Finding the right Wood
So much wood today is over engineered for higher commercial gain, turning what began as something already beautiful, into something completely different. Most 'solid' wood products we see on high volume e-commerce sites use laminated wood held together with metal screws and nuts. There is nothing wrong with that kind of furniture, I even have some in my house - but that is not what I want to build or how I want to build it.
Solid pieces of wood are harder to come by in large enough dimensions. The larger a piece of wood is, the more difficult it is to make it workable. I enjoy this process, but for large commercial businesses that need to produce high volume to meet demand, there isn't time to mess about with unstable large cuts of wood when gluing a lot of smaller pieces together is faster and cheaper to do.
I'd much rather spend my time visiting forest timber merchants and browsing sustainably sourced wood, than ordering milled and machined timber that I haven't even seen. I'm looking for wood that has character, but not too much personality - that means I have to find and pick each piece myself so I don't end up with wood that looks like all the character has been laminated out. This is the process that fires my imagination to imagine what each piece of wood will become.
Each piece of wood is completely unique, a natural work of alchemic beauty. Turning it into something useful and beautiful is what I try to do, the best challenge to make something strong and long lasting without compromising materials , without using nails and screws and instead using traditional joinery to make it strong - that is at least what I strive for.
I Love the process of construction, using hand tools to acquire precision joinery, gives me a sense of satisfaction I cannot get by using machine tools to achieve same result. I do use machines to mill wood into workable pieces, mainly to help make sure that I have square edges against which I can make all the necessary measurements accurately.
The excitement I feel at the beginning when I look for the wood is something I want to stay with me throughout the build. Every measurement made with care so that I can saw and chisel and plane the wood with absolute confidence. I'm definitely making less mistakes these days and hope that I will keep learning for a long time to come.
I'd much rather spend my time visiting forest timber merchants and browsing sustainably sourced wood, than ordering milled and machined timber that I haven't even seen. I'm looking for wood that has character, but not too much personality - that means I have to find and pick each piece myself so I don't end up with wood that looks like all the character has been laminated out. This is the process that fires my imagination to imagine what each piece of wood will become.
Each piece of wood is completely unique, a natural work of alchemic beauty. Turning it into something useful and beautiful is what I try to do, the best challenge to make something strong and long lasting without compromising materials , without using nails and screws and instead using traditional joinery to make it strong - that is at least what I strive for.
I Love the process of construction, using hand tools to acquire precision joinery, gives me a sense of satisfaction I cannot get by using machine tools to achieve same result. I do use machines to mill wood into workable pieces, mainly to help make sure that I have square edges against which I can make all the necessary measurements accurately.
The excitement I feel at the beginning when I look for the wood is something I want to stay with me throughout the build. Every measurement made with care so that I can saw and chisel and plane the wood with absolute confidence. I'm definitely making less mistakes these days and hope that I will keep learning for a long time to come.
