Page 46 - Australian Wood Review №103 2019

PROFILE

3

he has the wherewithal to ‘have this
workshop, have machines, and say
no to jobs that don’t interest me’.
Besides furniture making, Byron

takes on some custom architectural
joinery jobs and unique projects like
the recent wood fired hot tub.

Moving the workshop made all that

possible. In large commercial setups
the trade-off between technology,
machinery and efficiency is a loss of
flexibility because small runs are not

economical. However for Byron the
workshop is ‘a huge step…a balance
between efficiency and productivity
(with) the efficiency to repeat, but the
flexibility to do different things’.

There’s no desire to churn things
out, but nutting out production
4 5
efficiencies is Byron’s happy place.

‘The joy for me is the discovery of
the processes and solving it all. Doing
3. Drift bed in salvaged
Otway Ranges blackwood. the same thing over and over again,
Photo: Fred Kroh
it becomes not interesting.’
4. Cantilevered bed in
‘shearing shed’ messmate.
Photo: Armelle Habib It’s as though the forces of attraction
between man and machine can
5. Byron also takes on some
custom joinery work. also repel. ‘Manufacturing now has
Photo: Armelle Habib become more and more specialised.
6. Making this wood-fired Companies often make one thing
hot tub from salvaged
materials was an over and over again. But for me,
interesting and challenging for someone who loves machinery,
diversion from the world the question is have we given up
of fine furniture.
Photo: Byron Raleigh 6 too much in the quest for efficiency

46 Australian Wood Review