sutton046

I have recently been rejuvenating an old kitchen cabinet. Most people would have tossed it out, but my customer wanted to have it as the sink cabinet in her kitchen as part of her house renovation. While it just oozes with character and history, it also required a serious amount of work to bring it back to life. The cabinet came out of a house in Wembley which was built around 1934. During the 1980's, a new kitchen was installed, and the old cabinet went outside to become a potting table in the garden. There it stayed and was used as such for many years. The weather was not kind to it. When I first saw it at it's new home in Fremantle, it was awaiting some serious attention before it could be installed. The cabinet door latches were too heavily rusted to be salvageable... A classic piece of Western Australian history. What a mug! I forgot to get a photo before I started working on it. It is truly a classic piece of Western Australian 1930's construction. So here is a...

Have you ever heard of the "Batman Joint" in woodwork? Not until now... you see, for want of a better term, that is the name I called this joint used in the making of a Karibari frame. Another interesting project! The paper conservators at the State Library of Western Australian wanted a karibari frame made up to particular specifications which they provided me. Mind you, the picture on paper of the corner did not make sense technically, so after a few goes at experimenting, interpreting the diagrams and comparing what I could find on the Internet, the Batman Joint was born as a solution. The component on the joint which gave the Batman Joint its name.   The material specified to be used was Western Red Cedar. It is light and stable, and resistant to mould and insect attack - but also very soft and cheesey to work. I was seeking to avoid any knots and keep the grain as straight as possible as I machined up the timber from the 3"x2" material that I bought to...

It is a nice change every now and then to shut the door on my workshop and go do a bit of carpentry instead of making furniture and joinery. Mind you, when it is around 40degreesC neither the workshop nor outside offer easy working conditions! Here in Perth we have had a run of days over 35 degrees and as high as 42. Humid as well, so the perspiration just pours off when swinging the hammer or doing anything physical! So it was a pleasure to be building a timber deck for my customer Pam in Fremantle, with her friend Anna as a TA assisting me. I take my hat off to Anna for working so hard despite the heat and for being such a quick learner. Together we have been a good team and progress had motored along. Such an interesting old house. In a former life it was a bakery, now undergoing a serious renovation. It is always so interesting to me to work on old places. They just ooze with character. In case deck building is something you're about to tackle and is not som...