Craig Sawyers

I'm lucky to have a fine museum not far from where I live (in Cheltenham https://agmlib.cheltenham.gov.uk/home). Mostly the Arts and Crafts furniture being the things that interest me. Speaking of Wenge, there is a piece by Alan Peters there, in which the main structure is Wenge, with drawers from Wenge and Yew. It is a thing of Japanese-inspired beauty, made by Peters in 1985. A serving table. Looks minimalist, until you get up close and look at the detail, even down to the treatment of the inside of the drawers. http://agmlib.cheltenham.gov.uk/wwwopacxImages/wwwopac.ashx?command=getcontent&server=images&value=1986.1392.jpg&width=350&height=350 Peters learnt his skills from Edward Barnsley, who he joined as an apprentice in the early 40's. At that stage Barnsley had no power, and absolutely everything was by hand. Peters was somewhat quirky - the only hand plane he ever used - for just about everything - was a #7.

That reminds me of a joke. One that goes back to the dimly recalled telegraph office. German shepherd walks into the telegraph office, puts its paws on the counter and says "woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof". The teller says "That is only nine woofs. You realize you can have a tenth woof for the same price" The dog replies "But then it wouldn't make sense"

I bought a London Plane board to make my son a chopping board. The one-man woodshop ( https://mactimbers.com/ ) I visited had 4" thick boards about 15" wide. Heavy sucker. This was too wide to go through my planer, so I asked it he could take the waney edge off. He fired up the biggest saw I have clapped eyes on. It was sited outside under a tarp. "I've only got a 30" blade in it, although it takes up to 48", which is a bit excessive". He fired it up, and with several distinct acceleration stages it became a screaming blur. He sets the fence distance and hoiks this monster plank onto the bed. It went through that chunky plank like a hot knife through butter. He'll use a push stick, I thought. Nope. The last part of the cut he just put one hand on either side of the blade and pushed it through. I almost couldn't watch. SawStop? Not a chance. One slip with that sucker and a limb comes off.

I have some big suckers outside as security lights. More like a photon cannon than a light. Anyone making the mistake of trying to break in the back of our house will stand a chance of retina damage

Happy birthday!

RIP Meat Loaf. Aged too early at 74. Was lucky enough to see him live a few years ago, with the same female vocalist from Bat Out Of Hell.

Happy birthday!

Have a fantastic day Grahame, you ex-pat Brit, you! Happy birthday!!

There was a documentary series a few years back when the host visited the hottest, wettest and coldest places that were permanently occupied. The coldest place was somewhere in Siberia, where it would get down to below -60C. The kids did not get a day off school until it was lower than -40 (when C or F is the same). To get diesel vehicles going involved lighting a pan of warm fuel under the engine to warm it up enough to start. To bury the dead in the permafrost, they had to light a fire on the ground and dig out a few inches. Repeat as necessary until the hole was deep enough. But the problem was the ground behaved so oddly between summer and winter that the coffins would resurface after some years. So there was a continuous process of reburying the dead.

Oddly enough I envy those on this list that get real snow and some chilly temperatures. In the UK snow is now a rarity, and it rarely gets below zero at all - perhaps a degree C or two overnight but that is it. Last year we got about 5mm snow for a day, then it melted next day. The highlands of Scotland get some, but bugger all down South. Currently between 8C and 10C daytime temperature, which is bonkers for this time of year. The bloody rhubarb has started to grow!

That is seriously cold.

You thought 2021 was bad....

Happy birthday!

Oh shit Todd, that is rough. RIP Chris; far too young.

Completely agree. With heartwood being the dark area and lighter sap wood at the top.

Happy birthday Knucks!

Have a truly spectacular day! Happy birthday!!

OK - I'm a great fan of simple glued joints for long grain. But I have used other forms of joinery. My speakers (Linkwitz LX521.4) have the bass unit dipole assembled with biscuits (into marine ply, right angle joints), and I have a de-Walt biscuit jointer. And on my bench (a Klausz), the underframe is wedged tenons (sapele) and the top boards and apron are a mixture of glued floating tenon and dowel (I didn't have a biscuit jointer then). One of my cabinet making heroes is James Krenov. He used dowels in his exceptionally superb cabinets, usually on end grain to long grain joints. But in his later years he was clear that if biscuits had been available when he was making he would have used them in a heartbeat. I have to say that with biscuits you have to work fast. They swell once glued, so you have to assemble and cramp fast.

The alternative is to buy Linear Systems LSK170/LSJ74 matched pairs, quads and even octets from DIYAudio's store.

Here too. Plane the boards true and do a trial assembly, apply glue (I tend to use Titebond Extend), clamp up. Job done. I use homemade clamping jigs, pieces of chopped up bike tire (minus the steel beading) to protect the board edges, and ratchet straps. The clamping jigs hold the board flat. I'll see if I can find a picture of this arrangement.

If you find yourself in my neck of the woods near Oxford UK on your way back, there are cold beers in the fridge with your name on them...