Page 48 - Australian Wood Review №103 2019

PROFILE

Q/A

Why do you make things?
The act of making quietens the many questions and thoughts that
wizz around in my overactive mind. Just like a form of meditation,
I become completely in the moment. There is nothing like being
near a sharp blade spinning at 3,000 rpm to focus the mind!

If your work could talk, what would it say?
I’m in it for the long haul. 11

A successful design in wood is…
When everyone in the orchestra is in tune.

When you make a piece, what’s your overriding priority?
How can I make it better?

Favourite machine?
Robinson chisel mortiser, English 1967, weighs about a tonne.
What I love about this machine is it’s a very bodily experience.
It’s a bit like driving a steam train and using it is a practical
workout – you’re operating on three axes with the levers. It’s
probably the machine here that requires the most coordination,
it’s a bit like playing an instrument I suppose.

12
Favourite hand tool?
My #7 Stanley handplane. I had the base reground and fitted a
custom blade from Academy Saws.
Once again, the fun of making is
Most used hand tool? solving the order of things. Away from
A 150mm ruler. the body of the chair the legs of the
Femur chair really do look like their
Favourite wood? namesake. Square faces for joinery
I’m not going to say walnut, although it probably is. It’s the
wood I’m using at the time. Because you just fall in love with it. are buzzed and thicknessed, then a
succession of machine setups and
Favourite maker? jigs do their work – tenoner, mortiser,
I couldn’t pick one, but I’ve been thinking a lot about Matthew bandsaw spindle moulder. ‘A set of
Harding.
chairs is essentially a production
run. There’s a great joy in that for
What’s easy and what’s hard about this profession?
Easy is the autonomy and the independence. The hard part is me actually – in the consistency. You
not going bonkers – the risk of spending too much time in your can do a whole batch of components
own shed that woodworkers face. You start believing your own and pick up any piece and it will fit
bulldust.
beautifully with any other matching

What’s your best advice for someone who is starting out? component. Hand cut joinery is
This is going to sound like ‘do as I say, not as I do’. Find a niche. slower and requires laborious fitting
You can’t be all things to all people. Dining tables can be a great of each individual join.’
business, just do something like that if it’s a business you want.
Sell the story, sell the timber. Apart from that, don’t let anyone Hand tools are here too however.
tell you that their way is the only right and true way.
Arranged in drawers it’s clear they all
Can you give me a random fact about you? have their place and ‘there’s things
I love the smell of diesel and freshly tilled earth. they can do that machines can’t’.

48 Australian Wood Review