Please remember those who have served our country during this most special day of days. If you see a veteran, thank him or her. If a veteran lives nearby and needs a hand, lend it. The older fellow down the street that all the kids in the neighborhood make fun of, talk to him, most likely he served behind a rifle during one of the greatest wars of our country's history. That young lady or man, making their way down the street in a wheel chair with a void where legs used to occupy, most likey they served in Iraq or Afghanistan, ask them, then shake their hand and thank them, they would love to hear from you. They don't ask much, they don't receive much after coming home, we owe them our lives and our respect, because they served, you and I live and dream freely. Thank you veterans, God Bless you all.

John Morris

www.ThePatriotWoodworker.com

The Patriot Woodworker, Proud Supporters of Homes For Our Troops and Wounded Warrior Project.

Well here we are folks! It's time to announce the final placements of our turner's contest finalists!

And in addition, we have two People's Choice winners to announce as well.

But before we do The Patriot Woodworker would like to recognize those who helped make this happen. Without the following folks our turning event could not have materialized, and we owe them a deep debt of gratitude. So without further adieu we would like to thank the following folks!

Our Woodcraft Team

Mr. Jody Garrett, President of Woodcraft LLC for his continued support of our site and our causes.

Liz Matheny: Marketing Director Woodcraft LLC for her continued monetary support through sponsorship and her spearheaded efforts for the donation of our 1st Place Winner's Tools

Frank Byers:Social Media Specialist Woodcraft LLC for his continued support and his promotional efforts for our turners contest through multiple blogs and announcements of our contest and his creativety and guidance helped us get this event off the ground.

Ben Bice; Product Development Manager Woodcraft LLC who volunteered and participated in the judging of our turners contest.

Our Easy Wood Tools Team

Craig Jackson; Owner/Operator Easy Wood Tools for his continued support of our site and our disabled vets, his donations of Easy Wood Tools for our runner up prizes in the contest and his participation on our judging panel.

Donna Jackson: Owner/Operator Easy Wood Tools for her continued support in our site and her participation in the judging panel.

Paul Jackson: International Sales Manager Easy Wood Tools for his continued support of our site and our disabled vets.

Thank you all for working with us at The Patriot Woodworker and caring about our disabled veterans. We salute you!

One more item before we announce our contest winners. As per our Call For Entries all winners are requested to send in their turnings to The Patriot Woodworker, the turnings will be auctioned off to highest bidder with 100 percent of the proceeds to be donated to Homes For Our Troops! This is the reason for our contest folks, it has not been stated enough but the final success of our contest hinges on the sales of the below pieces of art. Stay tuned for further instructions on where you can find these beautiful works of art for purchase. Thank you all once again for your participation and support in our causes Homes For Our Troops and Wounded Warriors Project.

Ronald Befferman pulled out all the stops with his entry Gladiator Helmet. Made of walnut by 7 turned rings consisting of 16 segments his unique design and craftsmanship with attention to detail along with a very fine finish earned him the top prize, a set of very special Easy Wood Tools with painted red, white and blue handles signed by owner and creator Craig Jackson and donated by Woodcraft LLC.

These one of a kind tools were created specially for our turners contest at the request of Liz Matheny of Woodcraft. With patriotism the theme of the day, and the pride of being Made in America and featured and donated by our very valuable supporter Woodcraft LLC.

Way to go Ronald!!!! You deserve it sir and a big tip o the hat to you!

Brian Limbacher entered a very unique turning with a very whimsical title "Slimy"! Way to go Brian. The Slimy entry caught everyones eye for it's unique shape and beautiful form. The base is made of cherry and stained black, while the vessel it holds is Spalted Wormy Maple.

This entry earned Brian a nice prize in the form of an Easy Wood Mini Rougher donated to us by the Jacksons of Easy Wood Tools! Congratulations Brian!

Congratulations Jordan on a job well done with this beautiful vessel or large cup in Cherry. With the thinly turned walls (Scary!) and the cut designs on the outer wall, this cup is beautiful to hold, touch, and admire. There is quite an interesting story surrounding this cup. The side of the cup cracked, instead of excepting failure in the execution, Jordan chose to celebrate that crack by drilling out several holes along each side of the crack and lacing it with leather straps and beads, for her creativity and execution of a difficult design, Jordan rightfully earns the third place prize of an Easy Wood Mini Detailer donated to us by the Jackson Family of Easy Wood Tools! Great job Jordan!

The people have spoken!!! Lew wins the Easy Wood Tools Mini Finisher for his splash down work the Tapered French Rolling Pin with a twist! Great job Lew! Made of Sapele and Maple with a Walnut Celtic Knot his execution of this difficult process earns him a big thumbs up from our Patriot Woodworker members and Facebook fans alike! To see Lews Blog about making this really cool rolling pin check him out at his Blog Page at The Patriot Woodworker and see how he makes them!

Congratulations Lew!!!!

We opened a category up for pens since we had such a strong showing from our pen turners. And in this category the folks gave a big high five to Joel Green and his Leather Pen! The color and instensity of the turquoise contrast makes this pen a joy to view. In addition to the stone work it consists of Birds Eye Maple and Maple Burl and of course leather. It's absolutely beautfiul Joel!

For his efforts Joel scores a 25 dollar gift certificate for Woodcraft!

While counting the votes for the pens category, Mike Dillen's acrylic Madreperlato Cherry Red blank from Exotic Blanks paired with a Craft USA Artisan Gold Rollerball kit pen earned him a nod from The Patriot Woodworker, during our counting of the votes for People's Choice Pens, Mike's pen was just a tad behind Joels Leather beauty, we could not let Mr. Dillen's pen go un-noticed and for his valiant efforts we are throwing in another gift certificate for Woodcraft in the amount of 20 dollars! Way to go Mike!!

Of course we could not have pulled this off without all of our entrants coming to the table with their beautiful turnings! We had a pretty good showing for our 1st Annual Turners Contest. We will do this again next year at the same time so be ready! For the rules of our contest you can see our original Call For Entries at Woodcraft's Woodworking Adventures. so you can be ready for next years contest!

To see all the entries please view them at The Patriot Woodworker's 1st Annual Turners Contest Photo Album. Our top three finalists can be found at our Top Three Album!

TThe prizes will be mailed out this week so please get your contact information into The Patriot Woodworker at email thepatriotwoodworker@verizon.net as soon as possible! Please include your phone number and your shipping address.

Thank you all for your participation, your support , and your patience! This was our 1st Annual contest after all, it had a few hitches in the giddyup but we'll get those worked out in time for next years contest.

Sincerely

The Patriot Woodworker Woodworking Community, We Are Woodworkers With a Cause!