Working wood...lots of it!

Half way there...

Well it's been an incredibly busy few months since the summer came and went. A few custom pieces of furniture designed and commissioned. The bulk of my time though has been spent on my book. Writing, designing, constructing its been an incredible journey thus far. I should apologise to my frequent readers for not keeping things up to date here. I'm usually good for a new blog every few days but lately it seems there aren't enough hours in the day. That said, I'm finally into the 'project' chapters and am very excited with the turn-out thus far. My hands, legs and shoulders are getting quite a work out, dimensioning a few hundred board feet of lumber all by hand! Good for the soul. The first project chapter is a small side table out of Ash which was a real pleasure to work with hand tools; the second is a bookcase with glass doors in Birch-Flame Birch. Now I don't know if anyone out there has ever had the opportunity to work with a highly figured wood like this Birch but what I can say is this: if these trees don't grow out of the Devils garden then I don't know where they come from! Reversing grain every few inches, tear out occurring with my sharpest Smoothing planes....well, isn't that just lovely.? Hey, gotta remember, it's good for the soul;now if Robert Johnston can get things done how should I?
Stay tuned...