Contact Us

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14 Cottage St
Blackburn, VIC, 3130
Australia

0413 537 490

The Melbourne Guild of Fine Woodworking was founded by Alastair Boell in 2007. After graduating from the world renowned North Bennet Street School, Boston (USA) Alastair felt that there was a great need in Australia for an educational facility that focuses on traditional skills. 

The Guild is committed to preserving and advancing craft traditions in furniture making. We are also committed to promoting a greater awareness and appreciation of
craftsmanship. In our classes we emphasize the skillful use of hand tools and power equipment and an informed use of appropriate materials. We are passionate about what we do and want to share information, ideas and skills with all our students young and old, from beginner to advanced.

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Melbourne Wood Milling Services

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We are very proud to introduce a service where Alastair Boell will come to your choice of location to mill your tree!

Notes from Alistair:

I have been salvaging timber for as long as I have been making furniture. Both experiences sit perfectly side by side for me. As a furniture maker it is very important to to know where my timber resource comes from. Having a story attached to a beautiful piece of furniture creates a rich circle. I am most importantly a furniture maker who mills. To put it another way, I do not mill for convenience, but rather react to what the log presents to me. I never have preconceived ideas of what is achievable from any particular tree. Every tree presents something unique. I always mill to obtain the most beautiful boards possible.

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“As a furniture maker it is very important to to know where my timber resource comes from. Having a story attached to a beautiful piece of furniture creates a rich circle. Every tree presents something unique and I always mill to obtain the most beautiful boards possible.”

In the past I have salvaged trees from the Melbourne City Council, Melbourne University, Knox City Council, various private arborists, past and present students. However what I am most proud of is that for the past 7 years, I have been assisting the Royal Botanical Gardens in Melbourne in salvaging some of their beautiful trees that have succumb to disease or the environment.

Testimonial
Maple Tree will be made into furniture

After 30 years watching our Maple grow from a sapling to a 10-metre tree, we decided it was too large for our suburban block and it needed to be felled. We didn’t want to see it cut up as firewood or mulched so we looked into what would be involved to make it into furniture. After several phone calls, I was directed to Alastair Boell who would be able to ‘slab’ the tree for us. Alastair visited us on a rainy day in May 2020 and advised us on what could be done. Alastair was encouraging and supportive of our idea, commenting that he wished more people would do what we were considering. Six months later, after COVID lockdown ended and the top part of the tree had been removed, Alastair visited again with his portable milling machinery. It was a great experience and I was able to be involved by stacking the ‘slabs’ in our patio where they would remain for up to 2 years while the timber dried out. I learned a lot about timber that day; Alastair's excitement of seeing ‘figures’ in the beautiful, creamy white timber was contagious as each slab revealed a new slice of our much loved tree. I am so glad we decided to take this direction. Alastair's care in providing an excellent service was evident throughout the process - he kept me informed of any delays, arrived when he said he would, included me in any decisions and cleaned up afterwards. It has been a very positive experience.

DENISE LYONS - SEPTEMBER 2020

A Himalayan Cedar fell into a rose garden

The tree removal company had landed a giant trunk from a Himalayan Cedar tree in our rose garden and needed to be removed. After some investigative work, we found a relative of a friend that knew someone who could help. The answer was Alastair from the Melbourne Guild of Fine Woodworking, who supplied the expertise, manpower and equipment to remove the log from a challenging position, without damaging the garden, then drag it to the milling machine and convert the log into a number of exotically grained slabs suitable, after drying, for making some very fine furniture. We are excited that the cedar log can now be used in such an environmentally friendly way and our rose garden can continue to bloom.

Rob & Chris Palmer - October 2020

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Please feel free to contact us anytime for a quote regarding the milling of your tree/log on your property.

If you are interested in us milling your tree on your property, could you please supply us with the following:
1. A few photos of the tree. Please have someone standing next to it, so we can gauge its size.
2. The location of the tree/log.
3. The dimensions of the tree.
4. Access to the tree. Our timber mill is approximately 8m long and the width of a 4WD. A photo and description of the access would be very helpful. Thank you!

For further enquiries, please call Alastair or Jacqueline on 0413537490