sutton046

Over the last few days I had the pleasure of running a program held at the Earthwise Community Association in Subiaco, focussing on the use of basic woodworking hand skills to create wooden products from timber which has been discarded on roadside cleanups. Diverting discarded timber and wooden furniture from landfill. Much of the timber resources I gathered up for the program by doing a kerbside crawl in a neighbouring suburb on the morning before. What a treasure trove! This included an old jarrah desk, made of nice wide boards. The current cost of the timber in this desk would be over $250. There it was waiting to go off into landfill. Crazy. We put much of it to good use. This picture shows some of the wonderful resource obtained from a quick drive around a local cleanup area in progress. The program was sponsored by the Mindarie Regional Council, Western Australia's largest Waste Management Authority. The MRC manages the disposal of about 350,000 tonnes of waste generated each...

Those who have worked with me know how much I value traditional Saw Stools. I use them in the workshop and out on the job all the time. In fact I am lost without them! I usually have several sets, some low ones at around 21” high and some taller ones at 30” high. I am not talking about those crappy folding metal and pine things, which wobble around and carry warning stickers saying you should not stand on then. I am referring to properly made traditional saw stools. Traditionally made from jarrah in Western Australia, these are rigid and can carry considerable loads. I have in use some that are well over 50 years old and which have worked hard all their lives. These type of saw stools were standard equipment for carpenters, joiners and cabinet makers for generations. I had a big job to do recently, which involved working on site in Kalamunda for 3 weeks solid. I took a portable jarrah work bench with me, as there was a fair bit of bench work to do over those 3 weeks. Of course I also n...

These kind of gigs don't come around very often... Earlier this year I had the privilege of making a fireplace surround for "Hill 60", a heritage building being restored in Rivervale. Working from only 6 old photographs, the task was to re-instate the fireplace surround. The original had gone missing some years ago while the building was derelict. At over 9.5 feet tall and 5.5 feet wide, it was made in 10 components which finally went together beautifully like a jigsaw on site after 3 months of work. These four photos by NK Photography. I asked well known Woodcarver Jenny Scrayen to work with me on the more complex carving aspects, like the dragons on the columns, the front panel, and the floral wreath on the pediment. It was a pleasure to work with such a talented person. Thanks Jenny. I did all the planning, joinery, turning, basic carving, and finishing. It is all made from jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata) primarily using traditional woodworking techniques. Making this st...