Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 94 i Australian Wood Review

I sometimes wonder about the meaning of making in a world that increasingly consumes more and more objects made to a price, as opposed to concepts of longevity and relevance. Take a walk around the burbs on the days prior to council hard rubbish collections and you’ll see the best and worst of all (furniture) worlds. The best – because you’ll witness recycling at its most spontaneous and grass roots level as many take what others don’t want. But the worst is the reflection of our world that’s left lying on the verge. Flatpack furniture now useless with joins gone gappy and chipboard panels disintegrating. Cheap stuff that was ‘all we could afford’ and fashions we fell prey to are turning out to be expensive in the long run. None…

If you want the short version of this review, I recommend that you stop reading now, and go buy this saw (or its Titanium mate if you want to spend the extra money). You will not be sorry. If you need further justification, read on. Most readers will be familiar with using regular, hardware store coping saws, and know how the blade bends in the cut. A better coping saw would not allow this to happen. Now, roughly speaking, a blade secured with end pins can only bend significantly if the ends of the blade move closer to each other, and this can only happen if the frame flexes in the required direction. So what has been the problem? Well, making a stiff enough frame is easy enough. Making it…

A last century woodworker teleported to 2017 would find him or herself in a world where the refined and gentle Japanese art of making kumiko was well on trend. Exposure through social and print media has allowed the appeal of this delicate and subtle form of woodworking to be taken up by more and more people who wish to try their hand. Hand tools, jigs, a passion for keeping edges sharp and the discipline to develop accuracy will bring success. Traditional patterns, and there are many of them, can be mastered, and that can lead to experimentation as well. At the forefront of this in the Western world, specifically in Australia, is Desmond King, who after a military career and working as a translator in both Japan and Australia, undertook…

When my beloved 12 year old niece unselfconsciously lamented to me that there weren’t enough mirrors in her home I had to act. A hand held mirror was required. Her hair is now well past shoulder length and is a constant focus of her preening so sketches alluding to her long hair were commenced. Getting the form right I don’t use computer modelling, mainly because it would require regular use to achieve competence, but also because even a skilled screen rendition can’t match seeing an object from different angles and experiencing the way light works with it, as well as the feel of any curves. Which is why painters continue to do studies, sculptors make maquettes, and furniture makers model and prototype, and so on. Scale models and/or prototypes are…

www.woodreview.com.au Diary listings are free. Mail to: Wood Diary, PO Box 3893, Loganholme DC, Qld 4129 Email to: linda@woodreview.com.au Note: Listings are correct at time of publication but may be subject to change. It is advisable to check details with the organiser before visiting. 18–19 FEBRUARY Tools & Techniques Festival Sturt School For Wood Mittagong, NSW www.sturt.new.edu.au 19 FEBRUARY–2 APRIL Alumni Exhibition: Selected Graduates 1985–2005 Sturt School For Wood Mittagong, NSW www.sturt.new.edu.au 26 FEBRUARY 2017 Sydney Tool Sale The Brickpit Sports Stadium 1A Dartford Rd, Thornleigh, NSW 3–5 MARCH Bowna Turnabout Albury-Wodonga Woodcrafters Inc Bowna, Hume Weir, NSW www.awwinc.com.au www.tttg.org.au 8–11 MARCH Malaysian International Furniture Fair Putra World Trade Centre www.2017.miff.com.my 11–12 MARCH Lost Trades Fair Kyneton Racecourse, Victoria www.rundellandrundell.com.au 11–12 MARCH 27th Annual Shepparton Woodwork Show Woodturners of the…

Good Grips Here’s a product that threatens to take hold of the market. From Slipstick, these orange, hard wearing, non-slip rubber compound bench grips serve conveniently for holding, leveling or providing a non-slip or insulating base for a multitude of workshop and domestic uses. Sold in packs of eight for $22.50. Available from Bunnings. www.timbermate.com.au Bucket of Chips This straightforward collection system for larger chips and particles aims to take the load off your shop vac. Simply attach said shop vac to the Titanium 305 cyclone dust collector and switch on to allow it to separate and trap larger particles without the need for messy filters. Clear PVC lets you see when the 19 litre bucket needs emptying. The unit mounts on four castors for easy mobility. www.timberbits.com.au New Makes…

When I opened Terry’s parcel, the room was flooded with the smell of camphor, which I had carved when Terry and I did a project in China. You can never forget that crisp aroma. We first worked together nearly 20 years ago in Canada and by now both of us have an instinctive knowledge of how the other works. We have developed a great way of collaborating: we talk on the internet, plan, make sketches and inspire each other. Before Terry started making this bowl we had discussed its form, its thickness and the best way to shape the rim to show my carvings. So I already knew the bowl when I lifted it out of the box, and it settled immediately and comfortably into my hands. The curve was…

I arrived at my brother’s house, went straight to the one corner of the garage that wasn’t filled with golf clubs and baby gear to see my father, John Dixon, hunched over in work mode position. He was busy installing what looked to be his version of the much loved fold-down workbench. I asked him what it was. He said ‘It’s the MacGyver bench’. He gave me a wink and I took the bait, ‘Okay, what’s that?’. ‘It’s so when I come to Sydney and visit your brother I have somewhere to fix just about anything. And the whole thing folds up to nothing.’ And with that he happily resumed his installation. My father was always a man of action who loved his workshop. He entered into working life via…

There is so much more to your thickness planer than you might imagine. Generally considered a one-trick pony, understanding how the machine is built and how it functions can expand your horizons as far as the many functions this tool can perform. What it does The primary function of the thickness planer is to dress the opposite face of a board that has had an initial face dressed on the jointer. When I run machinery classes, one of the most common questions I get is, ‘Why can’t you just dress both faces on the jointer?’. Sure, the jointer will dress the opposite face, but what it won’t do is guarantee that both faces will be perfectly co-planar and further, if machining multiple boards, won’t guarantee the exact same thickness on…

Established in 1982, Woodwell Tools claim to be the largest manufacturer of wooden bodied handplanes in the world. In the early days the tools were not branded so retailers could sell them under their own brand labels, but now the name Mujingfang, meaning literally ‘wood-well-square’, is known the world over. Guangzhou, capital of Guandong (formerly Canton) province, is one of China’s industrial heartlands and home to some 10 million people. From the air it presents as a vast grid of tall apartment buildings, criss-crossed with a complex network of freeways, flyovers and bridges. Every year Guangzhou hosts some of the largest trade shows in the world. The Mujingfang factory site in nearby Foshan City takes up 30,000 square metres of land. Visitors enter through a security gate and proceed to…

The eye has an uncanny ability to equate visual and physical weight. Have you ever seen a beautiful form that looked as though it would be quite heavy, but been surprised at how light it turns out to be? Or, less happily, the reverse. In woodturning a light ‘enclosed’ form is achieved via a technique known as hollow turning. Here tools are fed, most often through a small opening, into the interior of a spinning piece of wood to turn or ‘carve’ away material. Shavings are removed through the same opening and the turner works ‘blind’ until a suitable result is achieved. Turning a lightweight hollow form of even wall thickness is a badge of honour and all credit to those who excel here. There is a whole industry devoted…

Smartphone speakers are a great small project for the woodworker. Basically a simple sound box amplifies your phone and becomes a desktop speaker, without batteries or wires. You can expect a surprising boost to volume and sound quality. There are a number of designs that pop up on the internet as it is not a new concept. I made four design variations for this project. The phone needs a relieved section or cradle to drop into which is about 20mm deep. You will have to measure according to the phone model you have. At the bottom of the cradle is a slot to carry the sound into a larger hole which is the ‘speaker’. The first two designs I made were a glued up box that interestingly were not as…