sutton046

Taking the Joy of Wood to primary schools is always a delight. Sure, it is very busy, very noisy, and hard work for us - but for the kids it is a fantastic opportunity to have a go at creating with their hands. For many kids it is the first time they have used hand tools.  Block planes are great for kids and adults alike. Over 3 days, we would be working with 5 classes of Yr 6 & 7 students, each of about 28 kids. The classes had previously agreed on the projects they would be making, from the menu I had offered. Four of the classes would be making small stools, and one class would be making small framed whiteboards. It takes about 1.5 - 2 hours to set up the gear for a gig like this. We set up in the undercover area at the school. Lunchtime - however quite a few kids came in, keen to work on their stools. All the wood we were using had been rescued from the waste stream, with most of it coming from packing crates from the northern hemisphere. Some teaching of ...

While traditionally a shaving horse would be made from green wood gathered from a forest or wood somewhere, not all of us city dwellers have easy access to the right kind and size of trees for this purpose. However, we do have access to wonderful seasoned timbers from all around the world which arrive in our cities in the form of packing crates, dunnage, and pallets. What a resource to work with!  Packing for the picking. Off the verge and into the back of the ute. Nice pine from the USA. Earlier this year, I was needing to make up a few shaving horses for running workshops. So I started out by using some of the packing crate material I had collected which was in my timber racks. Two models: the English Bodger style and the fabricated Dumb Head style. There are many variations on shaving horses, though the most common styles would be the "Dumb Head" style, which has been around since at least the 14th century,  and the English Bodger's style which is a m...