All content © West Suffolk Woodturning Club 2012 - 2025
We are a small and friendly club with a variety of members with very varied skills. Many of our members travel considerable distances to meet with us and most are very active turners.
We promote our club and woodturning at various events during the year.
Members can offer advice and tips and you can learn a lot from our demonstration evening, which showcase some of the top demonstrators available as well as our own members’ talents. We use a media projector to make sure that the action is viewed from several camera angles.
There is always a table for display of your latest creation at each meeting, also the occasional item turns up for sale. As part of your membership we can offer you a free personal gallery page on this website.
We also have a number of nights where traders may show their wares and demonstrate their products.
We hold a club competition annually where we award the Club’s “Malcolm Fox Memorial Trophy” to the entry voted most popular by the members.
See the calendar page for all this years events.
Quick Links
Upcoming meetings and events:
August - No meeting
15th September 2025
Demonstration by Dave Pratt
7:30pm start at the Village Hall
Most meetings are almost back to normal following the Covid19 pandemic, however we still have some remaining precautions: view here
Recently displayed
We encourage all members to bring items to meetings for display. See more in the main Gallery
About our club
Covid 19
The meeting hall and our events are now running as they were prior to the Covid outbreak. Although the memory of strict Covid 19 rules and precautions are now becoming a fading memory obviously we are very keen to ensure the safety of everyone who attends our meetings.
We have a number of older or vulnerable people who regularly attend our meetings and would ask members to apply the following conditions:
We would ask you not to attend if:
Some of our members still choose to wear a mask, and this is perfectly acceptable.
Thank you.
Change of meeting day
Please note our meeting day has changed to the third Monday of the month. This is so that our meetings do not coincide with another group that use the same venue.
The committee aims to meet several times a year to discuss new ideas, organise upcoming events and find ways to enhance the club.
We do however require further member help to achieve our events and goals, help is always appreciated at meetings to setup and clear down and at our special events.
If you have fresh ideas, organisational skills or are just enthusiastic about the club and woodturning in general then please feel free to ask any committee member for an informal chat, or better still just volunteer to join on the AGM night held annually in November.
Click here to view the 2024 AGM minutes.
The current Committee:
- You or your family members have tested positive for Covid within the last 14 days.
- You have Covid type symptoms
- There is a risk you may have been in contact with anyone showing signs of the illness
Committee news
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Stuart Clarke |
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Chairman |
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John Woods |
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Secretary |
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Pat Yates |
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Treasurer |
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Ian Cameron |
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Member |
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Martin Taylor |
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Neil Robertson |
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Member, news & website |
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Tic Challis |
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Chairman Stuart Clarke presenting Mike Charnley with the trophy shield for coming first in the Malcolm Fox Memorial Trophy competition 2024.
Meeting - Monday 21st July 2025
The club has enjoyed many demonstrations by Carlyn, and each demonstration has been very well received. Her enthusiasm and techniques are addictive, and her extremely precise execution of her work is a joy to see.
Carlyn said that she was now concentrating on single colour contrasting veneers over the previous multi-coloured veneers that she had been using because she found it too bespoke, time consuming, and everybody wanted something different to what she was producing. The single contrasting colour sold better and was very popular.
This demonstration was about finials to fit onto a pot. The purpose was to make people think more about finial design and dimensions that would better suit the object that it is paired with.
She explained that good design and form are paramount to any product and to this end there were certain rules that needed to be adhered to make the form pleasing to the eye. The designs are always sketched out prior to creating anything so that she can get the dimensions and forms correct using the golden ratio and Fibonacci sequence when applied to curves…
Continue reading in the July newsletter click here
Multi-turn meeting - Monday 17th March 2025
We had a very strong turnout for our first Multi turn of 2025. As ever it is a social evening for people to chat, discuss ideas and solve problems.
Full detail in this months newsletter - Click here
Meeting May 19th - Terry Smart Chestnut Products
The scheduled demonstrator cancelled at the last minute due to illness, so Terry kindly stepped in to demonstrate for us. Thank you Terry.
Terry started by emphasizing the importance of the finish of your work. The time taken should be a significant proportion of the total time creating your piece.
Use the right products, in the correct order, helps achieve a good finish.
On the back of the Chestnut Products catalogue, and on their website, there is a compatibility chart for the various Chestnut products.
Terry had a pre-prepared blanks and items to show various finishing techniques.
The talk covered most of the available products as well as a few brand new products like the anti-purge spray to extend the longevity of some oils. The other new product was a very durable Ivory Lacquer.
Thanks goes to John Woods for the report, the full version can be read in the May newsletter - click here to open
Club stand at the Weird and Wonderful Wood show
The show which took place over the weekend of the 10th and 11th of May was again a great success for the club. A big thank you goes to all of those who helped to organise it, setup, keep the stand running each day, providing the demonstrations, and removing it all after the weekend.
It takes a lot of effort to do and we would encourage more members to offer help with next year please.
One of the biggest draws to our stand is the ever-popular tombola. John Woods estimates that we could well have issued 350 prizes this time. These are all turned items donated by our club members. The whole weekend is very important to raise the profile of our club and raise some money to keep it going.
I am sure our chairman, Stuart, is over the moon with all of this and how well it all worked out with the demonstrations. Stuart has put a lot of effort into procuring a new reliable generator on behalf of the club and this was its first 'outing'.
Even though this year's show is over we are taking donations in readiness for next year and would welcome your items whenever you are able. John, Ian and Stuart are at the ready.
Meeting - Monday 16th June 2025 - Mike Charnley
Mike Charnley was able to provide a demonstration at short notice since Eric Harvey was recently taken ill and had to cancel.
Mike used apple, hornbeam and rosewood to create a lidded hollow form with finial. It was a very good demonstration with Mike's attention to precise turning and detail.
Read the fully illustrated step-by-step report in the June newsletter - click here
Remember there is no meeting in August
September will be a demonstration by Dave Pratt from the Norfolk Broads. Dave started work in engineering and later ran his own training company. He inherited his love of woodturning from his father Jack who worked professionally with wood.
Dave is the Chairman of the Werry Woodturners club. Dave now makes commissions as well as decorated items and hollow forms as well as providing tuition.
Dave Pratt - Monday 15th September 2025
Take a look at his website ‘Broadland Wood Art’ - Click here
Dave Pratt courtesy of https://www.broadlandwoodart.co.uk/
