sutton046

The flowering season for Jacaranda Trees is a lovely show of purple blossum all around us each year. These South American trees grow so well here in Perth, Western Australia. Jacaranda mimosifolia. These flower across Perth in late Spring each year. Twelve months ago, I had scored some log sections from a Jacaranda Tree which was being removed during a house demolition and block clearing just around the corner from my home. The last part of the Jacaranda being pulled down by the excavator. Jacaranda is an interesting timber, very plain - almost bland - but quite stable. There is very little checking (end splitting) in the log sections as the wood dries out. Months ago I had made some leg blanks and top blanks for small three legged stools, commonly called Milking Stools. These components had been waiting for me to do the next stage. This came when I was recovering from a couple of broken ribs. I found I could still use my spring pole lathe, so this provided me w...

What a privledge to breath new life into this beautiful antique entry door... Having worked out the obvious repairs and issues in part one of this saga, it was time to pull the old girl apart in order to repair each of the structural joints and ensure the panels would be up to the task.  This door will be re-built and modified to replace the top timber panels with leadlight panels. Step One: Getting started - removing the mouldings. With the door laying on a pair of ever-handy tall saw horses, the first thing to do was to remove the  mouldings. A lot of it was in poor condition though this was sometimes disguised under multiple layers of thick paint. Carefully prising off the mouldings with a flat pry-bar and a couple of chisels, each section was removed, marked for identification, the nails removed, and put aside. Moulding removal - starting on the back of the door. The easy ones... The front side of the door was more challenging than the back. Remo...

My customer had a beautiful old antique front door which she wanted to grace her home. It looked like it would be a challenging task, but one I was looking forward to. A nice old door badly in need of some lovin'! This would be my first job for 2015 after coming back from my summer holidays.  Laying the door on a pair of tall saw horses, I began my forensic look. Hmmm....   It's what you would call a low waisted four panel entrance door, made from Oregon (Douglas Fir), with panels and mouldings made from Western Red Cedar. With the exception of the brass knocker, most of the door furniture is cast iron, including the hinges. The door is 1 7/8" thick (about 50mm).   Loose and compromised mortice and tenon joints. This door has clearly been hung in at least two different openings during it's long life.  You can always tell if a traditional wedged mortice and tenon door has been cut shorter. How? Both the top and bottom of the door had been sawn shorter...

For much of the period 1983 - 1994, I was working as a woodcraftsman in the beautiful Augusta-Margaret River area of Western Australia. We lived in Augusta, the most southwesterly town on the Australian continent, just 5 miles north of Cape Leeuwin, where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean. Over that time, I did a huge variety of cabinetmaking, joinery work, furniture making and carpentry for many people throughout the district and even around the world via gallery sales and commissions. While we moved 200 miles north to Perth at the start of the new millennium, I still have a strong connection with Augusta, as my parents still live there as do my eldest son with his wife and family. Most of the family gathered at Augusta for the Christmas/New Year period again this year, so I was back in town for a few weeks over that time. As usual, on a Saturday morning I went along to the Leeuwin Lions Club's big Op Shop to check out the bargains along with ...

While the main festival seasons for The Joy of Wood are in Autumn and Spring, there are a few festival gigs which fall at other times. Last Saturday was one of those. At the invitation of Stirling City Council, we conducted a woodworking actvity for kids at the Kids Kerfuffle in the park at Jackadder Lake, Woodlands, in Perth, Western Australia. This event was part of their Summertime Arts Festival.  A nice quiet start... it didn't stay like this for long! The park was just oozing with kids all day, and as usual our Joy of Wood woodworking activity was a very popular thing all day. The festival organisers had provided us with a 9m x 3m marquee, with lots of space all round to enable us to spill out in all directions, which we did of course! We had out 8 benches of various heights, with 27 hammers across them, plus the Sawing Station with 4 saws on it. It was flat out all day, keeping Megan and I very busy as we kept an eye on the young Sawyers, maintained the wood supply, and...