This project began as a means of cleaning out a pile of 60mm x 60mm pallet pine that was getting in the way. …and I had long wanted to try making a wooden wheel. Each segment was cut to 22.5 degrees and the joints were reinforced with 4mm plywood splines. Slots for the splines were…
Radiata pine is omnipresent but is also a timber with a reputation. It generally has strings of adjectives attached to it where the first is, cheap. Here, a recycled piece, 300mm x 400mm, has been cut into a jigsaw. That was tedious, but more-so was the finishing. Each piece was scorched with a blow torch…
Sometimes a piece of wood is too good to throw away. Here is the end result of pushing a piece of blackbutt from one end of the wood rack to the other for about three years. It coincided with the acquisition of a long plug cutter. These tools can cut plugs over 100mm long, that…
Junk is stuff you have no use for. Here is a blade that was destined for land fill, so was the timber. Junk can be reclassified! The teeth have been ground smooth and the weight of the blade gives the table a nice stability. In making this there was a nice exploration of cutting compound…
This is a celebration of end grain. When sanding end-grain to a polish, there is a lovely moment when you stand back to look at the figure. It is always beautiful. The hand cut chain is a fervent hope that the enjoyment never gets away! Human hands don’t seem to be able to create lines…
An artist in my circle wanted to make a frame on which to stretch a canvas. The joint in the corner of such frames is a complex thing that is not to be tackled by a beginning woodworker. I needed to simplify it. In the hope that beginners will give it a go I have…
Wooden hand plane aficionados (ambiguity intentional) make much of the fact that they can use words like “frog, cutting angle and throat” with confidence. That confidence is proof that they must be experts! If you add complexity to the activity then great reverence must be assumed. Much is made of achieving chisel cuts at particular…