Report by: Lindsay Amies
Club Night Demo: February 11th 2015

Our first club entertainment evening for 2015, also known as a demo, was presented by Master Carver Mike Davies and we weren’t disappointed.

Assisted by a power point presentation, Mike introduced Record Power, a Sheffield company with over 100 years experience. Lathes, M2 grade high speed chisels, an impressive dust extraction system and a wet stone sharpening system that really worked all got the once over.

We heard a little about Mike’s interesting background before he introduced the Six Techniques, the foundation skills for successful carving.

Mike went through the six techniques, one by one, explaining and demonstrating clearly the essential techniques for holding a chisel and making various cuts. It looked so easy. A sales pitch which wasn’t lost on members present was his one day course ($157) and a set of carving chisels thrown in for good measure, or that might have been vice versa, it didn’t matter, it was still a good deal.

The theme for term one is decorating platters and Mike came up with three straight forward designs that even the uninitiated could try. A point of interest was his comment that the carving working level needed to be at elbow height, to save your back.

A quick demo on lettering, a series of two cuts, just scratched the surface of the subject, pun intended.

Mike wound up the evening with a quick demonstration of the WG250 and the effectiveness of this sharpening system!

This was a quick moving demo sustained by a high level of interest from the benches. Expect a lot of interest in Mike’s One Day Introductory Course.

Well done Mike and thanks. A really good evening.