It's feels like a long, long time since I stood on the Porch and traded
badinage with other Galoots.  I seem to know a good few from around the
world, and heartiest greetings to you all, from the oldest listMom to the
youngest newbie (do we still have any newbies here?)

So what's been keeping me away, I hear no one ask.  To groans and grunts
all round, I'll fill in a few of the high spots of the last couple of years
or whatever it's been.  The low spots I'll just keep to myself.

Here I sit, remains of polyurethane glue on the fingertips (that stuff is
so sticky) able to relate that since we last chatted I've progressed
considerably in turnery, built a couple of pole lathes, a triplet of shave
horses, acquired a quantity of augers and drawknives which would be deemed
indecent in any other company.  Been certified for chainsaw use, had a
small digression into the dark side, courtesy of  a magazine competition
which has left me being impressed with that new-fangled stored electrickery
nonsense, and now sit poised to be productive and finish a project.

Yep, my activities with the Woodland Trust (national woodland
preservation/replanting charity Paddy) culminated yesterday with them
organising an 'open day' at Pepper Wood www.pepperwood.info  at which yours
truly was chief demonstrator of the newly acquired chainsaw mill. For those
who don't know, these are beautifully simple devices for using a chainsaw
to produce smoke and sawdust from downed trees, along with some gorgeous
boards of English Oak (Quercus Robur)  elsewhere, one of my pole lathes was
in use, and a good time was had by all.  The sun shone, the punters
(public) rolled in, all by invitation from the Woodland Trust, and a couple
of us ended the day ensconced in The Nailers Arms.  One of the good things
about living on a small island is that you're never far from a beer.. . .

Friday last I collected a still working chisel morticer, complete with a
half dozen chisels.  A galoot bargain at GBP20 I thought. though it cost me
more than that to transport it.  Hopefully I'll have it reassembled and
trialled next weekend.  It's living at Pepper Wood, because my home shop
has shrunk!  As a co-volunteer put it after we'd been making a saw horse in
a hurry (from one of our newly converted boards) "The only floor space
visible is when you pick up your foot and look at the spot you were
standing on"

I'm working on that though, and already some floor has appeared.  Timber
will be expelled.  Spare tools will have to be excised in a FS list. The
new bench will finally have its beech top and end vice.

Somewhere along the way a spiffy old leg vice has entered the picture,
another bargain at GBP 5  though it came from M25 country (bandit territory
where the biggest roundabout in the world circumscribes our capital city,
Paddy)  Excepting only a blower/hearth/forge setup, this puts me in range
of blacksmithing.

Earlier in the year I was fortunate enough to be able to have a week with
John Lloyd, a reasonably well known restorer and author - he writes for
'Furniture and Cabinetmaking' magazine, and works for the likes of
Sotheby's so it was a real treat to spend a week under his tutelage.  All
sorts of recipes and techniques for finishing, and listening in to his
teaching another student the finer points of cutting dovetails and
veneering a drawer front was as good as being there (there were only 3
students, so I could earwig all that went on. . .)

Yes, I really believe the toolkit is complete now.  All that remains is to
build furniture..

just as soon as I complete the set of H&R's and the moulding planes..


Its a bit like coming home, when you heave yourself back on the porch. . .


Richard Wilson