| Q:
Okay we know you like it, but how did you get
into woodworking?
A:
Climbed the legs of my father’s workbench
at about age three, suffered abuse for moving
or even maybe damaging tools! In my early twenties
I made some furniture for myself and some idiot
bought it! That was my undoing!
Q:
Who are your woodworking heroes/gods/gurus?
A:
Heroes, gods and gurus are not my strong point
but the person who introduced me to the idea
of fine furniture making in the early 1970s
was a woman in England called Caroline Bousfield
Gregory, a fine woodworker who became a potter.
The finest woodworker I have had the pleasure
of being instructed by was George Ingham. I
delight in the fine woodworking skills of Bryan
Poynton, and for beautiful design I think Neville
Selleck was the best Victorian. There are many
more who I admire greatly and aspire to be half
as good as.
Q:
What do you mainly make?
A:
Variety is still the spice of life and to say
there is anything I mainly make would do the
others a disservice, I love making furniture
and I love playing with house building. I suspect
the main thing I make is confused students!
Q:
Your thoughts on traditional vs ‘new’
and digital?
A:
Traditional is the roots and without that I
feel I would lack. I love a lot of modern design
and gadgets. I am not sure what is meant by
digital (in furniture) apart from the raised
forefinger!
Q:
What are your pet woodworking hates?
A:
Know it alls and woodworkers who won’t
understand or allow for timber movement and
the idiosyncratic nature of timber.
Q:
What is your desert island hand tool/ machine/
timber/ woodie book?
A:
Favourite hand tool would be homemade marking
knife, machine would be biscuit jointer, timber
definitely elm although I can think of many
other wonders. Favourite book (most often referred
to anyway) would have to be Keith Bootles’s
Wood in Australia.
Q:
The best thing you’ve ever made?
A:
My incomplete house and shed at Phillip Island
and some of the furniture in it. The last thing
I have made is often almost the best, with the
next thing I am about to make being by far the
best!
Q:
Your best excuse for not getting something quite
right?
A:
I don’t generally make excuses just admit
an amount of slovenliness and lack of obsession.
Q:
Your most often-made mistake?
A:
You choose:
1. Forgetting the old maxim ‘Measure twice
cut once’.
2. Starting a project.
3. Thinking I know what I am doing.
Q:
Your biggest woodworking disaster!!?
A:
I was building an eight foot high wooden cone
made of about forty individual staves. Fitted
it all together dry, taped it thoroughly, then
sliced down one seam to open it out and glue
with slow setting epoxy. Didn’t bother
seeking an assistant (the real mistake!). After
gluing all the joints I proceeded to roll the
cone back together. Almost done the whole lot
exploded in my hands. I returned the next morning
to find the workshop floor littered with a well
glued jumble of sticks!
Q:
The thing I would most like to change about
wood is…
A:
The hazardous nature of some of the dusts and
odours.
Q:
The thing I would most like to change about
woodworkers is…
A:
Remove a few of their beards! (Not mine.)
Q:
The thing I would most like to change about
my own woodworking is…
A:
My lack of concentration.
Q:
My final word on woodwork is…
A:
I love it!
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