sutton046

The kitchen I have been making by stages is completed structurally. It's time to make the drawers, before the doors and drawer fronts are made and hung. These doors and drawer fronts will be made with WA Blackbutt (Eucalyptus patens), as per the framing and end panels. One section of the big kitchen ready for appliances, end panels, drawers and drawer fronts and doors. My customer has a huge pile of New Zealand grown pine - either Pinus radiate or Pinus pinasta - which she picked up from a local furniture manufacturer who was closing down. Sadly, yet another furniture maker put out of business by the West Australian public choosing to buy cheap Chinese imports rather than supporting their local industry.  But that's another story... Somehow, the Kiwi's can grow much nicer pine than we can grow in Australia, especially Western Australia where we grow those same two species. I suspect it's a climate thing as well as a plantation management issue. Anyway, this awesomely...

Last night I was guest presenter at the North Metropolitan Triton Club. I called my presentation: "Five Good Reasons to Chuck Away Your Dovetail Router Jig", where I went briefly through the history of the joint and different types of the joint. I followed this with a demo on hand cutting a Through Dovetail Joint. Then it was time for them all to have a go. I had taken enough tools and timber for 20 people to be making their joints simultaneously. It was a lot of fun, with all the usual traps and pitfalls being experienced along the way, and lots of people being pleasantly surprised with what they achieved. For some it was the first time they'd ever cut a dovetail by hand ... for others it was the first time since they last did it at school half a century ago! A great night. The Club meets in a high school woodworking classroom. Busy cutting dovetails by hand. My demo worked well, despite the low light conditions! It's hard to see pencil lines on jarrah in low light. ...

Today was a saw sharpening day. I have a couple of teaching workshops coming up where I will be teaching the pleasures of hand cutting dovetail joints. It was time to get more dovetail saws organised for the bigger groups. Much of my dovetail saw collection has been amassed (like the rest of my saw collection) over the last few years from antique tool sales, garage sales and flea markets. I am not a Tool Collector, incidentally, for my purpose is to put tools back into service, not into glass cabinets. Many of the priority saws have been piling up in a box awaiting for a sharpening day. That day arrived today. A few of the saws awaiting cleaning up and sharpening... Some of the saws needed to be "given a birthday" first: Many needed surface rust removed, some needed a bit of straightening of their saw plate, the odd bit of nut tightening, and a bit of nourishment for the handles. The cleaning up of the saw plate was done with the wire wheel in the bench grinder, wet and dry p...