Nice Chisel Box

Brad from the US sent me these pictures of his nice chisel box made to house his new set of Ashley Isles chisels. These are great value chisels made from nice hard tool steel and great for dovetailing, you can see them in more detail on my video above.
The box is made from cherry which really shows the dovetails off and he's done a great job.

Table Saw Accident, Not for the Squeamish!

John, a customer from the Sunshine Coast in Australia sent me these pictures of an accident he had last week on the table saw. He was ripping a slightly warped piece of wood (not a good idea!) when it jammed in the blade and was sent spinning backwards pushing his left hand forward into the saw blade. He was full of praise for the ambulance response and the surgeons efforts but he may well still loose two finger ends down to the first knuckle. At the time of the accident he was tired (also not a good idea) and he sent me these pictures as a reminder to others of the care needed when using table saws.
This just reminds me why I do all my ripping on the band saw and why I stand well to one side of the table saw blade when crosscutting, kick backs can be just as nasty.
Thank you John for the pictures and detailed description, I wish you a speedy recovery.

Wood Sale.

My worries that no one would turn up were quickly dispelled with plenty of knocks on the workshop door during the morning. The majority of the wood went to grateful new owners, some of them travelling a long way to get here. My thanks to all who came, it was a very enjoyable day!

Reminder of Wood Sale Tomorrow 10.00 - 4.00 pm

I've been planning up more wood and everything is laid out for tomorrow.
If  you can't make it until later on in the day, don't worry there is plenty for everyone, I don't realise just how much wood I'd accumulated over the years!
The weather looks good so I look forward to seeing those who can make it tomorrow.

Wonderful Furniture at Art in Action

I visited Art in Action over the weekend, after so many years this was the last one. Apparently the organiser has passed away and no one else wants to take up the reigns, a great shame.
Among the furniture exhibitors was Robert Ingham with a good selection of his fine boxes.

I particularly liked the box below, attractive and practical.

You can see more of his work here http://www.robertinghamdesigns.com/

This was in the demonstration tent, where Nick Barberton was busy working on a carved vessel, his specialty.

I had intended buying (another) one of his very tactile pieces, but the ones that caught my eye were all more than I was prepared to spend.

This one below was the best, quite large and made from one chunk of beautiful walnut. At £1,200 it was well beyond my budget and anyway had been sold on the first day.
You can see Nicks work here http://www.nickbarberton.co.uk/

The last pictures are from the husband and wife team John and Louise Cropper.

There was a fair bit of trompe l'oeil marquetry, some of it very clever and some of it almost mind bending!

They had a wide selection of work fitting all budgets and their stand was very busy.
The website is http://www.jlcropper.co.uk/

And just to finish, my favourite non wood piece, a lovely pot by John Laverick.

WOOD SALE - SATURDAY 23rd JULY 10.00am - 4.00 pm IN SOUTHAMPTON

I've been working through my wood stocks and have more than 200 pieces for sale. It's all bone dry, planed flat both sides and cheap, it all has to go! Open at 10.00am (after I've walked the dogs) on Saturday 23rd July and first come first served, cash only please. We are easy to find on the northern edge of Southampton, post code SO16 7HP, I've booked nice weather!

I will also have a selection of infill planes requiring some TLC, nice and cheap. There are lots of (heavy) bags of off cuts for firewood at £10 per bag.

10% of all proceeds to go to the Winchester Night Shelter http://www.wcns.org.uk/ a very worth while local charity.

I'm not great at the social media thing (my 56th birthday in 2 weeks) so if you could spread the word I would be very grateful.

There are lots of varieties from oak, ash (including olive), sycamore, spalted beech, pear, apple, mahogany, walnut, cocobolo, pink ivory, pau rosa, tropical olive, bubinga, yew, bocote etc.
Many of the boards are nicely figured.

Above some fine Australian burrs

 An 'elephants foot' of highly figured Masur birch and below some nice tight birds eye maple.

There is plenty of thick ash boards, much of it rippled and some olive ash as well.

There are 4 or five boxes of smaller pieces from £1, ideal for box making.

Beautiful Chair from Australia

Ross from Brisbane in Australia sent me these pictures of a chair he recently finished. A little retro Danish in its simplicity, those rear legs remind me of an animal, maybe a gazelle?

The chair was not designed by him and credit must go to Angel Corso from Venezuela for that. You'll notice that the original below has even more slender legs, not sure how much weight this could take!

Miniature Dovetails

Here are some more pictures from Anny from Belgium showing his tiny work. The dovetails shown are in 2.3 mm sycamore! The tiny chisel is a home made one. Blue Spruce also make some minute chisels for this type of work.

Below is more of the dovetailing kit, the reading glasses are a must at this scale.

James Krenov used to like having his cat in the workshop, although I'm not sure that's the most helpful spot to have a knap!

Customer Dovetails.

These first two pictures were sent by Justin from Singapore, using a 1:6 guide on some reclaimed pine. It's a nice little teacup tray.

The box below was made by Karl from Orlando USA again using a 1:6 guide and was a fathers day present. I normally go for light tails and dark pins, but looking at this result I think I need to be a bit more adventurous!