July 05 This 'n That

This is an all-day class about wooden and metal hand planes - their history, use and maintenance. You will learn and practice the basics of hand planing, and just as important, you will learn how to sharpen your plane irons! Bring your favorite or problem planes, if you have any. We will whip them into shape! Also bring any sharpening stones you have.

Finishing Seminar with Zinsser & Liberon

Friday July 22, 2005 Session 1: 9 am - 12:30 pm (Each presenter will have 1 ½ hours) Session 2: 2 pm - 5:30 pm (The same material will be presented as in Session 1)

Foster City Recreation Dept., Mist Room, 650 Shell Blvd., Foster City

$12.00 materials fee to be paid at either the San Carlos or Dublin locations.

Program: Each session will provide an hour and half for lecture, demo and hands-on time with each of the product lines.

Woodcraft of San Carlos and Woodcraft of Dublin, in conjunction with the Bay Area Woodworker's Association, are pleased to sponsor a special finishing seminar with Gene Hoyas of Zinsser and Joanne Campisi of Sepp Leaf, importer of Liberon and Mixol.

This is a rare opportunity to spend some time with the folks who know their products best, the people who manufacture and sell them. Space is limited in each session so sign up promptly as we expect the program to fill quickly.

The Product Lines:

Zinsser is known for its ready-to-use shellac as well as several other shellac based products including Seal Coat and Zinsser French Polish, which are both extremely versatile and easy to use. Gene who is the Brand Manager for Clear Finishes at Zinsser is extremely knowledgeable about all aspects of finishing, but will be here to share his enthusiasm for the traditional finishing methods using shellac. He will talk about all aspects of the product as well as specialty techniques such as tinting shellac.

Liberon is a high quality line of British finishing products that made their appearance on the West Coast many years ago. Unfortunately, the original importer of Liberon went out of business and so these products became difficult to procure. Sepp Leaf has brought them back to the USA and Joanne will be demonstrating how these products are designed to bring out the beauty in wood. She will also be sharing a line of specialty tinting pastes manufactured by Mixol that are extremely versatile.

Open Shop at Jerry Robinson's

The open shop was hosted by Jerry Robinson at his home / shop on Roselyn Terrace in San Francisco. It was a beautiful sunny day and Jerry and his wife Dyanna welcomed us very warmly to their home along with Truffles their dog. Dyanna had prepared some home made bran muffins that were very good and also some kind of potato soufflé that was absolutely delicious. The bar has been officially raised.

There was a pretty good turnout. Those in attendance: Mark Rand, Fred Reicher, David Reese, Harald Nielsen, Lloyd LeDrew, Doug Ryan, Simon Schwartz, Teresa Maloney, & Bruce Bell

Jerry has a great shop in a somewhat spacious garage. I am envious of his head room and his level floor not to mention all the high end shop storage units he has built using the dovetail as the primary joint. Jerry is a minimalist when it comes to tools. He has a table saw, drill press, 14 inch band saw a small jointer and a planer. Everything is on wheels so it can be moved as necessary. His power tool collection may be minimalist but the work he puts out is anything but that. After showing us how he had figured out how to make a compound dovetail on an angle, for a tray he was building for a friend, a very complicated procedure as far as I was concerned, he gave us a tour of his home.

Jerry has built just about every piece of furniture in his home. From basic utilitarian office furniture painted white to an absolutely drop dead gorgeous dining table and chairs made of Cherry and Ash. It is beyond the scope of this report to catalog everything that we saw, suffice it to say that I went away completely impressed with the quality of work that Jerry does and a new belief in the old adage, "It is not so much the tool as the person using it."

Jerry hosted a great open shop, I really want the recipe for that potato soufflé.