Cousins in the news

From time to time there are interesting articles in local papers about one of us. I thought I'd share this one that was in the South Bend Tribune.

Dennis Drake, left, of South Bend, and Larry Scheibelhut, right, of Granger, pass around a wooden box and decorative thermometer made by Mike Pringle from walnut, mahogany and cherry wood.

September 12, 2007

A lifelong hobbyWoodCrafters Club is a show and tell of knowledge and ideas.

Between 18 local wood craftsmen, they've got hundreds of years of wood technique experience.

And they're looking for more seniority from the general public.

The WoodCrafters Club started meeting this spring in the garage of union carpenter Tom Scheibelhut, of Mishawaka. He got the idea for a local wood club after attending woodworking meetings in Florida.

Like many of the Mishawaka WoodCrafter Club members, Scheibelhut is a former Mishawaka High School wood shop student of Milt Ross, also a club member.

"We're still trying to get it right," said Ross who was the shop teacher from 1958 to 1990. "We share knowledge and get different ideas."

For show and tell at the September meeting, Bud Kronewitter passed around a giant clothespin he made after a 30-year hiatus from woodworking.

"I haven't done this since Mr. Ross was my woodshop teacher!" Kronewitter said.

"Does he get an 'A' for that?" Scheibelhut asked the former woodshop teacher.

Paul Scheibelhut, of Mishawaka, passed around wooden boxes decorated in veneer. He explained how the veneers are cut together on a band saw and taped and glued together like a puzzle.

Paul's wife, Seanna, took notes and pictures for the club's newsletter, hosting a 50/50 door prize to cover the club's expenses.

She says you don't have to be male to join the club. Seanna and a few other women enjoy wood crafts along with a variety of other crafts.

Grady Faulkner, of Mishawaka, brought in a mystery slab of wood as a brain teaser for club members. After several failed guesses, he said the white wood originated from a chinaberry tree.

Projects that weren't mobile were just as impressive in a photograph. Bob Elli, of Mishawaka, shared pictures of his home handicrafts including a trellis, leaded glass door and yard gate entryway.

"So that's your house?" asked Larry Scheibelhut, of Granger. "Every time I drive by there I admire those."

Cleaning stove grease off a handmade pepper grinder, Ben Brubaker, of South Bend, made his project presentable for show and tell.

Brubaker said he bought the bird's-eye maple and purple heart wood on Ebay. He also gleaned ideas from members for making his next pepper mill.

Joe Ganser impressed members with the sentiment and thought that went in to constructing a 9/11 memorial using a maple base, a piece of driftwood and a carved figure of Uncle Sam.

John Shirk, of Osceola, wowed everyone with the precision of his custom writing pens made with shellacked acrylics and inlaid woods. The ping pong launcher he constructed for his cats was purposely primitive.

Dennis Drake, of South Bend, was just as interested in the tools used to make wood items as he was in the items themselves.

Drake creates twisted walking canes from a 115-year-old duplicating lathe called an Ober machine.

He was looking forward to the club going on a field trip to Edwardsburg to see John Sindelar's antique tool collection.

"As a club, I'd like to go to other people's shops, to museums and all over," Drake said.

Also as a club, members are tentatively set to start meeting at the Battell Center beginning Oct. 4 at 7 p.m.

For show and tell, Tom Scheibelhut showed his own hand at intarsia, an artistic use of different types of inlaid woods.

Scheibelhut used black walnut from Florida and cherry and white aspen from his backyard to create Jesus holding His arms up in praise.