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Our interests cover all aspects of woodcraft including: Carving, Furniture & Cabinet-Making, Box-making, Toys, Marquetry, Models, Pyrography, Woodturning, Scroll Saw Work, Furniture Restoration, Woodworking Tools & Equipment, Intarsia, Puzzles and Jig-saws, Finishing Techniques, Timber Recovery & Identification and Properties of Timber.
The Guild meets on the last Wednesday of each month (except for December) at 7.30 p.m. The meetings are held at the Guild's own club house at the Lions Youth Haven site off Kambah Pool Road, Kambah. They usually finish at 9.30 pm though individual members can often be found discussing matters of interest after that time.
Each monthly meeting normally focuses on a particular aspect of woodcraft that may include a presentation or demonstration. These cover areas such as carving, furniture, cabinet making, furniture restoration, scroll saw work, toys, models, pyrography, marquetry and woodturning. They also cover more general topics such as equipment, safety, workshop design, jigs, patterns, finishing techniques and all those issues that any woodworker needs to know about. All members have the opportunity to join in discussions on the various woodcraft techniques being demonstrated.
Every year at the September AGM elections are held for the Guild's committee. Members are encouraged to stand for any position. The Guild is open to new ideas and is always looking to improve ways to support members' interests.
The Guild has an extensive library of several hundred books and magazines and many videos & DVDs featuring all aspects of woodcraft. The library provides a valuable learning resource on woodcraft skills and is much used by the members. Members may borrow items for a small monthly fee.
Canberra is blessed with plantings of exotic and native trees but, unfortunately, some of them are planted in the wrong place and must be removed or, they may have been blown over in a storm. We believe in value-adding by recovering this now redundant timber and making something useful from it.
The Guild promotes the recovery of timber from trees felled by owners or contractors or from trees blown down in storms. The Guild does not participate in the felling of trees - this is a job for professional tree surgeons and arborists. If you know about a tree that has been felled or is about to be felled, and you think it may be of use, please contact the Secretary of the Guild.
Can any timber be of use? Generally, yes, but in particular the Guild is interested in those timbers with good woodworking qualities. To name just a few examples there are: apple, apricot, ash, birch, box elder, black locust, blackwood, casuarina, cedar, elm, honey locust, lemon, liquidambar, maple, osage orange, peach, pear, plum, river red gum, walnut and yew.
As a service to members the Guild buys a number of items in bulk eg glue, end sealer & sand paper.These are sold at cost plus a small margin. This is a very useful service much used by members.
Each year Guild members, in particular the members of the Toys, Models and Puzzles SIG, make a large number of wooden toys for distribution to charities in the ACT region. In the past the Guild has donated toys to the Smith Family, the Salvation Army, The Women's Refuge in both Canberra & Queanbeyan and to Marymead.
The annual exhibition enables members to display and market their creations.
The Guild was invited in 2004 to incorporate its Annual Exhibition and Sale into the national Timber and Working With Wood Show, held at Exhibition Park, (EPIC), Mitchell, ACT in early September each year. Both parties were delighted with the synergies of this collaboration in 2004 and have agreed to continue with the arrangement. Details will be posted on the Exhibition & Sales Page.
The Guild sponsors the woodcraft section at the Royal Canberra Show and participates in several other local craft exhibitions and fetes. Since 2001 the Guild has also participated in the National Folk Festival in Canberra at Easter time.
Come along to one of our monthly meetings or SIG meetings and see what we do and find out more about woodcraft!