Thoughts on my experience of making a piece of furniture from a photo at the Melbourne Guild of Fine Woodworking.

I was recently sent a brochure from a friend. On it was a photo of a rather plain but somewhat elegant timber stool. The shape of it was beguiling, intriguing and captivating. I thought, “I could make that!”

So, I sent in the money, filled in the form and attended a workshop weekend in April.
That was the easy bit, it was the commute to the far side of town that was the hardest bit of the weekend.

Upon arrival at the Guild workshop, I felt quite at home, coming from a woody back ground, the smells and machines were just like being back where I used to spend 1/3 of my day.

The course leader, Jon Grant introduced himself to the group of hopefuls and set out what we were expected to achieve, by day and by the end of the Sunday afternoon. It sounded a big ask really to get there and I was expecting to maybe having to finish the project at home.

The other gents on the benches showed a divers field of expertise, some were retired, or from a wood turning club, or used a computer most of the day . One fellow had already made a stool previously and on that occasion, he was still gluing up very late on Sunday. With that in mind it looked like we were going to have to work pretty hard to achieve our goal of an assembled item by knock off, Sunday.

Jon, precisely and deliberately set out the steps that we were to follow, with good practical demonstrations. First up was to mark out the seat and drill the holes for the legs. Just using a pistol drill and a few cleaver tricks, a very good degree of accuracy was achieved at drilling holes at different angles. The next stage was to flip the seat over and start carving the dish for the seat. With good setting out and accurate depth setting, everyone was able to achieve a good shape that everyone felt comfortable with. All the hand tools were new to most, but it didn’t take long to get the feel for them and to use them with confidence.

Next task was the turning of the legs and spreader rails. Again, with good templates, reasonably accurate measuring and tuition, and with a little bit of GAD, this task was also completed.

A coming together of minds on the Sunday, persuaded us of a plan for the assembly of the 6 individually handcrafted pieces of timber. The drilling of the holes in the legs for the spreaders was intriguing and involved some lateral thinking on how to hold the drill. When it came to assembly, we were to use animal glue, stuff that I had heard about but which I thought had been made obsolete by the time the second fleet arrived. Its obnoxious smell certainly gives it a bad rap, but its properties of fast drying made its choice immediately apparent. As assembly is a piece by piece approach, its good to have stuff set in place before moving on.
After cleaning up and cutting the legs to length to achieve a steady piece, that was basically it. Low and behold a work of art and a practical comfortable seat, and the street lights had not yet come on. All of the participants were proud of what they had achieved over the last 3 days, Jon was pleased that the goals that had been set were realised without stress or panic. I was just glad that what I had made looked like the photo on the brochure.

My thanks to Jon, Alaster and Doug for the sharing of their knowledge, the use of their equipment and workshop. The whole week end was a rewarding and informative experience, I now know what a scorp is, and a radius plane, how animal glue still has a place in the 21st C and a new found respect for Japanese draw saws. Oh, and you do learn a little more about yourself too. An excellent week end, worth the experience and expense. Would recommend this to anybody.

Graeme Precious, April 2015