sutton046

The big jarrah cabinet I am making will bear a number of features borrowed from a couple of antiques which share the same room the finished cabinet will reside in. It's a nice way of making the 3 pieces of furniture sit together nicely. One of these features will be the front edge profile of the top section, the verticals and the shelves. I am seeking to create a close match to the tall antique sideboard in the room. The profile is like a pair of parallel lines, almost like a pair of reeds along each edge of the face.  The edge profile on the tall antique sideboard. This is what I aim to match.   Creating an edge profile like this would have been traditionally done with either a specially shaped plane iron, in a wooden moulding plane - or it would have been done with a Scratch Stock. These are sometimes also referred to as Beading Tools. Scratch Stocks are essentially just shaped scrapers, set in a wooden holder which determines the dimensions of the profile an...

The big recycled jarrah  cabinet continues to take shape. The top sections of the cabinet will primarily be used for the housing and displaying of ceramic art pieces. The bottom sections of the cabinet will house some serious HIFI and media gear, plus as many LPs, CDs & amps; DVDs and as muchother technology as we can creatively fit within the space available. I am currently working on the lower section of the cabinet. The longer section is quite deep, and the return is very shallow in depth. In this shallow section, behind the pair of doors, will be two storage bins for good old-fashioned vinyls - LP Records. In an effort to maximise the space available, I have been making another pair of bins to hold as many audio CDs as possible. The space left over will be divided into small shelves to hold more CDs. The bins will be hinged to fold outward in order to access their contents, and these bins will be held together by dovetail joints, with Half-blind Dovetail...

Last weekend I spent 3 days at the Perth Wood Show. It's an annual event I always like to get to, and have done so for many years. However, this is the first year that I have "hung up my shingle" there to promote the group woodworking activities I run. Of course, this was no static display - I was offering a chance for people to have a go. That's my space at the Wood Show - before the show opened. It would get busy! Amid all those displays, demonstrations, and salespeople peddling a huge range of power tools, wood, machinery, gadgets and gizmos - I offered a chance for people, especially kids, to have a go at making stuff.  No screaming routers in my area, just traditional woodworking hand tools and skills. That's me.... providing coaching on the subtleties of the use of the Coping Saw. As well as offering "free creative play" (a heap of wood, benches, hammers, nails and saws - make whatever you like, kids!) we offered an opportunity for the bigger kids ...

I recently spent another 5 days at the Perth City Farm's July School Holiday Program, doing woodwork with 6 - 12 year old kids. A very popular program, the kids rotate through a range of activities, including cooking, circus skills, working around the farm and gardens, making garden sculptures, soap making, paper making, and more. Woodwork is offered each day, with morning sessions and afternoon sessions.  My third such holiday program for Perth City Farm, I usually offer a different project each day as well as the ""free creative play" where kids make whatever comes into their heads using the wood, hammers, nails and saws available. The specific projects on offer this time were cheese boards, kitchen spatulas, handled carry boxes, garden planter boxes, and Cajon Drums. Cajon Drums are Afro-Peruvian in origin. Essentially a six-sided box, they are usually played while being sat upon. These instruments were originally improvised from wooden crates, boxes, and cabinet ...