ClubHistory of Woodturners Of Polk County          In 1985 the late Hans Ludwigsen, the late Ralph Gienau, Dr. Wallace Coyner and Cliff Sessions were gleaning information on how to turn wood. Ralph and Wallace were more advanced than Hans and Cliff. Realizing that we needed more help, we called a few other friends to meet with us. On May 14, 1987 Hans, Ralph, Wallace and Cliff were joined by John Kriplean, Ron Cinquanti and Art Raynor to form The Woodturners of Polk County. We began meeting in home shop settings to discuss and share knowledge about wood- turning. Soon we grew to about 25 members. We have changed meeting formats several times and the most successful seems to be when demos are given by someone, either local or professional. Dennis Stewart was the first of a long list of professional woodturners that we engaged to come teach techniques for different lathe tools. Dennis’s main emphasis was on his newly developed cutting tool system. The Dennis Stewart tool system is an arrangement of holding metal cutters to remove the wood. Dennis sold the system to Craft Supplies of Great Britain. As a result of the interest of club members, other professional woodturners were engaged to teach different techniques. Members attended national workshops, AAW Symposiums, professional schools and demos given by lathe manufacturers and shared the knowledge with the club. Gradually we became better woodturners and placed our works in the Florida State Fair where we won many ribbons. In the summer of 1985 a group of professional woodturners held an exhibition on woodturning entitled Vision and Concept.From the meeting evolved the American Association of Woodturners which held the first AAW Symposium in 1986.         After that local chapters began to form. Our club was soon to follow and received our charter on June 13, 1988. The AAW has over 175 local chapters and approximately 9000 members. It appears that the AAW studied our chapter very well!!!! We have about 35 members but we don’t extend membership to the same territories as the AAW. An interest in woodturning and payment of dues are the only requirements of becoming a member. Quoting a script of Ralph Gienau: “The level and experience matters not, since our objective is to help upgrade each member’s level through the educational process."           Well, we hope you have been made interested enough to join our club and learn more about this ancient craft. We will give you all the help you need to learn woodturning, a craft that will thrill not only you but others when they (and you) see what you can do with a piece of wood that just fell off a tree.        Don't delay plan to attend a meeting soon. June 12, 2002
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