Oak trees grow on each of the five continents and cultures at every level have relied on the wood and acorn, the tannic acid and the bark throughout the millennia. Great ships with oak bows and rudders crisscrossed the globe. Oak leaves have a unique and distinctive leaf shape Massive barns and manorial homes…
Beech trees grow abundantly throughout the temperate zones of Europe, Asia and North America. The wood is of very even denseness throughout the grain because of its relatively small pores evenly distributed through both the early and late growth of each growth cycle (annual ring). My first mallet was made from beech and most mallets…
An old discarded gauge Sometimes we look at something and lament the neglect. The stem sticks in the stock. It’s swollen now and has been for two decades. The brass, now tarnished has that musty smell of dampness and we say it’s not worth anything, but we give 50p. A few weeks ago John bought…
My hand encloses the boxwood shaft both hard, resistant to my mallet’s blow, yet soft under the pressure of my hand. My fingertips trace the lines. They falter as they touch the brass enclosure polished by a man’s lifetime cutting, shaping, shaving wood. Pulling the chisel from its place between the rest I slice thin…
A saw by any other name could cut as sweet I have many favourite saws. One in each of the categories. You’ve seen them in past posts here on my blog. I don’t collect them. I can’t imagine the empty vanity in collecting good saws you don’t use to work work wood with. I want…
Most people only talk about grain at the most superficial level of how it looks. We woodworkers enter the fibres. We tease the cells apart with the chisel’s edge and search for weaknesses and strengths in the species. We want to know these intimate details so we can exemplify the strengths and protect the weak from harm….
I have been replacing doors at Penrhyn Castle and the oak I am using, as with all oak, can be a resilient wood and its grain repels the onslaught of chisels the deeper you penetrate into the wood because leverage becomes difficult. I have never particularly liked the boring-holes-and-chiselling method for mortising but in the…
Hawthorn The texture of woodland growth, the shapes of oak, ash, cherry and sycamore cover the treetops after their naked wintertime. How to explain springtime’s vibrant increase, no man can. Flowers add loveliness to the green leaf of grassland pasture and tree but the green brings ease to the eyes as I walk beneath the…
Every so often I am able to personally train a new apprentice and, with the right one, a unique symbiosis of service and learning partner the unfolding relationship between craftsman and apprentice. John has been here for two months now and he’s working out well. He will be with me until December and by then he will…
Today was extremely busy at the Hand Tool School in Penrhyn Castle and I was able to share my Creative Workspace with dozens of people interested in hand tool woodworking and woodworking classes and seriously considering learning the traditional skills we use in our everyday work. When I turned from totally designing furniture pieces…