Lake Erie Woodturners welcomes members to May 16 bowl demo in Perry

Eric Schwarz took center stage for Lake Erie Woodturners’ May 16 bowl demo at 4261 Manchester Rd. in Perry, Ohio, with the club also sending the meeting over Zoom for anyone who could not make it in person. The chapter said the link went out by email Saturday morning, a small but useful touch that kept the demonstration open to remote viewers as Schwarz walked through the bowl project pictured on the club page.

That mix of live turning and easy access fits the way Lake Erie Woodturners presents itself: a new woodturning club serving the Lake and Ashtabula County area that welcomes both new and experienced turners. The group says anyone interested in woodturning may attend, and it meets on the third Saturday of every month at 9:30 a.m. Immediately after the regular meetings, the club offers LET classes for less experienced turners, giving beginners a direct path from watching a demonstration to getting hands on at the lathe.

Lake Erie Woodturners has been building that identity for years. The American Association of Woodturners lists the chapter as founded on January 19, 2019, and its earlier public profile placed meetings at Joe Herrmann’s shop in Rock Creek, Ohio. The club says it became a recognized woodturning club in Ashtabula County, Ohio, and credits Eric Schwarz, Ernie Conover, Pete Wade, Isabel Quayle, the board and club members for helping make that happen. The club’s stated expectation is education and growth in the art of woodturning, which is exactly the kind of language that separates a social club from a place where people actually learn.

Ronald R. Tomasch is identified by the club as president, and Schwarz shows up not just as a demonstrator but as part of the club’s leadership network. That matters because Lake Erie Woodturners has also shown a pattern of bringing in outside names early, including a January 2019 blog note that said the chapter had already scheduled pro turner Jim Echter for a November demo after joining the AAW. The club’s broader aim lines up with the American Association of Woodturners’ chapter model, which is built around local fellowship and learning, and the May 16 bowl demo in Perry was a clean example of that mission in action.