Look for the Lexington Woodworker's Guild show entitled "Respecting The Grain" at 130 Waltham St., Lexington, MA.  EMGW guild member Steve McKenna has been invited to be a presenter among other masters of studio furniture.

SEPTEMBER 14 GUILD MEETING

We’re going to do something a bit different for our first meeting of the new season.

The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation sponsors, in conjunction with other groups such as MA Woodlands Institute, the Massachusetts Town Forest Conference, an annual event to promote understanding of our forests and their relationship to land use, wood products, wildlife, and conservation. This year it will be at the Sherborn Town Forest. This is an event for both adults and families with a wide variation in program components. A preliminary program is attached; a final program will be circulated when we receive it.

The Guild will participate in this event in place of our regular September meeting. This participation will be in three parts.

Part 1 – Forest to finished product: Making wood products with hand tools. We will have a “booth” within the barn (that was recently refurbished by North Bennett Street School’s Restoration Carpentry program) where we will use New England wood to construct some simple projects that the public can watch, ask about, and perhaps participate in.

Part 2 – Display. We’ll have one table allotted for members to show their work, which can be for sale, if desired.

Part 3 – General Participation: We encourage the Guild to attend the overall program. It will include sawing a log into lumber (for those that missed our trips to Barre the past two seasons), timber framing, joinery, a tour of the restored barn, forest management talks, woodland and wildlife walks, children’s events, etc.

Now for a few more details:

Part 1 – We’re looking for a few volunteers to man the booth and make stuff; one group of 3-4 from set-up until lunch (about 10:00-12:30) and the other from lunch to clean-up (about 1:00-4:00). We may also need a few volunteers to pre-make components for assembly at the booth, so if you’d like to participate but can’t attend on the 14^th, you can still help.

We’ll need to bring our own chairs, tools, clamps/work-mates/small benches to work on (there will be standard folding tables to attach things to) and wood (the Board has authorized a budget for materials). We have not decided specifically on what we’ll make yet; that should be up to the group that volunteers. We are preliminarily thinking of one or two simple furniture products, perhaps a small shaker table, a stool, shaker boxes and something that may engage youngsters, such as assembling a precut birdhouse or toy.  If you would be interested in participating in this part, please send an e-mail to Don Michael, drmichael22@outlook.com .  This will involve a couple of meetings in the coming weeks to make more detailed plans, decide what to make, identify supplies needed, etc.

Part 2 – If you would like to display some of your work, or sell a piece or two, please send a picture and dimensions to Ken Zoller, kzoller@comcast.net.  We will have limited space and so must be selective. Please, no dining room tables or hi-boys and keep it to pieces made primarily with New England wood species.

Part 3 – For the most recent program along with this article click here.  There are many varied events; enough to interest anybody. The event is free, but if you want a free lunch, too, you must preregister so the caterer will have a have a headcount with you listed. To preregister online, click Conference Registration Form.