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At last, I have completed the plans for the awesome MkIII Shaving Horse and Bowl Carving Bench Combination.These plans are now available for purchase. This device has received considerable interest since I first posted about it in May 2015: Combining a Shaving Horse and Bowl Carving Bench - My "Mk III" Shaving Horse. The plans I have produced are comprehensive, consisting of nine A3 pages made up of scale drawings and some photos, but you can always print them out in A4 if you wish. Available in pdf format, the cost is AUD$50 , which at the current exchange rate is approx. US$37 . To all those who have been waiting, my sincere apologies. I had hoped the plans would be available on my hew website, but this is not yet operational. So rather than have you keep waiting around, there is a way forward here: To purchase these plans, please email me adventure@wn.com.au and right now Paypal would be the easiest way to go, until the E-commerce site is up and running. Sorry about any...

Senni Makes a Spear Experiencing the Joy of Woodworking at the Heritage Woodcraft Centre,   October 2017 The Heritage Woodcraft Centre in Canning Vale is the home of The Joy of Wood, where I, a skilled Cabinetmaker/Joiner, offer workshops and tuition for people of all ages in traditional woodworking hand skills and techniques. This includes many programs and workshops for children.  I have been conducting woodworking activities in schools, festivals, public workshops and private workshops for nine years. The private tuition is also used to provide occupational therapy for people with cognitive and physical disabilities. The value of hand tool woodworking for kids. When kids learn to use traditional hand tools, there are many benefits beyond the production of the project which they are justifiably proud of. Creating with the hands is a tactile, sensual process involving both macro and micro muscle movements.   The activity helps build body awareness, hand-to-eye coordina...

Thanks to all our readers around the world! Even though the blog has been a little neglected of late, I have been informed that  The Joy of Wood has been selected by Feedspot as one of the Top 50 Wood Carving Blogs on the web. You can check out the list here: https://blog.feedspot.com/wood_carving_blogs/   I count it an honour to be listed alongside many of my woodworking heroes!  If you are seeking some inspiration and information, dig through this list! Kind regards, Greg Miller, Perth, Western Australia. https://blog.feedspot.com/wood_carving_blogs/ " title="Wood Carving blogs"> https://blog.feedspot.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/wood_carving_216px.png?x58886 " >

Moving my teaching space has been a huge task, however it is just about completed. We are very excited about the set up of my Heritage Woodcraft Centre. Located at the rear of the new Timbecon  shop, 31 Canvale Road, Canning Vale, I am looking forward to running lots of Public Workshops and Private Tuition in the wonderful teaching workshop I have created. Here is a link to the short Tour. I specialise in teaching traditional woodworking hand skills and techniques, to people of all ages. You will notice lots of lovely hand tools lining the walls - and we use all of them. When completed, these walls will hold a lot more beautiful tools. Delicious! If you are in Western Australia, I hope we will see you at a Public Workshop sometime, or ask to me about doing some Private Tuition. If you come into the Timbecon store, please feel free to come out the back to the Heritage Woodcraft Centre and say "Gidday!" Ah, the Joy of Wood!...

This is a story which is still being written. It starts with a few logs, fresh from a tree. Please join me as the story unfolds. My neighbours recently decided to have a Silky Oak (Grevillea robusta) tree removed from their back yard. The top of the tree was dying, and the termites had moved in. When the arborists were cutting down the tree, they also found there was a bee hive inside it.    The last piece is cut from the tree.  It was a tragedy to see almost all of this tree going into the chipper. However, the Arborists let me take as much as I wanted, so I picked a few pieces I wanted, and wheeled them back home on my fridge trolley. After sealing the ends, I stacked the pieces under the Mulberry Tree in my front yard. The bunch of logs sections, waiting for me under the weeping mulberry in my front yard.   To help preserve the logs, the ends are sealed, to slow down the rate of drying.  I normally seal the ends with my favourite glue, Tit...

Browsing through the pallets and packing crate materials on the verge of a local import business, I spied a pallet which sparked my interest. This company imports machinery from the USA, so the wood is all US and Canadian in origin. However, this grotty looking pallet was not the usual lovely northern hemispherical softwoods I like to recycle. This one looked like it was made from American White Ash. I only know Ash after having made a Staircase from American White Ash, back in 2010. The blog post about the build is here: http://gregdmiller.blogspot.com.au/2010/07/building-staircase.html That was the first time I had worked with Ash, so I was able to spot it in the pallet. I chucked the pallet in the back of my ute, and drove away with it wondering what it would be like. The American White Ash pallet... so much potential... These pallet timbers are thin (about 1/2") and around 3 - 5" wide. Many are cupped, so when planed down and flattened you end up with a finish thickne...