With our President out of the area and Vice President Peter Wronsky stuck in traffic somewhere, immediate past Vice President Mark Rand opened the meeting. The first order of business was to vote to fill the vacant position of Secretary. Mark Ferraro had come forward to volunteer together with Andy Sobiesky who cannot attend many meetings but was willing to fill in when he can. A call for other candidates found no one else volunteering. A vote was called and Mark Ferraro and Andy Sobietsky were overwhelmingly approved for the position.

Stan Booker of our Programs Committee introduced one of our own members Don Naples as our presenter for the evening. Don founder and president of Wood Artistry LLC (www.woodartistry.com) who lives in Healdsburg, is an inventor and ardent wood worker. Don using tools and a slide show made a wonderful, highly detailed presentation on what makes a tool sharp, the types of steel used in edge products and the pros and cons of various sharpening systems. A large part of his presentation was on the history of hand planes, what makes a plane valuable and the true history of the early plane makers. Don also gave a very detailed demonstration of his latest products, including his new Lap-Sharp sharpening system, which was just introduced at the October woodworkers show in San Mateo.

Don gave the group a large list of resources to find parts for antique hand planes. Here is a partial list of the resources:

Locally:

Peter Niederberger - pniederber@aol.com

Vintage Planes & Parts

PO Box 887

Larkspur CA 94977

415/924-8403 (call after 6 PM)

David MacArthur - 707/823-2518

On the Web:

Tony Murland & Mike Hancock - www.antiquetools.co.uk

Andy Stephens Antique Quality Woodworking - www.toolbazaar.co.uk

The Electronic Neanderthal - http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~alf/en/en.html

Peter and Rosemary Trinder's Fine Tools - www.trindersfinetools.co.uk

And of course Don Naples - dnaples@woodartistry.com

After the main presentation, visitors and guests made self introductions.

Bruce Woods from Livermore saw our booth at the Woodworking Show. He makes furniture, jewelry boxes and does guitar building. John Wilson from Redwood City also saw us at the show. He makes cabinets and furniture. Mike Yoder from San Jose found our web site. He makes all types of things including furniture. Greg Thornhill from San Mateo also found us on the web. He is brand new to woodworking and the closest he has come is some construction work. A hearty welcome was extended to all.

Stan Booker our Rafflemeister described the door prizes for the evening and the raffle item which was a beautiful Walnut board.

The break followed with the usual good coffee and munchies thanks to Jim Voos, Erl Belland and Ron Gerard.

Announcements

**Harold Patterson gave an update on the last toy workshop where articulated crickets were made. Harold had pictures of the presentation of 17 crickets to the students at the Recreation for the Handicapped in San Francisco. The next toy workshop will be held February 7, 2004 at Per Madsen's shop in San Francisco. Contact Harold at pattersonsys@earthlink.net or 650/349-7922. The project will be blocks and includes a storage box, and the blocks will be stamped with vegetable dye numbers and letters.

**Manny Hernandez was offering a number of tools and jigs for sale. From dust collectors to sliding tables, there was a large selection from Manny's garage to purchase that evening as silent auction items.

**Arnie Champagne (www.champagnesfurniture.com) announced an opening in his 8-class series on Tools & Techniques. The class meets for 2 days each quarter and will take two years to complete. Contact Arnie at 415/282-1704 for more information. He has other classes which can be found in the Classified section of this newsletter.

**Mark Rand acting for Robbie Fanning announced that a 3-person team is needed to handle the refreshment for the April, May and June meetings and for the quarters beyond. Contact Robbie at rfanning@mac.com or 650/323-1183.

**Peter Wronsky said the "Holy Oak" 30 inch long pewlets (benches for kids) were made in two sessions by Harold Patterson, Don Naples, Tony Fanning, Peter Wronsky and Gene Wagg and given to the Presbyterian church in Petaluma where we got the "holy oak." They were thankful and implied that they would love to have more.

Show & Tell:

1. Cabinet stand for wash basin-John Blackmore

2. Book Stands with interesting hinges-Scott Bloomquist

3. Legacy machine, Christmas ornaments-Maynard Grinim

4. Cabinet Pulls-Arnie Champagne

5. Wall cabinet-Milo Hanke

6. Plane-Manny Hernandez

7. Hand Plane-Mark Ferraro

8. Bench clamp-Dimitri Priimak

The spirited bidding on Manny Hernandez' hand tools in the Silent Auction found Neal White with a winning bid of $20. The grinder was won by Jay Perrine with a bid of $20. Thank you Manny for making BAWA's treasury that much richer. Now Mark can buy himself that Ferrari.

The meeting ended with three door prizes given out to the lucky winners. Stan said more tickets have to be sold before the Walnut board can be raffled off. Members left dreaming of owning a Lap-Sharp.