Monday 3 June 2019

PR and demo by Chris Pouncy


Must have been a full house at the clubrooms and no wonder because this was a one time opportunity to attend a free demo by a well known chap from the UK who is also the PR person for Robert Sorby tools.

Full marks for the setup with video and large screen with a dedicated video-grapher who occasionally took a nap and forgot all about what was going on around him.



Never mind, I believe that it's a tiring job looking all the time at a smallish video camera display and gets a bit boring at times.

Chris is a proficient wood turner I think and a good salesman too, well that's why he came down to Invercargill for I guess to promote a certain brand of tools and how good they are.
He kicked off the show with a lengthy sharpening demo using this gizmo sharpening system called Pro Edge with is indeed a fine tool to have so you never have to worry about blunt tools anymore if own one that is.
This unit includes a number of add ons for sharpening a variety of tools plus a few more optionally available ones also.
The price of this setup was a rather whopping amount of dollars worth so most us need to start saving now to be able to buy it next year.

So here's hoping that the club will be able to do some fundraising or some sponsor might throw some money at us and we will be able to get this little Rolls Royce sharpener for the club rooms.

Anyway Chris showed how it's all done and after this chapter he continued with the freshly sharpened tools to tackle some beech blank showing some standard techniques of hollowing, undercutting and so on.
Then he carried on with the spiralling tools and the correct ways to use these not only on bowls but also with between centers turning to create a great effect.




Another new tool he demonstrated was a kind of safety skew chisel with a very glossy bevel and this looked like a flat scraper with a glossy bevel.
Useful tool indeed if one is a little apprehensive to use a ' real ' skew because you are likely too have no dig- ins with this newish ' skew ' .

And then there was a raft of tools on display from the Robert Sorby brand which could be analysed by the members and if you had pockets deep enough they could be purchased.
Beats me that I could not find any bowl gouges with replaceable tips but just the standard full steel ones only.
However I was quite happy to buy this little hollowing tool for which I have a good use.





Nice to see Bill Owen there also and manning his sales corner..
There was quite a demand for these items also I believe.


All in all I believe that most of us did have an enjoyable time on this cold Sunday afternoon also thanks to Chris and his pleasant style to entertain us all job well done indeed.

Peter A.