Exciting Working with Wood show
With a history in timber dating back as far as 1932, what better venue for this year’s Wood Turning Festival in association with the Working with Wood Show than Saasveld, George, Western Cape.
The woodworking fraternity globally are extremely excited that the Association of Wood Turners South Africa (AWSA) in partnership with the American Association of Wood Turners (AAWA), the Working with Wood Show and the School of Natural Resource Management at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) will take an active role in this year’s Wood Turning Festival at the NMMU, Saasveld Campus from August 26 to 28.
This beautiful venue’s origins can be traced back to 1911 when a forestry college was established at Tokai near Cape Town. The government of the day moved the college to a new location, Saasveld, near George in the Southern Cape in 1932.
From 1932 to 1985 almost 1 300 foresters were trained at this campus that is surrounded by both indigenous and commercial forests.
Following on from the extremely successful 2014 Working with Wood Show in Knysna, the event quickly established itself as a leading woodworking and tool show in South Africa, and is acknowledged today as Africa’s most diverse woodworking and woodcraft event.
The Working with Wood Shows are known for bringing top South African and international demonstrators to share their woodworking skills and crafts from wood turning, carving, chair-making and sharpening to furniture-making with attendees.
Everything timber-related and eco-related, from mobile milling of slabs, to fine furniture and sculptures, and sustainable alternatives for the home and natural resource management displays can be found. These events showcase sustainable timber production.
This year the Wood Turning Festival and Working with Wood Show will feature top woodworking experts. Among these are two international AWSA guests, Carmen De La Paz from the US and Chris Pouncy from Sorby in the UK. The South African contingent includes John Wessels, John Speedy, Dave Stephson, Mervin Walsh, Richard Muller, Jan Conradie and Charlie Letsoalo.
This year participants will be also be treated to wood turning demonstrations and enhancements that will highlight the global trend in wood turning. De la Paz and Wessels will offer live demonstrations on some of the latest techniques in wood enhancements.
The organisers are thrilled to announce the launch of the outreach programme, Turners without Borders, to be held during this festival.
De la Paz will also host the first Working with Wood Show’s programme exclusively for women – Women in Turning. This hands-on programme aims to provide women with an opportunity to experience the wonderful world of wood turning.
Besides the myriad of demonstrations on offer, a large exhibition of tools, equipment and the latest woodworking and wood turning equipment will also be on exhibit. These include leading brands such as Festool, Triton, Kreg, Howard Products, Pro Tech, Tork Craft, Bessey, Felo, Alpen, MPS, Spring Tools, Mag Switch, Aircraft, Drill Doctor, Armor and the latest revolutionary circular saw from Saw Stop.
This Saw Stop blade carries a small electrical signal that the safety system continually monitors. When skin makes contact on the blade the signal changes because the human body is conductive. This change to the signal activates the safety system and an aluminium brake springs into the spinning blade, stopping it in less than 5 milliseconds!
The blade’s angular momentum drives it beneath the table, removing the risk of subsequent contact and power to the motor is automatically shut off. Resetting the saw yourself is easy. Simply replace the blade and affordable brake cartridge, and your saw is operational. The entire reset process takes less than five minutes.
All equipment and supplies will be on offer at special low show prices.
About the venue Saasveld
During the 19th Century development in the Cape Colony led to an increased demand for structural and furniture timber. This further led to an unhealthy strain on the indigenous forests of the Southern Cape, which had been exploited since the days of Jan van Riebeeck.
Farsighted planning obviously called for the establishment of plantations of fast-growing exotic trees and the necessary trained foresters to manage them. To meet this need, the SA College Schools started a course for forest rangers in 1902, but was superseded by the Tokai School for Forest Apprentices in 1912.
At that stage forestry fell under the Department of Agriculture and was more conservation-oriented than concerned with afforestation; consequently the output of foresters was very small at that time. With the rapid growth of the timber industry, it was decided to relocate Saasveld to its present position.
This venue is situated in close proximity to indigenous forest, open areas suitable for plantations of exotics, sawmills and drying kilns in George.
Saasveld was named after previous owners of the land’s ancestral castle in Overijssel in the Netherlands. In 1917 Saasveld was bought by the George Forest Timber Co, and later acquired by Searles Limited. In 1928 ownership of the land finally passed to the State and work started on construction of the College.
Source: George Herald