closed.

Our next virtual meeting will be on the 15th October 2020, the subject matter is pens, it was to be organised by Jim Kelman but with the Covid-19 restrictions still being in place this meeting will now be held virtually. You are all invited to make a pen or pens, they can be made from any material you wish, be it wood, acrylic or even metal just as long as you make something. You could also use this meeting to make anything that contains a brass tube, like a key ring holder or an atomizer.

There may be some of you who do not have any of the brass tubing or the pen mechanisms, in which case we would be very pleased to see any entry you wish to put forward.

Here are a couple of pictures of pens made in previous meetings.

Do try to take part in this meeting, we would all love to see your examples.

You will have until the end of the day on Friday 16th October to send me you pictures.

Send them to me at, a.j.mutch4321@btinternet.com

Do remember the clubhouse remains closed.

Our Showtime virtual meeting was on Thursday 1st October 2020, it was to be organised by myself but due to the ongoing Covid-19 restrictions had to be done as a virtual meeting. The response was less than good, with only 4 members taking part, those were Dave Line Nick Simpson, David Ross and myself.

The Showtime meeting have generally attracted a very good response when held in the clubhouse with 15 to 20 members taking part, why it should be so different when it’s a virtual meeting leaves me somewhat puzzled. However we are where we are and I am pleased to see we did get some response, all be it from the usual few members.

I will give you a taste of what’s in the gallery for this meeting, firstly from Dave Line,

Now an entry from Nick Simpson, Nick supplied 6 pictures that can be viewed in the gallery section along with an explanation on all, see below what Nick Had to say about his entry.

Next is an entry from David Ross, David supplied 3 pictures, all can be viewed in the gallery section.

Now for one of my own turnings, I have put forward several for you all to see, these can all be viewed in the gallery section, I have added a bit of information about all of them.

The picture Gallery now follows,

For a bigger picture of any of the items shown in the Gallery just click the picture, you will also see some text about the subject.

Our next Virtual meeting was to be on the 15th October 2020 on the subject of making pens, this meeting was to be organised by Jim Kelman.

Do remember the clubhouse remains closed.

Our next meeting should have been this Thursday 1st October 2020, it was to be organised by Mike Day, but with the Covid-19 restrictions still in force this will now be a virtual meeting. The meeting is a Showtime meeting, that’s where you would have been invited to bring along things you have made to show the rest of the members and give a short talk on what you had made. This type of meeting in the past had proved very successful with lots of the members bringing in items to show, we do not want to see a drop off in this just because it’s now a virtual meeting, do try to send in pictures of any items you have made and give me some information about them.

Here are a few pictures of some of the past Showtime meetings, I hope they will encourage you to take part.

Do try to take part and remember you are not limited to just one item to show, you can have as many as you like. Send your pictures to me before the end of the day on Friday 2nd October 2020 for inclusion in the next post.

Send your pictures to me at, a.j.mutch4321@btinternet.com

Do remember the clubhouse remains closed.

Our virtual meeting on Thursday 17th September was to be a Bowls night, it was to be organised by John Ruickbie but due to Covid-19 restrictions had to be made into a virtual meeting. John also sends his apologies for not putting forward a bowl, family commitments did not allow him sufficient time to send anything in. However we did get a few of our members to send in some pictures, I am going to deal with them in 2 lots, firstly some individual bowl pictures from Nick Simpson and Dave Line, and secondly a few pictures from David Ross and myself where we are both showing a few bowls from different aspects.

We will start with Nick Simpson’s entry,

Hi Alec

Here is an entry for the virtual bowl show.

 The picture shows a simple bowl in cherry wood measuring 8”  (200mm) diameter. The wavy line though the bowl is the graft of ornamental cherry on to wild cherry stock.I had to keep the lathe speed down because the different densities of the two woods kept the piece well out of balance until the walls were only a little thicker than the final item. It illustrates that even simple turnings can be special if the pattern and figure of the stock is exploited.

 Best wishes

Nick Simpson.

Now for Dave Line’s entries, Dave put in 3 bowls.

For the last 2 lots of entries I have used the picture gallery to show these entries, each picture contains more than one image along with some text. The first 4 are from David Ross, the last 3 are from myself, Alec Mutch.

If you would like to see a larger picture of any of those in the picture gallery, just click the picture, you will also see some text with every picture.

Do remember the clubhouse remains closed.

Our next meeting should be on Thursday 17th September 2020 but due to the present restrictions will now be a virtual meeting. This meeting was to be organised by John Ruickbie and I know he was planning something special. Now we will have to wait until we get back meeting again to see what John had planned, however we do not need to wait to see what the rest of you can do as far as bowl turning is concerned, make a bowl, any type of bowl, and photograph it or them, you can present more than one, and I will post it on our web site, do remember to give me some information with any entry.

Bowl work is probably the easiest form of turning to master, so there is no excuse for you not to make the effort to make a bowl or two and send the pictures to me.

Here are a few that may give you some encouragement to take part, you can copy if you wish, or better still come up with your own design.

These are just 4 different designs of bowls you can make, lets see how many more you can come up with.

You will have up to Friday 18th September to get your entries to me for publication, so do take part I know the members like to see what everyone has done although the entries have been scarce lately, lets change that this week.

Send your pictures to me at, a.j.mutch4321@btinternet.com

Do remember the clubhouse remains closed.

This week’s virtual meeting on Thursday 3rd September 2020 was to be about making any type of household goods. This meeting was to be organised by John Cheadle but due to the ongoing Covid-19 restrictions it had to be turned into a virtual meeting. The usual request for our members to take part has gone unheeded again, with only one member sending me any pictures or information, that being Nick Simpson, I have put a few pictures together for you all to see along with a very short timeline in the gallery on the making of a Natural Edged Bowl but from a source that you may find interesting.

I urge you all to take notice of our requests for you all to take part in what we are trying to do, and that’s to keep the club alive, your continued lack of interest is wearing us down and that’s not good for the club, we are actively looking at methods to get the club up and running again but we are still under lockdown as far as the government is concerned.

I will start with Nick’s entry, a mortar and pestle.

Now for a couple of items from my own picture gallery,

Now for the timeline on a Natural Edged Bowl. This is no ordinary Natural Edged Bowl or at least the part I’m using was not that usual as it comes from the crux of a tree.

I have deliberately kept this gallery short as I know you are all familiar with how to make a Natural Edged Bowl, the part I wanted to show was the fact of using the crux adds a whole new dimension to this type of bowl, it does not have to be a straight log or even half a log, look at what you have and come up with a new way of working it.

If you want to see a larger picture and to read the text, just click on the pictures in the gallery.

I received a late entry for this post from David Ross, there was some confusion with the original email David sent, however here are David’s pictures and text now, better late than never, and thanks David for re-sending the pictures.

Do remember the clubhouse remains closed.

Our meeting this Thursday 3rd September 2020 was to be about making household goods, it was to be organised by John Cheadle, but as lockdown persists we are having this meeting virtually. Household good give you all a very wide range of items that can be made, things like fruit bowls, candle holders, table lamps, weed pots to name but a few. I have concentrated my thoughts on items mainly to do with the kitchen and to that end I have a few suggestions on thing that could be made. You can of course make something of your own, be it decorative or functional I’ll leave that up to you, but please take part, we want as many of you as possible to make something and then send the pictures to me to upload onto our web site, don’t forget to give me some information on whatever you make.

Here are a few suggestions,

These are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to household goods, I’m sure you can think of many more, do take part in our on line meetings, the site gets a good number of viewers and I’m sure they would like to see what you have made.

Once you have made your items, take some pictures and send them to me for uploading, remember the text, and any other information you care to pass on.

Send your pictures to me at, a.j.mutch4321@btinternet.com you will have until Friday 4th September 2020 to get your pictures to me.

Remember the clubhouse remains closed.