Gallery

April 2011 - Some of my more recent examples of work. I shall be working on some Georgian work in April and May.

Typically, if you click on a picture you will be taken to a full size picture. Some a little too full size but please be patient as they download.

Medullary Rays - This photo was taken very spontaneously when I realised that the sun was catching, just perfectly, the top of an Oak sideboard I had made. Too often with flash photography Oak's rays in quarter sawn boards look gawdy. Not needing to use flash on this photo meant that it caught much more of a natural look. More like what you would see in a rich piece of Oak as you passed it by. The top was inlaid with Walnut banding, the dark, straight lines that you see in the photo. Please click on the thumbnail for the full size photo.

The English Walnut Corner Desk

This was designed and built specifically to house a laptop and to make use of that much misused corner space. The desk was built in the Victorian style of veneer on a Pine frame. A lot of people turn their noses up at veneered pieces but much of the 19th and 20th century quality furniture was built in such a way. There is no better way of making the most of fancy hardwoods. Not just from a commercial point of view but also from an environmental point of view. A lot of the best stuff has been felled already and it will take a heck of a long time before more high quality hardwood can be grown.

The centre drawer is sized to house a large laptop. The side drawers are triangular using a simple, yet ingenious, method for ensuring smooth running. The secret of which I am not likely to reveal here. To the rear of the top is a faux inkwell which hides the power supply sockets and houses the laptop's power supply. Very much intended to hide the chaos of cables. The desk also incorporates two secret compartments.

The top is edge banded with Satinwood and has a Boxwood and Ebony inlay splitting the book-matched Walnut. All the drawers are bow-fronted and have Satinwood banding and inlay as per the top. The handles are turned from a sandwich of Walnut, Satinwood and Ebony, as are the feet. The stretchers are solid Walnut and are designed to reinforce the legs without being in a position where habitual kickers will destroy them slowly.

If you click on the thumbnail you can see a more detailed photograph. Please be warned that the lower right of the photograph has been retouched. This is in no way intended to hide any flaw of the making but is simply because in the original photograph my right foot obscured the leg and would have looked a bit silly if I had kept it in.

This has proved a very popular design. I set my mind to producing something that had a classical look but was styled in a more contemporary fashion. I think it might be quite interesting to make a version in solid but I haven't found the available time.

The Scottish Oak Cabinet

Very much influenced by Greene and Greene, the cabinet was designed to reside in a hall or dining area. All of the structure is solid Oak. This is built like a tank. Joints are dovetailed, morticed and tenoned and half lapped. Very traditional building techniques were used. Even the back is covered with half lap Oak panels.

I am not a big fan of arty, high precision dovetails on drawers but in this case the dovetails were all hand cut. Being solid Oak this ensured very nice chisel lines could be maintained. The drawer sides, in my opinion, are, as a result, very pleasing to the eye. Walnut inlay is used in a number of locations to create design motifs. All inlay terminates in a Walnut plug or triangle.

Originally designed to have wooden panels in the doors I changed my mind mid-build and opted to use stained glass. I chose the colours to work well with the Oak. The panels are removable and so they can be replaced by any type of panel that is desired. I am pretty happy with the stained glass panels. I have never been totally happy with the handles. They were designed to build on the Greene and Greene motif and are best appreciated from the side. I feel that from the front they look a bit clumsy. I would probably be happier replacing them with a simpler design.

The base of the cabinet is in solid Oak. The base is a piece in itself. There are elements of Art Deco and the Arts and Crafts movement in this piece and the base is no exception. I was particularly happy with the line, curves and angles that were incorporated into the base. I really feel that the base does the cabinet justice.

The Walnut-Veneered Low Table

This table had been damaged when an oil burner had been tipped and its contents streamed across the table. Two main issues remained once the mess was cleared up. The French Polish on a significant part of the table had been removed and the oil (waxy) had penetrated the wood and sat as a layer on the table. You can see the oil effect in the photo on the right and the area of damage in the photo on the left. There was other, older damage as well. Probably alcohol spills.

The table had been restored before. The legs had been re-polished and the Walnut veneer must have been lifting as it had been re-laid using traditional animal glue. The veneer was bubbling in some locations as the glue had lost effect. The glue had been applied rather thickly in places but I chose not to re-lay the veneer as this was not part of the spec. The piece was old and needed to stay looking like it had age.

The bubbles were re-glued, the brass high spots were polished as they should have been and the top was restored and re-polished. The new polish was blended in to the old polish on the undamaged area and the surface was aged. The finish is traditional in that the French Polish adds a lustre to the wood without being mirror-like as it would have been when it was first made. This approach retains a good degree of the table's original patina.

The Tilt-Top Galleried Mahogany Table

This table, circa 1790, had a number of issues. The catch for the tilt-top did not work anymore. There were numerous cracks to the tripod legs and, above all else, the gallery had exploded. The brass inlay had long since popped from its trench. The circular gallery had numerous previous repairs but was cracked very badly in two locations. Numerous of the ballusters were missing or broken.

Mother nature had simply played her traditional prank of making the different pieces of wood that formed the top, work against each other. Probably when first introduced to central heating. The result of the swelling, drying, shrinking and twisting are all too apparent in the photos on the left.

Getting the catch to work properly was actually quite difficult and involved dissolving the various compounds that had made ingress to the catch over the centuries. The tripod cracks were re-glued. A new brass reinforcement was made. This reinforcement would reach beyond the original's diameter, beyond the cracks to the legs. The brass reinforcement will only need to be fitted if the glue in the cracks is inadequate and the cracks eventually reopen.

Being such an early piece, the ballusters were turned and coloured with very little consistency. This is a great relief to a restorer as it makes the job of turning replacements a whole lot easier. The reassembly of the top was made more difficult as it became apparent that the gallery top ring was of a greater circumference than the base. This is probably what had caused most of the explosion effect. I didn't want to remove original wood by drilling out a whole new series of top ring holes. Instead I adjusted the tops of 8 of the ballusters to accommodate the larger sized ring. This modification is barely visible to the eye and keeps most of the piece original. The net effect is that the gallery looks complete once more. I did have to use a modern glue, in this instance, as, even with the adjustments, the tensile forces in the galleried top were pretty strong and I didn't want the piece returned almost as soon as it was delivered. I would expect that the top may misbehave in the future but there is very little I can do about that without major surgery. The top was re-polished, some of the original polish had lifted, and the piece was waxed and returned to the delighted customer.

The English Walnut Tripod Foot

Just for fun this one. Working with wood you often find yourself executing the most bizarre projects. And if you have one I am always interested. I was the proud owner of a very large Benbo photographic tripod. I wanted to sell it but it had one of the plastic feet missing. I could probably have bought a replacement from the maker but, what the heck, this is surely the only Benbo tripod in the world that has a hand-turned English Walnut foot. Polished and waxed to boot.

The Oak and Walnut Bathroom Tallboy

I had already made a custom contemporary Bathroom Unit and this Tallboy was to fit in alongside that unit. The unit had a quarter sawn Oak top and a sculpted Walnut edge banding. The main body of this piece was to be straight-grained Oak but the customer had requested Pippy Oak panels as she liked the visual effect of the Pips. Pippy Oak can be quite unstable and unpredictable so I persuaded the customer that the sides should be panelled and not solid. This was especially important as the piece would reside in a bathroom where there could be significant changes in heat and humidity. Who knows what twisted grain wood could do in that environment.

The Walnut banding theme was continued in this piece, albeit simpler in style. In order to break up the straight lines of the piece, Walnut braces were used between the upper and lower panels. The Walnut braces were smoothed into the Walnut fronts. This gave a nice shape to the centre of the piece and broke up the upper and lower parts of the Tallboy quite nicely I think. Two adjustable Oak shelves were installed, each with a rear ventilation slat to stop those towels getting musty. The Pippy panels look very attractive and upper and lower panels are made from one continuous piece of wood. In fact the sides are book-matched also. The left and right panels came from one solid plank of Oak, split down the middle to create the effect. The panels are held in place by swivelling blocks so that they may be removed should the piece grow or contract significantly in its new home. The panels will be modified to suit. The back of the piece is Cedar tongue and groove. This creates a very attractive parallel line finish to the back. Excuse the slightly ropey photograph but I may manage to photograph this piece in my new setup very soon.

The Revolving Oak Bookcase

This pieces was commissioned as a Christmas present for the customer's wife. It was to be Oak, solid Oak and nothing else. The dimensions were pretty well set by the furniture that would surround the piece in its new home and the collection of paperbacks that it was to house. The bookcase had to be able to revolve and was to incorporate a small windowed inset in the centre of the top to house a treasured antique silver bookmark. Most revolving bookcases have a pretty straightforward Swastika-like layout when viewed from above. Each cavity in the legs of the Swastika houses the shelves. I did not stray from this norm, in terms of basic layout, on this piece as time was short to complete the bookcase in time for Christmas. I reversed the Swastika layout as I felt it would be in bad taste to use the symbol for such a gift. The bookcase needed to house 4 small drawers for odds and ends as it would reside in a living space rather than a library. I chose to make these drawers very simply, in a fashion similar to a number of the antique apprentice pieces I have restored over the years. I chose to make the drawer internals in Elm (breaking slightly, with permission of course, from the "everything must be Oak" principle) and lined the drawers with green Baize. The handles are hand-turned Holly. It was to be a Christmas gift after all.

In order to break up what could be very square and hard-edged lines, I contoured the sides of the top and bottom of the bookcase. The resultant visual pattern, when viewed from a standing position, is very attractive, clearly stylised but the clean lines of the Oak are maintained. The top has a small valance to keep things tidy and lightwood stringing is used to keep vertical joins nice and tidy. The inset has a push fit frame, picture glass with polished edges and is lined with leather and Walnut.

I used rustic Oak for this piece. The Oak needed some repairs to stabilise it prior to use but the resultant slightly wild grain makes the piece look much more interesting and attractive than if it were to be made of Oak with less character.

The JigsMat (Copyright Mark Adams 2010)

I made this original piece for my brother and his wife as a Christmas present. I wanted to make something a bit different. I had asked them if they needed anything wooden in particular (always a drawback of being related to a woodworker). They informed me that they were running short of drink mats. I couldn't just opt for the boring old square with rounded corners, and circular mats seemed just as tedious. So I came up with the idea of creating a large piece that used jigsaw style connections between each smaller piece. The large mat may be broken apart into smaller mats when the need arises.

I liked the idea but I didn't tell anyone about it as I could imagine breaking saw blade after saw blade trying to get through the Oak and I might have to revert to something a little less ambitious. I only broke one blade and it worked out just fine.

The "jigsaw" pieces are sized so that they can easily host a wine glass or coffee mug. They are finished in a table top polish with a very fine wax. I am very pleased with them, as is my brother and his wife, they look pretty, they are a talking point and are very functional. I have toyed with the idea of making a larger set for a dinner table incorporating place mats as well as drinks mats, probably in Walnut, but I haven't got round to that quite yet. I may include a complimentary set with the table commissions I have underway.

Let me know if you are interested in a bespoke set for some purpose.

A Humble Oak Chopping Board

Lots of woodworkers produce chopping boards, often from off-cuts. I do know some people who select wood very carefully for their boards and utility items. They really make an art of it. I don't know if I could sit making chopping boards day after day.

Every so often I shall see a nice piece of wood coming off a plank being cut for a larger piece. So I decide to put that aside and make it up into a board at some time. I now have more pieces of wood than I know what to do with. Every so often I dig through the pile and work on a design that compliments the figure in the wood.

Now and then, when you plane into the wood you get a very pleasant surprise. Just as in this case. Very much for interest only as the board found a caring home soon after its construction.

This piece of oak looked pretty straightforward. I had machine planed what was a very rough, warped surface. Often, unless it is perfectly set up (usually lasting about 10 minutes), machine planers will leave very faint marks across the face of the wood. These are known as "chatter", you can imagine why. I spent quite some time trying to remove the chatter from the Oak until I realised that the marks were actually wood "ripples" or "flames". This  sort of feature is typically associated with Sycamore and Maple but is found in many woods. Turns out my chopping board has a nice ripple through it. Very much by accident. If I had known the ripple was there I would most probably have used the wood for a box. Nonetheless this Oak chopping board is probably the most decorative I have seen.

The Art Deco Gilded Mirror

This piece was destined for the home of a Scots gentleman of Italian ancestry. It is one of the few pieces I have produced as a portfolio piece without a commission. I had imagined the design as a simple mirror frame, possibly using stained glass or perhaps marquetry to create the reflected sunrise pattern. I had already used a similar theme on a Marquetry box top but I decided to produce the design in 3 dimensions.

The mirror frame is Lime wood. Lime wood is most enjoyable to carve. It is compliant under the chisel and can produce soft shapes as well as hard edged lines as details.

I had a 2 dimensional design on paper and I transferred that to blocks of Lime wood that had been glued together to form the rough shape. I found that I could only address the raised and sunken elements of the design whilst I was carving the wood. I did not attempt to create a 3 dimensional drawing.

The beautiful irony of Gilding is that, having carved this finely detailed piece, you then obscure the fine detail with coloured Gesso. The Gesso acts as the base for the leaf providing good adhesion. Once a good thick layer of Gesso has undone a fair degree of the carving work the detail is carved back into the Gesso and the Gold leaf is applied using a light glue size.

Gilding has to be a lonely task. The Gold leaf is too easily disturbed from the Gilder's cushion by the rush of air as colleagues walk past. You may not think that a human being creates a rush of air in their wake but, let me assure you, as another leaf of gold takes to the air from the cushion, folding and twisting as it goes, you realise just how devilishly annoying that wake can be.

I chose to burnish only certain elements of the design which results in the combined finish of high gloss and satin that you can see to the left. The mirror can be hung as a portrait, which is my preference, or as a landscape.

The 1963 Ferrari 330GT

The Steering Wheel

Every so often you get commissioned to do something that you know you are going to enjoy so much you feel that you shouldn't take money for it. Usually you manage to get over that pretty quickly.

The Ferrari 330GT is a beautiful car. It is front-engined (a true Ferrari by some people's definitions), has four seats and goes like stink. Probably doesn't stop so well but is good enough by 1963 standards. It is also worth quite a lot. Here's a red one.

I am working on the dashboard for this car and I should have pictures of that also when the work is finished.

The steering wheel metalwork is milled from a metal disc and cut to shape. The wood is Ash (bends easy) and it has a black bakelite ring inlaid. The wood is riveted in position.

After some 47 years the steering wheel was in pretty poor aesthetic shape. The lacquer was tainted, browning the metalwork and peeling in great chunks from the wood. You can see this in the photos. The original dash was European Walnut veneer on ply and the steering wheel had been coloured to match. The colour had faded and had been worn away in many places. The dashboard has been restored using an aged Burr Walnut veneer and the wheel needed to be stripped and re-coloured to match and re-finished in something a little more sympathetic to its age. The metalwork needed the lacquer removed and polished to remove damage.

Lacquer/varnish, probably cellulose based, does not age gracefully. It doesn't wear down with a smooth edge as Shellac would. It cracks, flakes and disintegrates. However, it fights pretty hard when you try and strip it off. The task was made more complex by the bakelite inlay. Chemical stripping would melt the bakelite. A quick test spot determined that that was definitely the case. The lacquer needed to be persuaded off carefully with chemicals, scrapers and glass paper.

Once free of lacquer the wood and the metal were smoothed and polished. The wood was re-coloured over a period of several days to bring it up to match slowly and was sealed with Shellac. Further coats of Shellac were applied until the grain was filled but not to a high polish. I thought that with some grain apparent the steering wheel had a nice aged patina. It was impossible not to coat the metalwork in Shellac while the wood was being treated. The Shellac was removed from the metalwork and the metal was brought to a high polish. Once polished you can see the very faint milling marks on the surface of the metal where it was hewn from the solid disc. The steering wheel is finished with a very fine coat of conservation wax.

Most arty photographs so far. I loved working on it. You can probably tell.

The Steering Wheel Boss Cover

Once the steering wheel was complete it became apparent that the cover for the steering wheel centre looked a little dowdy by comparison. there were a number of surface imperfections, cuts and abrasions. Machine polishing can be unkind to soft metal items like this. There is often visible directions to the resultant sheen and the vigour with which the machine removes an imperfection can lead to flatting of domed surfaces, causing a real twist in the reflected light. I prefer to hand polish most items. Takes a good bit longer but I think the results are better. The imperfections were relatively easy to remove as none were too deep. One mysterious small diameter hole remains. I can't figure out what would have caused it. It is much reduced in size now, a pin prick rather than a noticeable hole. It was the depth of the hole that was the issue. Positioned on the outer rim of the cover the hole could not be removed as this would definitely have corrupted the outline. The car's restorer reckoned I was being a little retentive about the pin prick. He was right. The cover has been refitted, albeit with the imperfection on the underside, to please me. Certainly looks a lot happier now and you can even see me holding my camera in the reflection.

The Dashboard

The original dashboard from 1963 was European Walnut faced ply. This had aged to a much lighter toned wood, more reminiscent of Teak. In fact, examining photographs of a restoration of a different car that was covered on an Internet site, it looked like a previous restorer had assumed that the dashboard was Teak and had coloured it up and sprayed it. Just my opinion though, I might well be wrong.

The new owner wanted a very different look to the dashboard. The old Ferrari will be be a more relaxed touring car than when it was a younger GT. As such, the new owner wanted a more splendid finish to the dashboard. I created 4 sample swatches of veneer examples that I thought might suit his tastes. 1) Bird's Eye Maple (very easy to apply and finish) 2) Toned Bird's Eye Maple (a little darker, easy to apply and a little more difficult to finish without looking dirty) 3) Burr Walnut (difficult to apply, difficult finish) 4) Aged Burr Walnut (the most difficult of all).

And of course, the owner chose number 4, the Aged Burr Walnut. If the dashboard had been a single or series of flat pieces this might have been relatively straightforward. Alas, the Italians had chosen to indent the main instrument console with two neat little triangles making the connections. You can see this in the photographs. Very nice Sixties look but not ideal for applying one long sheet of veneer.

Burr Walnut is difficult to lay at the best of times. The natural swirl of the burr means that the veneer is very uneven as a surface so it must be softened to assure that the veneer has no air gaps between it and the adjoining surface. Additionally, in order to age the Burr Walnut, nitric acid must be applied very carefully and heated evenly in situ until the hue changes. Once the hue has reached the right tone the surface needs to be neutralised very quickly, usually with milk. You can imagine it is an unpleasant, risky and messy operation. The beauty of a French Polished, Aged Burr Walnut surface makes it all worth while.

I had toyed with the idea of building a completely new dashboard from pre-veneered wood but there were too many other components surrounding the dashboard when fitted inside the car. These other components had been sent to other specialists and, without access to them, a 100% replica was unlikely.

It would have been very easy to slip a dashboard into a vacuum bag to ensure the veneer glued well and flat. Unfortunately, the design of this dashboard, with its two kinks would make it very difficult to be confident that placement of the veneer was perfect and, since the dashboard was to be covered with a single contiguous sheet of veneer, to ensure that all component pieces were joined well. The gluing had to be carried out using clamps and formers to ensure position and flatness were excellent. You can see the rather heavy use of individual clamps that were required to cover all the small areas of surface that needed to be glued under significant pressure. There is an old saying in Cabinet Making, "You can never have enough clamps". In this case I was darn near using every brand and style of clamps that I owned. In the photograph to the right you can see the stark difference between the veneer that has been flattened to the surface of the dashboard and the unevenness of the veneer prior to flattening. The Burr Walnut is warped and twisted in all planes.

The nature of the joins where the triangles met the main surfaces meant that the veneer component pieces had to be mounted progressively over several days. The glove compartment cover was veneered from the veneer cut from the main dashboard where the hole for the glove compartment sat. The result is a very long, consistent presentation of the veneer sheet.

Once mounted, the veneer was flattened, rubbed down and prepared for French Polishing. The numerous holes for instruments, the different surfaces and the angle of joins meant that the French Polish had to be applied very slowly and deliberately. Pooling and running of the French Polish was a significant risk. The edges of all the instrument cut-outs, the various smaller holes and, of course, these dratted triangles made for very careful, thin applications. The finish was built up over weeks and months to ensure that good protection will be afforded to the wooden surface.

At several points I did ask myself why we hadn't gone for the easy option of spraying the dashboard with a modern plastic lacquer. The lustre and elegance of the hand-polished Shellac finish makes for a much better finish in my opinion and so any doubts I had were quashed when I was able to apply the final coats. The Shellac will harden over the next 2-3 months after which time I shall return to repair any damage and to check that the surface has settled properly and rectify any imperfections.

The instruments were sent to me for fitting. These were polished and new markers painted on to the heating controls. There were areas of significant bubbling on the surfaces of the fan vents. Machine polishing reduced these significantly. The speedometer was marked up with MPH indicators to avoid any embarrassing lapses.

I have enclosed photos of the interior just prior to complete refinishing.

The Small Mahogany Chest of Drawers with Glazed Door.

Somebody had given this piece a pretty hard time. Dating from the Victorian era I assume that this was some kind of laboratory or specimen chest of drawers. Possibly an apprentice piece.

The top had been destroyed so a replacement had to be made. Not much care had been taken in the placing of the drawer handles and the drawer fronts had been savaged. The base was similarly badly treated but, given that this was not covered by a door I felt that major restoration would not be required to the base, just a freshening up. The sides of the piece were pretty similar to the drawer fronts and there were numerous deep rub marks, scratches and cracks. Cracks on a piece of this age are not unnatural. Generally if a crack is not undermining the stability of the piece I will merely soften its edges and ensure that no underlying colour is contrasting against the main surface finish.

I always try to resist the approach of stripping finish from a piece, scraping the old surface to reveal a smoother, less imperfect new surface. Not being of too great antiquity and given the extent of damage to the surfaces I chose to be pretty vigorous with this piece. The fact that the top required replacing encouraged me to renew rather than simply restore.

The handles have been realigned and placed correctly. The drawer fronts, top and sides of the chest have been coloured and refinished to a deeper, more lustrous look than was the case previously. The brass components had been daubed with some terrible coloured varnish at some point. These were polished back and fitted. They look shiny but not new. Some tarnishing was left in place to ensure that there was still some age to the brass.

The chest does not look new. I would hope people would consider it to look aged and well cared for. The piece still shows wear to the visible surfaces but this looks more in line with the passage of time rather than that of a wooden piece that has been kicked around a room several times over then hurled down a gravel path.

The Contemporary Walnut Low Table with Floating Shelf

This was a somewhat nerve-wracking piece. I had discussed my outline thoughts on design with the customer and thereafter they simply wanted me to come up with something unique. I decided to wander far from the traditional track. Walnut was the chosen wood. Black Walnut and European Walnut was used in the making. Ebony was used for detailing. Since the piece was to be unique, I abandoned all tradition of symmetry relying on asymmetry in every part of the piece. There is a hint of symmetry in the themes that are used around the piece, the indented shelves for instance, the ebony bands and caps, but there is not a mirror image, in terms of geometry, anywhere. The top is curved gently and banded to suggest that it is carved from solid. The shelf, designed to have no corner or stretcher supports, is curved in the opposite axis to the top. The legs are placed asymmetrically and well within the boundaries of the table. The legs are angled in ever so slightly so that the table starts narrow and opens up. The legs, indented shelves and floating shelf are designed so that the customer is presented with a view of very different shapes, shading and geometry, depending where they are sitting or standing adjacent to the table. It was somewhat experimental and I am pleased to say that the customer is very happy with the piece.

The Incredible 16th Century Catalan Table

A family that I know wanted a 5 metre (yes, that's pretty big) table in the style of something that might have been made around the 16th Century in Catalunya. Turns out that a lot of these tables were popular with the Italians who purchased them as Gothic tables. The designs and features are certainly very similar. The family have restored a very old (circa 13th Century) location in the Collsacabra mountains. The main house is believed to be principally 16th and 17th Century. They run environmentally-friendly and ecologically sound agricultural operations and have spent a long time bringing the buildings into an excellent state of repair. They have cottages for rent so you might want to take a look. The location is beautiful and tranquil, excepting the occasional loud swearing and banging from a woodworking workshop a few miles away along a mountain road. The web site is www.avenc.com and well worth a look. There is even a book about it, A Castle in Spain by Matthew Parris.

I was drafted in to assist in the construction. My host was a lovely young lady woodworker called Christina. Very talented and far too humble for her own good. We didn't know exactly what such a table would look like never mind how we would make it. I planned to take a week out of my making in Scotland to get the table into the dining room. The dining room had been waiting for this table for a good few years and we had hoped to take 2 weeks out but I had other work to deliver in Scotland. We had an outline design in mind that appealed to our sense of what a chunky refectory table should look like but this was modified significantly when we met with a local historian and a local retired wood craftsman in a village in the foothills. Our first evening was spent laying out the wood and looking at it for a long time. I always find it useful to look at wood for a long time before a build. We identified the wood we would use for the top. The top was our priority before we moved onto the trestles. We visited the historian and craftsman and discovered just what such a table could look like and, what's more, how it would have been made.

The family had wanted dark Walnut wood. Oak would have been more in period but it was felt that it would not fit so well with the aesthetics of the room. Walnut would look dark immediately with no chemical ageing treatments. The dimensions of the table were set at 112 cm wide and 5 metres long. 4.8 metres was all we could muster with the available wood and so a compromise was established.

The build was a bit of a roller-coaster. We discovered the Walnut was actually Spalted Walnut when we had to split the boards to make the top thinner. Tabletops of that period were not particularly thick and we had made a wrong call when the boards were bought. We had to plane carefully to make sure that the tops of the boards remained as dark as possible without the spalt showing through. We could never hope to obtain the width of boards that would allow us to make a two board table top so we set about joining the boards using floating tenons and pegging them in place with the Oak pegs we had made. This technique may not have been of the period but it was the most natural and effective method that we reckoned would give good stability and tame the boards that were a little tiresome in their habit of moving and bowing. We trued the board edges by hand, wrote our secret messages on the Oak tenons and brought the top together in two halves. We got to know the wood pretty well over the course of the week. There were some pretty odd characters amongst the boards.

The trestles were less troublesome. They required some joining of wood to attain the necessary width. Morticed and tenoned into place, the lyre inspired motif looked very happy between the traditionally carved trestles.

The various components were transported late one evening along the mountain road to the main house. Upper bearers and a very long lower stretcher system brought the trestles into a stable form on the night before I was due to fly home. The top was put in position with the help of the family. Joining keys were used between the two top halves. We couldn't use any other type of joining system without losing length. The keys aren't the prettiest method but they will be covered with a centre cap to hide the "engineering" work. The trestles are located in the top using sliding dovetails. Some of the table has been distressed to give it an air of antiquity. Mostly carried out by myself, it would seem that damaging wood seems to fall quite naturally to me. Slightly worrying I feel.

Overall, the effect of the table, in my humble opinion, is fantastic. It was a good job that we made the top in two halves as the floor of the ancient room is bowed. Our central join accommodates the bow comfortably. The room looks much happier with the table in situ. The family are very happy. The table is settling for a few weeks before it is polished but that should be happening soon. I understand that the first meal it will host will be on the 8th of May for a family birthday.

It was a great challenge and adventure. At a couple of points during the week I didn't think we would have the table installed in time for my plane departure. Successful completion was assured when Christina, on the penultimate night, told me that the wood supplier had told her and her father that there was no way that such a table could be made in a week. Never tell a Scotsman that something can't be done. You will only be proved wrong. As was the case, I am pleased to say, on this occasion.

The Fishing Bothy Table

Small fry compared to the Catalan table at a mere 10 foot. All the same the table had to be transported to the location by the river in 4 sections and assembled inside the Bothy. The Bothy table is made from Douglas Fir with Oak end cappings and centre. I chose Douglas Fir as I am hoping to see only a small amount of movement in the table once the wood has settled down. The climate inside the Bothy changes very significantly and so the end caps and centre have the capacity to let the Douglas Fir expand and shrink. The tabletop has already shrunk during the hotter and drier weather and the outside of the end caps will be trimmed to suit. The legs and stretchers have been made from Douglas Fir also. The Douglas Fir has a beautiful grain to it. The initial finish on the Douglas Fir is the gentle pink of the heartwood but this will gradually fade to a more mellow brown/tan colour. A number of utility benches and stools were made also. These are all solid Oak and some can be seen in the background of the photographs, you can even see the Ghillie's feet. Work is still in progress on two Oak chairs and a large bench. photographs of these will follow also. The finish on the table surface is a hardwax/oil combination but this will be being supplemented by Tung oil as the wear and tear on the table surface has been much more than had been expected and once the Bothy is quiet during the off season the oil finish will be built up gradually.

More Chopping and Cheese Boards

I have got quite carried away with producing a whole series of new chopping boards recently. I have been working on a big project of restoration and repairs. To keep my hand in I have spent some spare (ho ho) time making more ergonomic and, let's face it, quirky chopping and cheese boards.

These are all solid Oak and take some inspiration from a more ergonomic approach to the handling of boards, especially when you want to tip the contents into some container or other. they are generally made to fit my hand, as I am the only model available usually, but I reckon I could produce more custom versions.

I have to admit that I do enjoy making them. Working with a nice, chunky piece of wood, shaping it in 3 dimensions is very pleasing.

All of the Oak boards are finished with Olive oil which needs to be replenished regularly if the boards are not to warp or crack too badly.

I am also now producing boards which can be handled so that both sides can be used, giving them a better shelf life. My prior boards tended to have the grips moulded so that they were comfortable to be held when using one side only. I should also probably make them ambidextrous.

I have more boards planned in the pipeline, using slightly different themes and woods. I have some nice old Pine which I am tempted to use for a series of large cheeseboards. And when I say large I mean large.

Currently all the boards with their handles lie in the one plane but I am hoping to have some examples where the boards are formed from larger pieces of solid. This would mean I would be able to have handles that are clear of the working surfaces that the boards are used on. Probably much more interesting and possibly more practical I think.

The Gilded Fire Screen

I worked on this on behalf of another company who were manufacturing a new screen for the frame. I can't be absolutely sure on age but this piece had received a good bit of rough treatment over the years. There was a lot of cracking, bits had fallen off, bits were in the process of falling off and most of the lacquer had long since flaked off or had turned brown and was hiding the gold leaf beneath. Dirt was well established across the surfaces and into every nook and cranny. You can see some of the damage and dirt in the photographs.

It is always difficult to judge on what are appropriate repairs to a gilded piece. Anything I do is typically reversible and whenever I can I use traditional materials. In order to eliminate the damage to the piece from the temperature and humidity changes over the years, it requires new Gesso to be inserted and coloured size (Bole) to be painted over the wounds. The new gold leaf is then applied. Sometimes it is necessary to strip the gesso right back to the carving, apply new Gesso, carve into the Gesso and apply bole and the gold leaf as new. Both of these approaches are at the middle to high end of very expensive. In this case the remit was to tidy the piece up, stabilise the applied carvings, cover up a recent repair and stabilise the gold leaf surface.

I applied new leaf to the recent repair and distressed it so as not to look too alien alongside the existing finish. The frame was glued up and the carvings repaired and stabilised. I chose to clean the surfaces, something that requires great care. The gold leaf adheres to the frame using a water based glue/size. It is only too easy to wet the surface and watch the gold leaf, literally, disappear before one's eyes. Hundreds of cotton buds are required, a load of patience and a good piece of music in the background. The dirt is slowly rolled off the surface. Unfortunately there are always areas that will not let go of the dirt but most of the surface will look brighter and less depressed. In this case most of the dirt came free with the exception of the nooks and crannies that were too difficult to clean given the fragility of the surrounding gilded surfaces. I chose to finish the piece with a very light and dilute shellac. This can be removed easily using methylated spirits if further repair is undertaken. A water-based size would have carried the risk of dissolving the surface that it was meant to protect. The shellac gives a lustre back to the gilding, with high points shining and protects the surface from any abuse. Altogether it looked a lot cheerier.

The Venetian Serpentine Walnut Commodes

A pair of slightly controversial commodes. They have been dated as 19th Century but based on the some of the component parts I reckon they originate in the 18th Century and were repurposed in the 19th Century. Having worked on them I reckon I know better.

These were in a slightly unreasonable state of repair when I was commissioned to repair and restore them. The surfaces were tired and the polish was worn in many places. They had been used as bedside cabinets and had suffered at the hands of glasses of water and the occasional mug of Horlicks I suspect. The Walnut top had cracked open and the edging and banding had cracked and fallen off in several places. Some of the Walnut was missing. The door on one of the pieces was perched quite badly on the hinges and was not closing properly. The door frame had been damaged as a result. The veneer on the sides had lifted in many places, woodworm had had a feast on the underside and had nibbled the front off the foot of one of the cabriole legs.

The commodes were treated for woodworm. I use a particularly gentle treatment that ensures no problems from insects, fungus and rot for up to 5 years between treatments. New Walnut was formed to shape and aged before being fitted where Walnut had once been but was no longer. The delaminated veneer and veneer bubbles were eased back into place. The door was modified such that it opened and shut correctly and the door frame was repaired with new (old) wood being laid in to replace the damaged area. The cracks were repaired, either drawn together and glued, or filled with hard wax. A new front of foot was carved and glued into place. The tops were re-polished lightly with shellac and waxed with a particularly good beeswax. Once back in situ the overall effect was delightful. The pair were later sold at auction for £12,000.

The Aston Martin DB2 Dashboard

I was presented with a very tired and partly burnt DB2 dashboard to re-polish. It wasn't particularly impressive, being principally plywood. I suggested that it might be a bit more decorative and compliment the car's restoration if I was to make a replica from solid Walnut. The original will stay with the car anyway.

As ever, I quoted an impressively affordable price and work commenced. When you agree to make a replica it can go two ways. The first, which has happened on another project that remains underway, is that you realise that you have totally underestimated how complex the making will be. The second way is that, despite the fact that you notice little difficult details after you have committed to the quote, the whole thing just falls into place. This project went the second way.

The dimensions were mostly fairly straightforward but there were a few elements that required a little more thought and handiwork than I had first imagined. The subtle little curves along the top and the geometric alignment of curves and dead straight edges along the bottom. Some of the hand crafting was a bit nerve wracking as it was quite a journey from the logged plank to the finished article and I really didn't want to have to do any of it over again. The client was delighted, which makes it all worth while.

The Little Pine Tables

I have a large stock of Victorian and Edwardian Siberian, Baltic and Pitch Pine. I was asked to build a couple of prototype chalet tables using it. The wood is particularly good quality.

The grain is very straight and there is some very nice figuring in some of the wood with pleasant caramel shading.

These tables were simple designs but, every once in a while, it is nice just to make something that is straightforward and pretty with it. That said, the lower shelf on the thin legged table was to be rebated into the legs. Chisel work in a soft wood like Pine is never very much fun and can go dreadfully wrong if you look the wrong way. The tables were delivered to the client with no finish applied. That's why the tables look a little pale. I hope you like them.

The Pitch Pine Television Unit

This one was for my brother, bless him. Family commissions can often be the most difficult for all the wrong reasons. This one went something like this. "I need a television unit, it doesn't need to be good wood because we are going to paint it". How could I refuse? Despite coming up with incredibly complex, unobtrusive and expensive designs that would keep everything hidden until, at the touch of a button, the various pieces of technology would emerge and rise into action, I was persuaded to keep it simple, as cost was a significant limiting factor. I met him somewhere in the middle. I used the most delicious Pitch Pine I have and I used materials carefully and constructed the corner piece to be able to be dismantled by him in the future so that the wood can be stripped back again and re-purposed. Its not as easy as it sounds, making something that you can take apart again without smashing it up. Meanwhile, I expect the somewhat garish finish is now well covered with a thick coat of emulsion. I would have used Milk paint but I am not sure that the budget would stretch.

The Jaguar Mascot

A Jaguar bonnet mascot had been acquired at an autojumble but had no where to sit. A piece of hard African hardwood was carved to give it a worthy stand. The design was in the Art Deco mould, an abstract of the lines of the 1950 Jaguars. Probably the prettiest era for Jaguars in my opinion.

The Oak Pedestal Tables

These tables originated in a large court house in Scotland. The plinth-like piece had been ravaged by the cleaner's mop and the top had been neglected. The corners of the top frame were splitting and the glue had long since given up its holding power. The quadrapod table had a full width crack in the top and the top join had been reinforced with iron angle brackets. One of the legs had been broken and had been repaired with little sympathy. The repair was holding well but the legs had loosened in the joints into the pedestal.

The most straightforward piece was the plinth piece. The wood repairs were simple and new, albeit old-style animal glue, glue was used to repair the frame parts. The top was revived and received a number of coats of French Polish. This made the colour more vivacious but didn't overwhelm the natural beauty of the wide pores and figure of the Oak. The piece received two thorough waxing coats after the finish had settled for some six weeks.

The most interesting piece to work on was the quadrapod table. The irons were removed and I found that the top join was perfectly strong without them. The top was on a very slight tilt but I decided to leave it as it seemed perfectly in keeping with the piece's aged charm. The top frame was removed, the crack was closed and the frame re-sized to accommodate the slightly smaller dimensions. The leg crack was disguised such that it was no longer a glaring scar. The top's patina and age acquired marks were deemed worth preserving and so the new wood that had been exposed in order to close and level the crack was treated in order to match the old wood surface that remained. Once again the top was treated to several coats of French Polish and two wax coats after the finish rested for six weeks. The resultant lustre of the quarter sawn oak with its Medullary rays is set off perfectly in the client's home where it sits on the staircase, lit by the gentle light of a table lamp.

The Walnut Twin Stool

I produced this for a furniture making colleague who was a bit shy of his normal resources. A chunky pedestal base with a wooden cube separating the cushions at either end. This was going to have to be made in veneer. Plywood would be used for the pedestal as it would have sufficient strength. Oak would be used as the base wood for the legs as this would give it a bit of weight. The central cube would be plywood.

The pedestal was morticed and tenoned. The legs were veneered and had solid Walnut at their bases to stop the veneer chipping out. You can just see it in the close-up photograph. Apart from protecting the veneer I think it always looks better anyway. The Walnut veneer is continuous grain from the front of the cube to the back. The veneer was not quite wide enough to cover the width so two leaves were bookmatched. It always gives a nice pattern.

The lacquering and upholstery was to be completed by my colleague, so I don't have photos of the piece in its finished state but I am hoping for one soon.

A Cluster of Chunky Scottish Oak stools

More stools for a fishing bothy. These are made with character grade Oak. I choose pieces of Oak that may have slight flaws in them, feather cracks in the surface for instance, as it is less important to strive for perfection on a stool for one's bottom I think. It makes excellent use of the wood and provides stools at a pleasant price for the client. The stools are sized according to the available wood and are flatted on each side and contoured to eliminate snags, flaws and to increase comfort. They are finished with oil and wax. They are substantial with very good weight and stability.

And more boards...

A couple of departures from my more traditional approach to the quirky boards.

I had a lovely piece of Oak with a rotten knot. It was spalted and the resultant colour and figure were just too tempting. The board is basically a bit of tree. More a bit of tree than usual. The knot area became the handle and, whilst you can't see it well in the picture, the handle area is raised at an angle from the surface so that it is easier to get your fingers underneath. There is also a dipped area which is designed to gather any juices or water that are part of the chopping process.

I had another request for a big board. Its made from Oak and at 12" by 17" is about as big as you can get without needing two hands to hold it. Simple design and very practical I think.

Moving more into the line of cheeseboards, less messy boards as it were. I have produced this Rippled Sycamore cheeseboard. Sycamore is a lot lighter than Oak and is therefore more easy to handle of a size. It also occasionally produces the most enchanting patterns in the grain. Some people call them ripples, some people call them flames. It is an unusual wood to use for this purpose but I believe that the aesthetic effect is wonderful. With an oil finish the board is iridescent. As with a lot of figure and grain effects it looks better in the wood than in the photograph.

An Oak Low Table

This piece is in solid Oak with a Walnut inlay. The remit was to have something with a contemporary Arts and Crafts feel. The piece doesn't actually look quite the same as in the photographs. When the piece was delivered the client decided that they were not happy with the curved leg supports. And so the piece was modified at their home over a period of a couple of days. Fortunately I often use hide glue for such fixings and on this occasion I was able remove the pieces with as little damage as possible. The small amount of damage was repaired and a plate of Walnut was dropped from each Walnut valance under the top and we all agree it looks better for it. Only thing is, of course, I forgot to take a photograph. I shall see to this on a special visit.

The top is made from consecutive boards of Scottish Oak. In this way I was able to "bookmatch" as you see in the photographs. Since the boards are thick I couldn't quite get a perfect bookmatch but I am very happy with it all the same. The Walnut inlay extended to diamonds on the surface at the capped ends and pegs on the ends themselves.  The wood of the end caps is very pretty. All joins had a Walnut inlay as a highlight. Blocks of Walnut were also set into the legs and into the sides of the top to add a little more decoration. A thin line of Walnut inlay was laid into the legs but such was the grain you can barely see it. All of the Walnut was hand laid. That is, with a chisel, saw and knife. This is quite laborious but the net effect is of inlays that I feel are a little more natural looking. More like inlay that you would see on a classical piece of furniture. They do not look, I hope, machine routed and have the blessing of occasional imperfections that hand making enjoys. The Arts and Crafts movement was all about moving away from an industrial nature of furniture production and so I felt that the table should be made in just that way. Art for arts sake as they like to say.

An Oak Bench

A bench for the family in solid Oak. Based on my learnings when I was instructed in Sant Julia in the making of such Catalan furniture. The whole thing is held together with friction and wedges. The top/seat should be held in place using sliding dovetails but at the price I was charging for this piece I couldn't justify the extra work involved. The broad board under the seat is a bit of wild quarter sawn Oak that I had in the workshop. The setting for the bench is sufficiently informal that I could get away with using a bit of mad wood to make sure the seat doesn't bow. Once the bench has settled into its home and acclimatises to the house's heating arrangements I replace the plain wedges with more ornamental ones.

A Victorian English Bagatelle Table

This was a family heirloom which had seen some pretty bad treatment over the years and had ended up spending its life as a workbench and had lain in a wet shed. The damage was extensive to the table and the base. I have a suspicion that the table started out as simply the folding top. Many tables of the period were of that nature. I think that the table was married to the base in later life as some of the work to the base was a little rough, especially where the base let the table slide back and forth. there were also quite distinct differences in colour and finish on parts of the base compared to that on the top.

The base had been beaten up, kicked and had been treated to some form of oil or grease staining over the years. The table had an enormous shrinkage crack that had been attempted to be filled previously. The Rosewood veneer was cracked and lifting, the baize had been ripped and had been soaked with water and the cushions were rotten rubber and decaying timber. The pictures speak for themselves.

The base was stripped with the most outrageous damage repaired. The piece deserved to still show some good age, a sympathetic restoration, so not all damage was put back to new, much was softened and made less obvious to the eye.

The table top was stripped of finish. The baize, cushions and scoring cups were removed. The original bone marker spots were dug out of the timber where they had been impacted and polished and re-set. One whole side of veneer was removed so that the crack could be repaired. The crack was cleaned and closed slightly. Walnut strengthening keys were set in to the top so that the crack could never open again. The crack was filled with fillets of wood and planed flat. The veneer was re-laid and repaired all around the table top. New baize was laid and the scoring cups were touched up and re-lacquered. New cushions were constructed using billiard tables rubber. A replacement key was found. New balls, cues and scoring pegs were procured from a variety of suppliers. The exterior of the table was coloured up to try to attain a more even colour across the piece. A light French polish and a thorough beeswax polish were applied.

A Scottish Walnut Music Stand

The husband of a couple who had purchased a simple little Elm table from me some years ago approached me and asked me to make a music stand for his wife's birthday. A very important birthday. I am fortunate to have some very rare and pretty Scottish Walnut seasoning in my store and I suggested that this would be the ideal wood for the project. Combined with Ebony the pairing would be very classically pretty. His wife has very esoteric taste and it was decided to make something simple and contemporary. Everything on this piece was hand crafted and as a result very unique. The tightening pegs were threaded using African Ebony and set into the chunky Walnut handles. The Ebony was used to provide most of the highlights and Japanese pegs were used to secure a number of the joints. The front of the manuscript holder will be faced at either side of the stave with marquetry panels that will personalise what will be, I hope, a family heirloom.