For Ghislaine and Donald

When I had my old shop up and running and before we started our big "Searsville Project" I made a box and a bike for our friends who, then lived in Halifax, and since moved to Saint Jean. I had them completed for a while (a year and a half) but with the traveling for work he did it was hard to get together, so on their way to Saint Jean Ghislaine and Don stopped in for a quick visit and I had a chance to surprise them. The bike is made from several woods, maple, oak and purple heart, it is designed after Don's bike, in a fashion. Ghislaine's box is Birdseye maple with mahogany inlaid strips. I make the top and the bottom drawer sliders and tried to make the drawer as a secrete compartment, it fits in just at the bottom inlay line, hiding the joint.

Ghislaine's treasure box.

Donald's bike.

For My Father-In-Law, Murray Graves

On Tuesday July 2nd we lost a great man, my father-in-law Murray Graves. A while back he asked me to make this box for him. It is form oak he gave me a long time ago and it was only fitting it was used to make his box. He liked oak and work with it a lot making many pieces of furniture and trim work for his home. He will be missed.

Umbrella Repairs

After many, many years of wind, rain and even snow it couldn't handle one more wind storm with 50 Km/h winds, the umbrella wend up and over the 6 foot fence and did a header in the front yard, braking a couple of the ribs. I made new ones out of yellow birch, stained them with Provincial Min Wax stain and a coat of poly for protection. I couldn't find the right hinge pin so I used a small bolt with a lock nut, it doesn't go up or down often, once up that's it for the season, so this bolt should last a while.

The old ribs, previously repaired, now broken.

Newly milled yellow birch, stained with poly.

It went together very well.

Now to see if it can stand the weather like the old one?

Mannequin Stand

ReBecca borrowed this mannequin for a project and needed a stand and off to the shop I go. It's made from pine, except the piece the mannequin sits on which is from an old shelf. It was the largest piece of wood I had in the shop at the time that wasn't particle board. I rounded a 1 inch square piece to a ¾ inch dowel to fit into the metal base place of the mannequin and then cut a dado in two boards to fit this piece, then glued it together to form the main shaft for the stand. The cross base has half lap joints and the top portion has mitered corners for looks. But it won't be seen once in use. There are two pieces to this stand, the shaft with top plate and the stand for ease of transportation.

A sturdy stand.

The shaft slides into the base top section.

A Little Wood Turning

It's been a while since I've had the opportunity to do some wood working and this time I did some turning. I make a few fibre art tools, a few laying tools,nostepindes and today a pair of square knitting needles. I did have a problem with the lathe, the bearing in live centre went. I had to replace it. I was lucky to have a few spare bearings for the band saw guides that were the right size. I made a jig to hold the two pieces while I pressed the bearing in. First into the end piece then the shaft was pressed in. I used a large metal vice and it went very well.

Laying tools, Birdseye and cooked maple.

Kitting needles, Birdseye and ash.

Nostepindes, maple, cooked maple and Birdseye.

I tried to work with gluing up a few different pieces.

My jig for the live centre press.

The Bat House

No Bat Man doesn't live there but we will be trying to draw some tenants next year. My Sister-In-Law has a little bat problem so we decided to make her a bat house for Christmas, and when your are making one why not two, one for us. I did a little on line research and found that cedar is OK for a bat house. I was told by a friend it wasn't, so we'll find out if they stay empty, and if so I'll build more. After looking around I found as simple design, modified it a bit and this is what I came up with.

Small and simple, vent in the front.

Three chambers with mesh for them to hang on to.

Murratte's Writing Slope

This writing slope is made from cooked birds eye maple, with maple spline in the lid, I veneered cherry to the bottom, on both sides of a piece of hard board and my wife's hand died material for the underside of the lid. I haven't been able to build much this past year because of working on the "Farm" and it was nice to just get into the shop and create.

One of the small ones, 10 x 13, leather surface for a writing top.

The hand died material looks great against the dark wood.

Maple splines at the corner on the lid.

I really like birds eye maple, a great look.