Golden Horseshoe Woodturners Guild closes season with spring competition
Exotic Woods hosted the guild’s final meeting of the season, with Best in Show set for 9 p.m. and entries spread from novice to open classes.
Exotic Woods became the Golden Horseshoe Woodturners Guild’s last big gathering before summer break, with members bringing work that was meant to be judged, compared and, in plenty of cases, measured against the best in the room. The final meeting of the season ran Thursday, June 18, from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at 5229 Harvester Road in Burlington, and the judging was anchored by Exotic Woods owners John Hordyk Sr. and Mel Hordyk.
The competition format showed how the guild keeps the door open to every level of turner. Entries were divided into novice small and large, intermediate small and large, open small and large, and segmented submissions, giving newer members a place on the table alongside turners pushing more ambitious forms. Best in Show was announced at 9 p.m., and the guild also presented its 2026 Most Promising Novice award. Rules and submission forms were posted for the competition, and members were told to check the updated guidelines before entering.
One of the clearest changes this year was the size limit. Fully assembled work had to fit into a 5-by-5-by-10-inch box, a little more generous than the former 4-by-4-by-8-inch limit used in previous years. That kind of constraint matters in woodturning, where proportion, wall thickness and finish all have to survive the same hard look from judges that a bigger form would get. The competition page framed the event as more than a drop-off and scorecard exercise, thanking entrants and making clear that the value of the night came from everybody’s work being in the mix.
For Golden Horseshoe Woodturners Guild, that mix is the point. The club serves the greater Burlington-Hamilton area of southern Ontario and brings together people of all ages who share an interest in the creative art of woodturning. Its history runs back to 1993, when a group interested in woodturning met monthly in a Burlington lumber store. After the store closed in 1995, an organizing committee formed the guild, which first met in January 1996 at Lord Elgin High School and became the 150th chapter of the American Association of Woodturners in 2000.
The competition also fit the guild’s larger role in the local scene. Members get notice of woodturning events at the local, provincial and national level, can access wood at a reasonable cost and take part in an annual Show & Sale. That is what made the night at Exotic Woods feel like a season finale instead of just another club stop: it put the whole club in one room, with the best work, the newest turners and the judges all facing the same table one last time before summer.
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