sutton046

The coming round of Joy of Wood workshops I am offering in June 20-23 has been finalised. The venue will be Earthwise in Subiaco, Perth, Western Australia. As well as the usual favourites like "Carve a Wooden Spoon", "Make Kitchen Spatulas and Salad Servers"  there are a few new ones: "Make a Traditional Saw Horse" , "Make a Pencil Box with a  Sliding Lid"  and "Unlock the Mystique of the Dovetail Joint" . Then there are the workshops for kids on the weekend. Brief details of the workshops are listed below: The workshops can be divided into 3 types: 1.   Workshops for people aged 12—112.   Make a Traditional Saw Horse The best companion to every hand saw is a saw horse. Learn to cut the joints and enjoy making this wonderfully functional item. Use it as a small bench, as extra seating at a BBQ, let the kids ride it like a horse, even keep it in the lounge room if you wish — and use it as an indispensable aid to woodworking. Carve ...

I love carving wooden spoons. And I'm not even Welsh. Over the last few years, Spoon Carving would be one of the most popular of the public workshops that I run. It is a wonderfully tactile process and a lot of fun. In the Northern Hemisphere, wooden spoons are predominantly made from green wood. We don't have such a menu of suitable timbers here in Australia. So we do some things differently.  I use mostly hardwoods for wooden spoons. This requires different tools to the green wood spoon makers. Hardwood spoons are incredibly durable as kitchen utensils. As decorative items they are great to carve, take a finish well, and are pretty tough. A sample of spoons ... such fun to design and make! The sample of spoons pictured above are as follows, from the top down: The first spoon I made, 1990. WA Blackbutt. Rather mechanical in nature. Sugar spoon, WA Blackbutt.  Kauri Pine spoon, recycled from old fireplace surround. (See below...!) Cooking spo...

After many years of meaning to get around to it, I have finally become a member of the Hand Tool Preservation Society of WA . This wonderful bunch of enthusiastic collectors of old hand tools are an amazing pool of knowledge and expertise. A number of times a year, members of the Society hold a Tool Sale. The next one is to be held on Saturday 20 April. These sales are not to be missed!   It's Hand Tool heaven. No cheap and nasty modern mass produced tools here, just the good old stuff. Tools of quality, oozing with history, and made to last. The April Tool Sale will be held at the East Victoria Park Anglican Church, Washer Street, East Victoria Park in Perth Western Australia. As I recall it is an 8:00am start, until noon. If you're interested in hand tools and/or are in the market for some quality hand tools, you'd better get there quick on the day. Watch out, or I might just beat you to the bargains!