Somehow fate has cast me on what feels like the shore of a perfect island in the angry sea of modern human history. Like many of you, I live in a time and place that allows me to follow hobbies,obsessions and other engrossing activities outside of mere work-to-live.
A discussion elsewhere concerning the definition of fine woodworking and associated matters got me thinking. I make furniture for pleasure, not a living. Although the quality of the finished pieces is important to me, it’s to do with the adventure of getting there, not the final product itself.
As an old bloke (getting to be one at least) I’m aware of the many other fascinating things I could do and the ever-shrinking time in which to do them. Hence my question (seeking all varieties of answer, including honest ones):
* What other hobbies (for want of a better word) mesh well with woodworking, so that one can pursue them all together with each enhancing the other?
For example, I combine woodworking knowledge with picture framing to enhance my photographic prints – a small symbiosis. The lady-wife is wanting to plant a wood, for horticultural reasons; but she has also made some greenwood furniture as a way to understand how trees grow. WW also goes well with my hobby of rambling on-and-on within certain Internet discussion sites. 🙂
But give me YOUR combinations of WW with other enjoyable modes of activity; I need to be inspired.
Replies
Lataxe,
Like you, I enjoy photography when I get a chance to get out in the 'other world'. Making frames for photos is a natural tie-in to my love of woodworking, of course. The frame-making also ties to incorporating ceramic tile to make trivets on which to place hot dishes. My primary woodworking is furniture pieces for our home, but the smaller projects are worth their weight in gold as gifts, etc.
The largest item I've built so far is a king-size bed along the lines of a captain's bed with plenty of storage under it. The tie-in between the bed and an associated 'hobby' will be left to your imagination.
Regards,
Bill Arnold - Custom Woodcrafting
Mensa Member
Click Here if you're interested in a good, inexpensive website host.
Food for Thought: The Ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic by professionals.
Working with brass is a compliment to woodworking. I can use many of the same tools such as sanders, table saw to work it and with an inexpensive bandsaw and Oxy-acetylene torch I can bend and silver braze furniture hardware and different cosmetic details that really enhance a piece.
Good day Lataxe. I have recently tied my love of fly fishing to my woodworking. I started out building some bent lamination fishing nets for myself and a few friends. And now I am within sight of completing my first cedar strip freighter canoe. It is a wonderful feeling to use the things we build while enjoying another great pastime.
Study the history and making of fine art.
Study design.
These are relateted but distinctly different disciplines. Both will aid your ability and appreciation of fine woodworking.
Rugby and perhaps drinking a little too much beer seem pretty symbiotic with furniture designing and making to me.
Well--- at least my hobbies get me away from thinking about my work all the bleedin' time, ha, ha-- ha, ha, ha.
As the cliche says, all work and no play makes Jack a very dull boy indeed. Slainte.
Richard Jones Furniture
Edited 3/3/2006 3:42 pm by SgianDubh
Good win against the english - eh?
Indeed Patto. A rare thing, about as common as hen's teeth, ha, ha. Slainte.Richard Jones Furniture
Having kids (and later, grandkids) is a great complement to WWing. When they're really little you make a bassinette, crib, dresser, changing table, etc. Then you make little play tables and stuff. Then they start helping you, then they stop helping you, then they make kids. And you have a whole list of stuff to make again. Heh.
I enjoy tryinging to incorporate stained glass into some of my work and also do some carving at times.
I would like to try some pottery in the future and find a way to join the two in some way.
Garry
http://www.superwoodworks.com
I am in a similar position wrt WW. I do it as a hobby but the final product is very important to me. For me too, it is the process. As I improve it, the final product improves.
I happen to have a both a professional background and continuing interest in computer technology. One of my areas if interest is CAD which I use extensively in WW. I spend almost as much time working out the design and details of my WW projects in my CAD program as I do building it. It then becomes a matter of just cutting the pieces and assembly, or at least that is the theory.
So, if you have any interest in computers and don't have any experience with CAD, that would be very synergistic. I enjoy the challenge of learning new software as much as WW but not everybody shares my interest. I find it fun to learn a new tool, develop proficiency and find out all the fun things I can do with it. BTW, I use VisualCADD. You can get information about it at http://www.tritools.com/
...tom
I do a little blacksmithing/tool making. But spend a lot of time shooting sporting clays, maybe gunstock making would fit well.
The other is cooking, I have way too many cutting boards, rolling pins, spoons, mashers, peppermills.......
what a great question!
I'm learning woodworking so that I can fabricate things.
Fabrication in this case for cool toys like a portable sink/kitchen for the Burningman festival. I'll learn welding soon so that I can make a stove. All of these projects are intended to be art pieces as well as functional objects. Two years ago I made a shower with PVC pipe and a cloth screen complete with faucets and running water, you can bet I was a popular guy at a week long event held in the desert.
I like to re-invent functional objects and customize and decorate them to suit my tastes and I follow that where-ever that goes, for the sink I got a whole range of art supplies, dyes, paints, pigments, and finishes of many types which I used both to decorate the table surfaces as well as learn how to use them all.
Hi,
Seems to me that you might want to consider adapting your woodworking skills to other hobbies, as many of the other posters have done. Thinking about your question (A great one!), I began thinking about some of my other hobbies and how I could incorporate my woodworking experiences with them. You know, I couldn't think of one that wouldn't be enhanced from woodworking.
I enjoy boating, so I'm making new seats for the boat, replacing/enhancing trim with wood instead of metal/plastic...........
Best regards,
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
Kidderville, NH
Use whatever tool needed to Git 'r Done!
I enjoy cooking, so I make cutting boards treenware and trivets. In helping my cooking, I also garden, so I am making some raised planter beds out of concrete and wood. And I love reading, so I read a lot of woodworking magazines and books.
<<I make furniture for pleasure, not a living. Although the quality of the finished pieces is important to me, it's to do with the adventure of getting there, not the final product itself.>>
ahem... tantrachair.com
Colleen,
You're one sick puppy. I didn't even look at the thread until it jumped up as the latest posted. The fact you were glossed over in the Academy Award speech made me wonder why.
Cheers,
(and I burst out laughing when I saw the IP address in your post, knowing full-well what was to come.)
eddie[edit: spelling]
Edited 3/5/2006 6:59 am by eddiefromAustralia
Academy Awards for Best Original Score, Best Supporting Actress, and Costume Design, i'll have you know!
Hi Colleen,
Congratulations on your triumph, and, in keeping with grammy management requests, thankyou for the short thankyou speech.
There's a lot that could be said here, continuing with the puns, but is better left unsaid. I that the set, complete with interchangeable covers and the carefully selected pattern designed to conceal evidence of use is at least worthy of a fourth award in set design.
Cheers,
eddie(the chicken, boldly shrinking from places where others may fear to tread)
that's one fine hobby.........
"ahem... tantrachair.com" Holy cow..... That web site took me back a few years, LOL.
And to think, where the link said "Build your Tantra Chair" I took it literally. ROFL!!!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
What? I thought you would report me to the Decency Police!I've been deputised to meet with you the end of the month in Seattle and see if you are as much a mother hen as everyone says. You game?
"You game?" Sure! I'm pretty disappointed, though, that you've bought into all that nonsense. Sniff, sniff.
Any idea yet what day of the week might be designated? Hope it's not a Sat or Sun, as those are working days for me! Drop me a note when you get a chance.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Should work...to email...
My woodworking also ties to photography and watercolors for me through frames and displays, the photography/watercolors ties me to canoeing the tidelands/estuaries and that leads me to making canoe paddles and then I enjoy kite flying and of course I have to make new winders to try and find an easier method to retrieve the kites.
So many diversions and so little time....life is good, "n'est pas"?
Bum
I live in Québec, in the country. My place is located in a very dense maple bush (is that the right term?) area.
So some of my hobbies are snowshoeing, skiing and mountain biking in the surronding forrests. It ties to woodworking in that I have a deep respect for trees, even though I see many of them as potential tabletops...
But the best of all is that I get to buy some logs (cherry, ash, beech, birch, soft/hard maple, pine,basswood) I see harvested during winter. Some friends even offered me to go pick the trees I want in the forest.
My shop log includes a mention of who's wood the project has been made out of, sometimes even wich tree. This makes every piece even more special to me.
Fred
I feel obliged to reply to all who have responded to my post. Apologies for rambling (again).
Bill Arnold – I have a vivid imagination and you have now got me hot and bothered.
RickL – I’ve often fancied making a piece of campaign furniture. I didn’t realise brass was so easy to work with the same tools as WW tools. I have been inspired! (#1).
Paulie – I was born and bred 200 yards from the beach and a mile or three from the River Tyne, a major British port. I’ve always wanted to be an old seadog. The canoe sounds like a feasible route to seadog-dem. I have been inspired! (#2)
Sugian Dubh – I gave up Rugby when 18, after head-damaging in the scrum came into vogue. I still do the other thing, though but.
JohnD – I know the children/grandchildren syndrome intimately. I try to think of a way to charge the family for my furniture but they just laugh and get out another bottle of my wine to toast their latest acquisition. Do they ever stop raiding your wallet? (That was a rhetorical question).
Gary – stained glass frightens me a bit, but so did bridge-jumping and gliding until the second time (and I wasn’t dead)! I have been inspired! (#3).
AustinTom – I am an ex-computer person myself (mainframe architecture and security – ugh). However, I have no computer time for CAD at present as I spend 23 hours out of 24 doing Photoshop (or it feels like it). When I have escaped this terrible Adobe mind drug I may be inspired to get CAD-addicted.
Napie – I could never make a gun as I would feel obliged to use it on enemies, real and imagined. (Kidding). However, the cookware sounds like a way to please She Who Must Be Obeyed, as well as a way to encourage Her increased production of the delicious things. I have been inspired! (#4).
Storme – If I was a proper artist and not a mere wood butcher-come-picture snapper, I would attempt the painting thing. In the past, all my daubs have been treated with the contempt they deserved. I would like to be inspired but have to face the fact I am Not Very Artistic.
Bob at Kidderville – WW is something of a centric activity, as you say. I was described myself as a computer architect but I was just pretending. WW is more like a religion, really. (Well I believe in it and practice all the required rituals).
Ricks503 – The lady-wife is gardening mad but I have offered her only support sticks and a badly-made greenwood stool (it was my first). You have made me a little ashamed and I will attempt the green oak gazebo she has always wanted. I have been inspired! (#5).
Splintergroupie – ahem….eh?
Oldbeachbum – I want to be like You! In my alternative life I emigrated to Manly beach, Sydney and surfed my life away. In my actual life I once did make a kite (box) but it crashed and was burnt (by the daughters, who were not impressed). I will try again, using the wisdom of age. I have been inspired! (#6).
Fred – by coincidence, The Love Of My Life had her tame gardener in just yesterday trimming the trees and hedges she cannot reach. We talked. He admired my greewood chairs. I now have an arrangement for hime to notify me of exotic logs he trims off here and there. I have been inspired (through the non-Internet ether, this time). (#7)
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In your last post you said you'd be replying to all, but you neglected me. My feelings aren't hurt, I'm only concerned that my post may have offended you in some way.
Sapwood,
I'm pink with embarrassment at having not replied to your post. I can only say that I missed it in my haste to compose a reply.
Of the many items I've made, bookshelves number the highest. I just counted and we have 8 in our house (not counting the various niches and piles of books on floors and chairs). Apart from a small collection a strange sci fi (Jack Vance, John Barnes, Greg Eagan and similar) the shelves groan with the large numbers of books on art - painting, sculpture, architecture and (naturally) furniture.
The issue is really finding the momentum to not just read them but understand enough to make use of it all. I suppose it rubs off somehow, in ways we may not be conscious off. (Well I hope so, after all that spending at Amazon and all that shelf-making)!
Unfortunately, I am not too talented in the art stakes myself. I tend to copy styles I like, with perhaps a bit of innovation and cross-fertilisation here and there. I have a friend who did 4 years in art school. He paints, draws, makes wood cuts and other unique items. Each of his items of furniture is a design experience - unique, curved things that surprise and impress. I look at my shaker and arts&crafts items and feel a bit deflated.
I love my woodworking.... To fund my tool and material buying, I mix hobbies; letting one "Fund" the other....which all goes to building and inproving my workshop.....
Once a year, the last weekend in March, Weatherford Texas is home to an R/C Swap Meet that brings people from the entire state and bordering states.... There, I sell Carbon Fiber and Modeling supplies... For a Friday afternoon and evening, and then all day Saturday until 4:00pm, I'll sell at least $1,000 worth of "Inventory"... One year, it purchased all interior Hardiboard exterior siding 4' X 8' sheets I decided to use for the interior walls of my workshop. Another year it bought my metal spiral dust collection ducting, flex ducting, and blast gates. Another year, it bought bar clamps from Woodworker's Supply.... Last year, I made enough to pay half the cost of my new 20" bandsaw.
I also do metal detecting.... Over a period of 4-1/2 years, I dug up a total of 82 pounds of coins... 45 pounds of it was silver clad nickels, dimes, and quarters; the bank totaled it up as: $849.20.... All blended with the other "Fund Raisers" to totally fund my new 20" Band Saw"....
Plus, while detecting on two public school campuses during the early summer remodeling and reroofing, I met the Jobsite Superintendent. I ended up hauling away enough 6" thick, foil faced insulation and 90 foam insulation sheets for FREE. Each foam sheet was 1-1/2" thick and 4' by 8'. The box stores sell the thinner 3/4" thick sheets for $10 each...making just the foam sheeting worth more than $1,800!!! The heavy heat and cold load walls of my workshop are now 12" thick with insulation....
Bill
Bill,
You are an entrpreneur par excellence! You epitomise that American can-do thing that I confess I envy but cannot find in myself. I seem never able to sell or buy anything without feeling that I somehow got the price wrong (to my detriment).
Nevertheless, I've long thought that there must be a small business in salvaging and refinishing exotic timber from "renovation" building work and similar. I have friends in the village here who I deem "wood fairies" in that they magically find and spirit to me all kinds of fantastic timber that would otherwise be in a landfill or a skip. People throw wonderful old timber away because they don't really buy anything except the latest, new fandangle that some advertiser told them they must have. Old = bad, apparently.
At present, I use this timber to make furniture that I give away. (I like to have arrangements of exchange outside the monetary system). But often I think of renting a warehouse, a flatbed wagon and a small crane; the woodfairies and I would seek out that at-risk timber and make money recycling it. We would also feel the glow of righteousness as yet another Brazilin rosewood newell post became four coffe table legs on old Mrs Danglefan's new pride and joy.
Of course, being useless at profit and loss, I would somehow end up in debt with the tax man claiming my tablesaw.
Lataxe,
One other related area to Woodworking is that of "Eating".... Here a link to using "WOOD" to smoke and flavor meats....
I'll bet the taxman will have a hard time taking away such a tasty meal... Bill
http://forums.taunton.com/fw-knots/messages?msg=34049.7
Edited 3/5/2006 9:40 pm ET by BilljustBill
Bill,
Hello, ran across your response and knew exactly who you are. I have been meaning to get to the swap meet some time just for fun. I started modeling in 1961 but drifted away as the years went by. Learned basic woodworking with balsa and a single edge razor blade. Learned to read plans and follow directions. Evolved into a career building real airplanes out of aluminum using CAM systems and a $4 million CNC machine.
I'll say hello next time I see you at "First Monday"
TEX,
It is a small world. You'll have to remind me who you are. The Flea Market wasn't filled with all the vendors this time; maybe they were afraid of rain. Next month should be better. Sure wish I could find the fellow who had Walnut for $2 a bdft...
Bill
Oh man, I could go on and on about how everything in the world is inextricably linked and it'd take up more memory than the forum server has room for. But for me I kind of fell into woodworking from another one of those disciplines that is inextricably linked to everything else, architecture. So many things between the two interests relate to one another that I'm often doing both at the same time.
Hi lataxe.
I like going to Norman Clayture shows. They're as much use as a pair of wooden underpants.
More seriously, scotch would have to be it - have you ever seen the coopers at work?
I must away - my working day is split into two parts - teaching w/work during the day from 8:30am to 4:30, with either custom cabinetry or preparation for teaching for about two - four hours after the kids go to bed. - makes for a long week, and the forums provide somewhat of a distraction. Won't be able to reply for a while
Best regards
eddie
Eddie,
Strewth! That blokes got no strides!!
However, I showed Norman's wooden dawgs to the lady-wife, who is taking up carving amongst her other activities. She has promised me a pair.
I see Norman goes largely to Newcastle-upon-Tyne to perpetrate his antics. He'll fit in there, as anyone who's been to the Bigg Market on a Satuday night will know. I wonder if he drinks Newky Broon (or "Journey into Space" as it is known, after the 50s sci-fi radio serial that frightened me as a boy).
Lataxe.
OK
This question has exercised me as well.
Haven't read (yet) the other responses - above - but here's my ideal post-employment lifestyle:
I live in a picturesque part of the world that attracts lots of visitors. I'm a qualified earth scientist and a practicing community politician. I like to work wood, but need to make a living, retired or not. And I'vce never, really, had a proper job - I value my independence of action.
What I'd love to do, and I'm sort of working in this direction, is guide paying visitors to our premier visitor destinations, 2 to 4 days a week, and fill the gaps making furniture and tools in my own studio workshop, with a wait list that gives me security of work and sales.
My definition of heaven!
Malcolm
Now I'll read the other responses.
For God's sake, whatever you do, don't get a motorcycle. It takes all the time you have for woodworking, all the money from your machinery and wood savings, and can be every bit as addictive.
DAMHIKT!!
Bruce
Bruce,
I once rode an ex-army BSA C15 motorbike all over Northern England and was well-addicted - until I got a proper bike (the kind with pedals and deraileure gears). That was even more addictive, once the pain stopped. I even rode a pair of wooden rims once! (They were terrible).
Lataxe (ex-racing cyclist, because the wife has ruined his once sylph-like waistline with her cookin).
I'm not sure if luthier work came up but I'm into playing guitar and ukulele music and am gearing up to make these instruments for fun and for gifts to those close to me. I haven't had the pleasure yet of playing an instrument that I made (making furniture out of necessity right now) but this is something I'm really looking forward to, assuming it's playable and has decent sound! I'm teaching one of my workmates how to play the guitar from scratch and he's coming along well. So, if you don't know how to play and you're interested, I know you could learn too.
Bkunio
Bkunio,
By co-incidence, my Precious One bought me a nice Spanish classical guitar for Christmas. It's beautifully made and has an unusual bubinga back.
After an initial flurry of learning chords, scales and finger technique, the instrument has been untouched for a month, as my current greenwood chairmaking is taking all my attention and energy. I will be getting a tutor when the chairmaking is complete, as I need some external discipline to keep me learning.
One day I will play like Paco de Lucia (I wish).
When looking for an instrument on the Web I came across many fine makers and their wares. Hand-made guitars by well-recognised English makers, for instance, cost £4000 up! Their various descriptions of the making process and the many factors needed to get a good sound kept my attention for a day or three.
Instrument-making looks hard but not impossible. I suppose one will inevitably make at least one instrument that looks good but sounds awful. It's fine woodworking with an added dimension.
But there are opportunities to buy exotic luthier tools. Have you seen the German Dick catalogue for instance? Even the thought of it makes me drool with tool-lust!
Lataxe
Lataxe,
Isn't that something! I hope that your new-found interest in guitar music brings you as much enjoyment as it has me. I have to say thought that my music has taken a back seat to home remodeling and woodworking of late. I've also started scrounging around for fallen trees to make my own lumber to dry and work. That is really something to me...to make things from a tree I milled instead of wood from a lumber yard. Perhaps another activity related to woodworking is reforestation, mostly for nature and some for woodworking.
I'm looking for wood now that would be good for ukulele and guitar building. I found what I think will be some good tone wood but it will probably be a year or so before it and I will be ready for luthiering.
No, I have not seen the German Dick catalog. I made a quick google attempt but nothing jumped out at me. Do they have an online catalog? I've been using Steward-MacDonald at http://stewmac.com/ as a resource but I'm sure there are other perhaps better sources. Another place I frequent is http://www.mimf.com/ if you're interested.
bkunio
Bkunio,
Thanks for the links and here is one to Dick tools:
http://www.dick.biz/cgi-bin/dick.storefront/EN?PIG=Google&PID=FineWoodworkingTools
Meanwhile, I notice you are in Hawii. Even now I am sipping a cup of Kona coffee from your fair islands. Our local coffee shop (established 1789, would you believe, and still the same family running it) have just started importing Kona beans. They roast on Monday and I am grinding by teatime - the best coffee I've ever had (and I am a long time addict).
Lataxe.
Lataxe,
Thanks for the link.
I'm glad you are enjoying our fine coffee. There's plenty more where that came from.
bkunio
Along with the woodworking & turning & collecting & trading old tools I have planted over 160 trees on my property in the last 6 years & Iam now for some unknown reason planting trees on the Univesity study forestry property next to mine, I just bought 50 more trees last weekend at a county arbor sale - I only found out about the sale do to I went to the fair grounds for a flea market sale to look for hand planes. they were selling the trees in another building. The addiction of planting different types of evergreen trees for me is almost as strong as lookig for the old tools, finding 60 to 70 varieties of evergreen tree,s is alot easyer than finding 20 varieties of old hand planes or chisels.
Vikingvood,
The Loved One is a tree planter, being a horticultural person. Amongst other plantings, she bought me an oak tree for my 50th birthday and seven years later the stick has become a 15 footer. The stuff grows quicker than you think, eh?
I don't know if there's been a previous thread on the subject, but I have been tempted to start one by asking woodworkers for their tree planting experiences or ambitions. My wife is determined to acquire a large field hereabouts for the purposes of creating a wood. She reckons it could (with coppice-working traditions, which are established in this area) be quickly made into a place that is both beautiful and productive. For instance:
Willow - usable in 1 year (baskets and even willow furniture)
Hazel - usable in 3-5 years (gardening stuff, trellis, etc.)
Ash - usable for greenwood chairs in 10 years
Elm - bast from the bark usable for chair seating in 10-12 years
Oak - 20-25 years until planks of any use could be harvested (but quicker growth to coppice product size, once coppicing begins).
Charcoal making - as soon as you start generating offcuts from the other harvests............
Meanwhile, the family and friends will be enjoying the glades and walks.
She and me might be gone by the time the oak is ready; but there will be others come after us.... A dream just now but (once we have the field) not so hard to realise that dream perhaps.
Lataxe
My fastest growers are of coarse my Giant Sequioas(both blue & green type) & the Coastal redwoods(#5's & simpson silvers) in November of 2000 when I planted them none of them were more than 3ft tall, now most are all 20ft+ tall with the Sequioas having a caliber/ dia at the trunk of more than 12", I have a neighbor that planted a Sequioa in 1966(he even has pictures of it with his Daughters standing next to it & it was 3ft tall) its now over 6 foot in dia at the trunk & over 150' tall & starting to approach the heigth of the 100+ year old fir trees in our neighborhood.
<<One day I will play like Paco de Lucia (I wish).One day I will play like Paco de Lucia (I wish).>>
Pretty ambitious!! I wish you the best in achieving this goal!!
Pzgren,
"Ambition is the last refuge of failure" (O Wilde). :-)
Nevertheless, one should set high standards for oneself for, "Well it is known that ambition can creep as well as soar" (Edmund Burke).
I am convinced that 500 hours of drawknifing and spokeshaving chair legs will at least make my fingers strong enough to attempt a Paco-style rasgueado technique.
Of course, I may be deaf and decrepid by then (I think I can feel it starting).
Lataxe
Golf, of course.
BossCrunk,
You know that golf is the ruination of a good walk, I imagine?
I suppose the hitting-sticks can be made well by a savvy woodworker but how do wooden balls fly? :-)
Lataxe (who has the right sort of trousers but no inclination to ruin his walks).
I'am into painting and wallcovering for a living. For years people have asked me to install trim and build-ins. Now that I have a full blown shop, I design, build and install, then apply the finish to the projects that I'am commissioned to do. So ww has expanded my business and it goes hand in hand with remodeling. Plus the things that need to be done to upgrade my place if I can squeeze it in the schedule.
I enjoy my business, and I get paid to do it !
Reading over all the posting, I don't see one that is a bad idea, We all have creative minds as long as we have the tools to build what one thinks to build. I've always said : you just got to be smarter than the tools you work with. And think a step ahead of what your doing, Avoid mistakes that way, and costly mistakes.
Building Furniture to become Heirlooms over 20 years. Furniture By Douglas, Grand Rapids, MI
lataxe, Combine anything that makes you feel good? I thank god for you talents
With my woodworking skills I feel two pragmatic symbotic events could be raising horses in a cold climate.
The Horses to use up the sawdust.
The cold climate to consume the offcuts in the heat of the woodburning stove.
Symbosis in a less pragmatic sense is filled in my life by continuous over-the-top building projects in my home and cottage. Over the top in the sense that few would go to the mill to pick up Walnut to plane, rip, and trim to mouldings, doors and cabinetry. The level of esoteric nuance is the art thus the self fulfilling nature. Furniture is even less pragmatic and more prone to that self-actualization that Maslov described.
Art is useless, excess in design is (or can be) therefore art...
Booch,
I didn't realise that horses could eat sawdust. I'll try it on the cat, who eats a tremendous amount (and so does his friend, down the garden; a stray the lady-wife insists on mothering). Cat fud is expensive and is using up tool money.
My offcuts are burnt in the garden chiminea, a dangerously hot cast iron contraption next to the barbecue. I often insist that we have a barbecue, even if it is below zero, just to ensure that the overflowing bags of offcuts get used. The lady-wife has special garments for these events, of a swaddling kind. I wish she wouldn't mutter during desert, though.
My whole life is a work of art - ie meaningful and important only to moi, although sometimes others point and laugh; or go away puzzled and shaking their heads like they were Critics. Perhaps its just my trousers, which are a bit loud, albeit tasteful and the height of chic. I sometimes think that I am my trousers and my trousers are me. (I know, its deep).
I will be looking up Maslov. Was he in the Situationist Internationale? I like them as they say that your whole life should be play. This is a great philosophy for someone like me who never really progressed beyond the emotional age of 15 and three quarters.
Lataxe
It is popular in the states at least to use sawdust from sawmills and millwork shops for the absorbent bedding for horses. For some reason cows don't figure in to the use of the sawdust / shavings.
Maslov is the guy that came up with the hierarchy of needs. first is food & shelter...I forgot the exact progression.. but it ends with the highest need being self actualization. Which is were we are.
I think maslov was the supplier of dog food to Pavlov.
One more that comes out every spring I am the supplier of Tomato stakes to my wife garden. That takes care of the spindly off cuts.
My next project is a trebuchet with my 14 year old for his science fair project. Watch out ramparts! I'll mind my petard.
Your profile tells me I need to spruce mine up.
Gotta run. The wife & I are off to an openiong of a friends shop. He's an artist that welds, recommits industrial 'trash' and in general makes the world interesting. Can't wait to see his new place.
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=403558
Interesting cat. Above is a new article about his Home. His business is on another link.
http://www.weldguy.com
Jack of all trades and master of none - you got a problem with that?
Edited 3/11/2006 3:10 pm by booch
Haw, haw, haw - Manland! I will re-christen the shed tomorrow and find a Very Special Gargoyle to emphasise the new name. (Spumat, Fetchup and Snot already guard the door from ill-doers, snoops and spywomen. I will post a pic in due course. Just don't look them in the eyes).
Wood is for pilgrims, is it? What is a pilgrim: do I need to become one? Do you have to believe in something very daft?
I knew that about the sawdust and horses, being a friend of Rodeney, a Great Carthorse of this Parish and owner of excellent hairy feet, frighteningly large yellow teeth and a humerous nature. I was teasing a bit about the catfood, being how I'm a 15 year old.
I 'm a bit desperate on the sawdust front - there must be a way to turn the 300 cubic metres (looks like it) I've accumulated into something useful, if you've no horse of your own. The cat prefers silk sheets and eiderdown for his bed.
Good luck with the petard. I've been hoisted by mine on numerous ocassions but it doesn't hurt now.
Glad you like it.
last of the cocktails and now we are off.
Problem with sawdust is there is no bacteria. the stuff is sterile and plants can't seem to thrive in it maybe mix it in the outhouse leavings to juicee it up. Regular sawdust is a reasonable mulch...except for walnut which contains some sort of toxin that really squelches plant growth.
Jack of all trades and master of none - you got a problem with that?
Booch,
Shed gargoylim, for keeping gharks and hoos out of my precious things. As you can see, it's snowing here just now.
Lataxe
Kater looks as though he 'et something which disagreed with him. Lovely bunch of 'goyles you have there.Andy"It seemed like a good idea at the time"
Andy,
All of Kater's bodily functions give him pain. This is why he hates us all, especially those silly enough to go near my shed.
I don't need to say how he got his name and how he defends the shed, do I? :-)
Lataxe
Nice decoration. Snow! I didn't think you got much of that in the isles with the gulf stream blowing warmth every day.
Quite the event last night. The Manland was as dreamed, a metal version of a well equipped woodworking shop. Most everything is metal Thus the comment on Pilgrims and wood. The prime accent to his metal sculptures is granet or marble rough edges with polished top surfaces. beautiful stuff in general.
The metal people you saw in the web site are composed of unique components. The best one I saw was unfinished. Little metal people are formed and welded into one lifesize metal person. Pretty striking, and for the average guy like me a pretty contempletive sculpture.
He, as the article said, bailed from med school and decided to make a go with his hands & metal. Beyond that he's got a neat dog (that goofy looking budweiser dog) and has a cadre of savants as assistants. Plus.. there was beer! What's not to like about cold cans on ice next to the boiler fired with cut up wooden pallets. That was a shame, a 24" throat Doall bandsaw relegated to cutting pallets. I'm sure it cuts its share of metal too but it would look so much nicer in a(my) woodshop.
Stay in the protection of the Gargoyles. and start burning the sawdust to keep warm.Jack of all trades and master of none - you got a problem with that?
Booch,
The gulf stream is but 2 miles away to the west, in Morecambe Bay; but the wind is from the east just now (Siberia I believe). Spring is coming though - I've got my tree-pollen hay fever revving up.
Manland artifacts - hard men like hard materials I suppose. Me, I'm fibrous, quite bendy and burn quite intensely if lit.
I wish I was artistic. Like you, a striking bit of 3D art can tease my head for days. But could I ever dream up such things myself? Sadly I am far too literal. When I see stuff like the Manland weirds, I'm fascinated but a bit frustrated - all at once.
Goofy dogs and beer too! Manheaven, more like. I always swore I'd put an old chair for the dog and a fridge in the shed. Sadly my pooch now lies under the oak tree (a 16 year old lab/collie cross with a touch of otter, going by the paw webs) and the lady-wife has reminded me that beer and tablesaw do not mix.
Lataxe.
PS Nick his bandsaw and leave him a chopper - seems a more appropriate tool for a Manland creator!
I have a client who is an artist. She commissioned me to build her a light box stand for her and a chest of drawers for her art supplies. I have posted pics on my website if your interested at looking at them. Building items for other crafts can be a great avenue of work flow.
woodconversionagent.com
Csacoe,
I would like to look, if you'll post the link.
I once made an ash coffe table-come-plan chest for some artist friends, to house their A5 to A0 artwork in many, many drawers. (Unfortunately, no photo). I got a nice picture or two in return for my efforts.
The thing was most memorable because not only did I have to make a zillion drawers but, as the item employed large solid ash panels and I only had a little bandsaw at the time, I had to spend many hours and lots of muscle-watts on hand-resawing a 12"X2" plank for those panels. I was a sweaty little woodworker!
Now I have a 12 inch resaw-capacity bandsaw.
As another correspondent in this thread advised, art (and arty folk) can be a great stimulous, as artistic imaginings posit designs that pedestrian minds like mine cannot.
Sure, Thank you for your interest. The site is : woodconversionagent.com
When you bring the page up click on ;" gallery of work", there is a pic on that page. The drawers are all 2" tall and 24" deep by 34" wide. It's Baltic birch and I left the finish natural. As with the adjustable light box stand. The other units she wanted painted becuase there build-ins. Note in the back ground of a few pics you can see part of my shop.
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