Hope you all enjoyed the meeting last week. We had a presentation by Freud about 5 years ago, at that time they had a truck loaded with Freud products and a setup for demonstrations. They have since decommissioned the truck, but kept the presentation level as it was when the truck was on the road. For those of you that did not make it to the meeting, Kevin Kauffunger and his entourage of Freud Reps, straight out of a training class at the Woodcraft store in Downingtown offered us a presentation on Freud and Diablo products.
Freud manufactures fine circular saw blades and router bits (along with other products, check out their web sites, www.freudtools.com and www.diablotools.com) under two names, Freud and Diablo. The Diablo products are sold by stores like Home Depot, while the higher quality Freud products are sold by the more upscale Woodcraft, Rockler, Highland woodworking, etc. Though I have never been unhappy with Diablo products, Kevin explained and demonstrated some of the finer points of the Freud products. One point that he made about Freud Glueline Blades was how quiet they are due to anti vibration groves being filled with a vibration damping material. He demonstrated this property by striking the blade with a hammer, where other blades will produce a loud ringing sound, the Freud blade produced only a thump, most impressive!
On the router bit front, the Freud Quad cutter bits with 4 blades tilted to make a shear cut into the material produced an incredibly smooth cut in an end grain profile. I have seen shear cutting demonstrated by Alan Lacer, a turner who only uses skew chisels when he turns, he is able to achieve smooth finishes equivalent to 400 grit sandpaper right off of the chisel.
Having spent a lot of time sanding routed edges, i think there might be some Freud bits in my future.
Additionally at the meeting, Mike Richter officially stepped down as our president. Mike has been president for the past 8 years since he founded the club. We are all appreciative for his work and devotion to getting us top notch speakers over the years, it will be tough to fill his shoes, (though i probably have enough sawdust to do it.) Though he won't be at the helm, we will continue to be graced with his presence as a member.
We did present Mike with a brass lie nielsen smoothing plane as a small token of our appreciation. Once we are sure that he likes it, we are going to have it engraved.
Several of us rode down to Timonium MD last Friday to attend opening day at the Woodworkers show. I didn't see anything that I would consider new, but as always, spending day amidst tools, wood, and people of like mind was most enjoyable. I only took one picture, the slab below. Some of the rings were labeled with historical events, to the right of Joe Woodworker's head is the year 800. My birthday is there somewhere towards the bark. This is the first time I have felt young in a while.
Ancient tree slab
Don't forget, Lie Nielsen at the Independence Seaport Museum January 29 and 30. I plan on going on the 29th, and at the moment there is room in my car. For more info about the affair, http://www.phillyseaport.org/handtool.
If you haven't seen the boat workshop at the seaport museum, you are in for a treat, and it's FREE
Don't forget the Somerset Woodworking show the weekend of Feb 26th (F-S-S)
Next meeting, Feb 4th at the UU Church in Cherry Hill, no planned speaker as yet, but we're working on it. We can always drink coffee, eat cake and talk about woodworking. We will be discussing the possibility of a couple of paid presenters during the year, so bring some ideas of who you might like to see.
We will also vote on new officers for the club i'm ok with staying VP, haven't talked with Dave Potts about Treasurer, but i know that we need a President and Secretary.
And don't forget to bring your dues. ($50 for the year, to WGSJ)
I will send out an official meeting notice in a week or so.
This is the most I've written since High School!
Looking forward to seeing you guys on the 4th