Best selling wood projects

One of the great realisations in woodworking, is knowing that we stand on the shoulders of giants as we ply our craft.

Centuries of practice in the application of woodworking principles, and the selection of the tools developed for this purpose, are there for us to utilise.

It is one thing to go through the motions with the tools and the techniques, it is quite another to feel, and be, part of the tradition as we work.  We could say that the process is as important as the product - but it is more than that, it is as though we become part of something more than ourselves by participating.

Now, before you think Ive completely flipped, look at it from one simple perspective (- there are many).

Take a hand-tool and perform a task - say a hand saw - and the task is to rip a piece of timber to the width you want.  Once you are cutting, and the rhythm of the saw stroke is underway, you can physically, mentally and emotionally be in the zone.
Nothing matters at that moment, as the cadence of the work takes over.  Like a runner and the road - It is, to run!
- It is, to saw!

This is a task that has been repeated thousands - if not millions of times - before you picked up the saw.

Lets add another ingredient.  What if the saw you are using is one that has performed the task many times before - by you and by whoever owned the saw before you - your father, grandfather, some other craftsman.


 You are physically in touch with those people through their sweat, and the grime of use in the handle.  Yours is added to it. The saw stores all of this as a part of its story.  You are simply the latest chapter.

The same thing happens with your use of any hand tool.  It is what makes using old hand tools such an epiphany.

Here is a quite old hand plane.  It has no makers mark. It has little value to collectors because of this.  If it were a Mathieson, or a Preston, a Malloch, a Bailey or a Norris - it would be highly desirable to acquire and display.  But its not.  Yet, to me, this plane has more of the essence of what it is to be a craftsman, because it was made by the one who first used it.  It not only has acquired some of the owners perspiration, it owes its very existence to the creativity of that unknown man. And he built upon the ideas of others as he fashioned it.

He constructed a roughing plane from a single block of timber, and added a front horn and rear handle.  Maybe as an apprentice, he bought the blade and built the plane around it - a common enough occurrence.

 It has a generous mouth, a single iron radiused blade, and a comfortable handle for ease of use.

While Im not sure what it is, the timber is quite lovely.

The blade was made by Pearson of Sheffield, and co-incidentally a laminated iron by Henry Boker of Germany also fits it well.








Now, when I use this plane, everything just comes together - the tempo of planing, the sounds and smells of the the timber giving up its shavings, the smoothness of the surface and the pulse of the planing action through the body.  Of course theres more  - its as though there is a collective presence in the act of planing, of which I am a part. In a sense - we plane!

 I dont know if any other woodworkers experience it as I do.  Perhaps it is my practice of using pre-owned and pre-loved hand tools that triggers these thoughts, perhaps Im just a little loopy.
What I do know is the joy of woodworking.

“Things men have made with wakened hands, and put soft life into
are awake through years with transferred touch, and go on glowing
for long years.
And for this reason, some old things are lovely
warm still with the life of forgotten men who made them.”
? D.H. Lawrence

 

What if Yoda did woodwork  ....................

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Best selling wood projects - Ukes Are Go

Best selling wood projects

............... yep, just like the Thunderbirds ..............

One of the greatest aspects of living in a small community is .... well ...... living in a small community.  Telegraph Point is tiny, but has a vibrant community culture.

Apart from Book Group, our own local library, Singing Group, community dinners and BBQs, fitness group, and pub karaoke, there is the Wednesday night Ukulele Group.

A more zany bunch of pluckers, you are unlikely to meet - from diverse backgrounds, but with a passion for that oxymoron - Ukulele Music.

My stupid camera has a flash delay - thats why everyone looks like a deer in the headlights - but you get the idea.  Of course - the empty wine glasses might also account for that.

One of our inspirations is The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain - Oh that we might emulate them one day!
Their rendition of the old Talking Heads song Psycho Killer is mind-blowingly great.  It is one song that we love murdering whenever we can.

Ukes come in all shapes and sizes, the most common, in our group anyway, are the tenor sized ukes. That little maroon one (above) is a soprano - and I play a concert.

Anatomy of a Ukulele

Here is my concert ukulele - a Kanani - beside the LOMLs  Lanikai which is a tenor. The body of the tenor is longer and deeper, and it has a longer neck.

Building a Ukulele
Tonewoods are something that have  taken my interest since I decided to build a Ukulele. Now this is totally new woodworking territory for me, so I am in the process of researching methods and materials. I think that I will build a tenor ukulele, as it is the largest with standard uke stringing.

There is a larger baritone uke, but it requires different chord sets, and that may be a bridge and nut too far at this stage.

My Kanani is made of solid Koa - both body and soundboard, and the Lanikai has a spruce soundboard and mahogany body.  Both have rosewood fret-boards.

The roundup of materials will now begin.  I have some African blackwood that will make a good fretboard, and I am going to try western red cedar as the soundboard.

This western red cedar came from panels from my brother in laws kitchen demolition.  Under the paint was some lovely straight grain.

Other ukulele soundboard tonewood timbers that I have a little of, and am considering, are:

• mango
• blackwood
• huon pine
• black heart sassafras
• Australian cedar
• Queensland maple
• Tasmanian myrtle

I am still mulling over timber for the body, but am thinking maybe blackwood...... hmmmm ...

This task will take some time I think.

In the meantime, here is the song that I took to Uke group last night ..... a blast from the past ..........
Lets just say that - while I love it, ......... ...............
.....................................................it is growing on the others ....................

Happy uke-ing .....
.... and happy woodworking to all ...............








Best selling wood projects

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Best selling wood projects - Woodwork in Southern China Old and New Part 1

Best selling wood projects

The love of my life (LOML) and I have had the good fortune to have spent some weeks of holiday in Southern China.  What a remarkable country, with beautiful people and stunning scenery.  Among the thousands of memories that we brought home with us are some images showing a glimpse of traditional and modern woodworking in its many forms - Chinese style.

 Southern China is not on the mainstream western tourist trail, and includes numerous groups of people from Chinas ethnic minorities.  In this sense it may not be totally representative of Chinese culture as a whole, but it is all the more interesting because of that.

So - just to be clear - we did not see any of the following:

• Great Wall of China
• Terra-cotta Warriors of Xian
• Yangtse River Cruise
• Bejing
• Shanghai

What we did see and experience, was the warmth and hospitality of  beautiful people, who love their families, friends and their country - and love life above all.


Everywhere we went, there was a hive of construction activity ranging from national infrastructure - roads, highways, high speed train lines etc, down to house building and restorations of existing buildings.  Here is a snapshot.

Freedom of religious expression in China has led to the re-building of those temples and churches damaged during the Cultural Revolution - and the attention to detail is breathtaking.

Anyone who is a woodworker will appreciate, the skill and dedication needed to re-produce fine work on such a large scale.

In every town and city,  old buildings are being restored and preserved. Here are two on opposite corners in the city of Kunming.

On the left, a restored building - while on the right an original doctors surgery and pharmacy first established in 1857.  Inside, there are consulting rooms and an on-the-spot herbal pharmacy.  Note the wall of herb cupboards and drawers in the background.

Out in the countryside, there are many combinations of traditional design and contemporary practice - with very pleasing results.

The tools and techniques would be very much at home in any woodworkers workshop.  The quick fix fence on the jointer is held in place with two nails.

I saw no evidence of A2 or M2 steels in the tools used, no cryo-treated blades, no high end big name manufacturers tool labels, and spartan toolkits that make those of western home hobbyists, look palatial by comparison.  Yet the results speak for themselves.

 Look carefully at this picture and you will see three tools from everyday use - chain saw, tape measure and bow saw.  Somewhere out of shot there is a bandsaw, which slabs the timbers for lumber, and the evidence of volumes of work lies on the ground around about.

For simpler buildings these are all that seem to be needed.

Here is an animal shelter - completely weatherproof, with a bark roof held in place with tree-nails - we might call them wooden dowels.

I have so much more to share from this trip, but this will do for the moment.  Woodworking is so universal, that it can be found wherever we look. Southern China is no exception.

 It is great to be back sharing my own peculiar outlook on all that is wood - and other perspectives .....
.........and happy woodworking to all ................

Best selling wood projects

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Best selling wood projects - The Bodgie Boys Are Back

Best selling wood projects

We never tire of birdsong here in beautiful Telegraph Point.
Occasionally, however, we get unwelcome visitors.

These blokes are so cool and casual - never in a hurry to go anywhere - and even when they cruise past, they do so on lazy wings that seem to beat to a somnolent rhythm.

Yellow tailed black cockatoos are the vandals of the bush.
They hang in gangs and feed on grubs that they can hear inside the branches.  Im not sure what the grubs are doing to make all the noise - maybe choir practice - but once detected they are cockatoo meat!

The birds have beaks that are the equivalent of the jaws of life - only, in this case quite the opposite.
They tear the branches apart piece by piece to access the grub a-la-cart.
This would be fine if that was the end of it, but for days afterwards the trees drop weakened branches - some up to two and three inches thick.
Ouch!

Over the last few years we have noticed a change in the migratory patterns of these birds.
Where, once before, they appeared in two and threes, now they are here in twenties and thirties.
I know these cool dudes have to eat - but, jeez fellas - clean up after yourselves!

Curses - the bower birds are raiding the grapes again.
Oh, the trials of living in paradise!
Best selling wood projects

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