Your Best Woodshop Tips We want to hear your best shop tips.  The tips can be about anything, whether it's about working wood or storing rags; fine furniture or machine stands; hand tools or power tools; whatever.  If it's something that you do in your woodshop that might benefit others to learn, let's hear it.  You can set up a live demonstration, prepare slides, or make a video, doesn't matter, we're up for it.  You can even just talk about your tip if that's what you want to do.  By the way, let George know if you would like to practice with your set-up, slides, or video beforehand.  Email georgef@uottawa.ca  Prepare several tips.  We will start with everyone's best tip, and then have a second round, and maybe a third until we either run out of tips or run out of time.  Come prepared because Jocelyn will be calling out names.  We will also hold a Show-and-Tell segment and a Question-and-Answer portion in the meeting.  Look for the invitation to the Zoom

The OWA was invited to join a developing umbrella group called WoodShows.com.  They promise access to virtual woodworking shows from Tuesday afternoons to Thursday nights, and are offering us the ability to hold our own meetings as before, but using their platform.  It seem we can attend other groups' meetings as well. At this point it is a little cloudy on exactly how to use their platform.  Their platform is not Zoom, but similar enough so that the transition will be painless.  Annoying?  Sure.  Painful?  Maybe not. Some things we do know: They have given us 60 tickets, enough for all the OWA members we have this year and had last year.  Don Duchesne will send you an email that contains a link, maybe with instructions to activate your ticket.  It will be personalized in the sense that it, along with your email address, will give you access to their offerings.  To get started, you will have to register with them, WoodShows.com.  Through January I (George) will play around with

Our first Tuesday in January -- First Tuesday in 2021 -- features the secrets of special jigs to handle curves!  The title is: Dining Room Corner Cabinet Design & Build , a Presentation by none other than Marty Schlosser of the Kingston Artisans.  Follow along with Marty as he describes how he designed and built a pair of dining room corner cabinets for their home.  The following points will be covered:  Design considerations Construction of the carcass, drawers and hutch doors. (including the many jigs that were needed) Finishing (stains, topcoats and application methods) Questions will be encouraged throughout the presentation. Members of the OWA and friends of Kingston Artisans will receive an invitation to attend the Zoom get-together by email.

Our own Karen McBride has an eight-page spread dedicated to her woodshop in this year's annual issue of Fine Woodworking's Tools & Shops.  Her shop is a log cabin that she relocated log by numbered log and outfitted with truely high end tools.  The article will either inspire you to greatness or depress you into quitting woodworking.  Brava Karen!

Here's a quote from George:  "When I joined the OWA in 2011, Jack Schwass conducted a special interest group in his home workshop on making planes.  I couldn't believe it; these people made their own tools!  I stayed." On Thursday the 10th at 7 PM, our partners, the Kingston Artisans, will host a Zoom meeting showing how one makes a wooden hand plane.  Additional details along with an invitation to the meeting will be (or maybe have been) provided to members of the OWA via email.  There's also talk of a surprise presentation lined up.  Check your email.

We have a special feature presentation coming up on Tuesday.  Our own Christopher Dufault will talk about learning to carve marionettes abroad.  His presentation is titled: Wood Carving at Workshops at 'Puppets in Prague' (Czech Republic) and 'World of Puppets' (Iceland) Christopher Dufault spent the month of August 2019 at a wood carving and performance workshop in the Czech Republic where he and people from several other countries each carved their own traditional Czech marionette under the expert tutelage of 'Puppets in Prague.'  A combination of machine and hand tools was employed in creating these marionettes.  Due to restrictions on travel caused by the pandemic this year, he has subsequently only been able to attend further such workshops via the internet -- again from the Czech Republic as well as from Iceland.  Christopher will describe the process of creating a traditional Czech wooden marionette and compare the merits of in-person and on-line lea