| Q:
How did you get into woodworking?
A:
When I was young, around six years old, I made
a little wooden boat which during the making
I nailed to the newly laminated kitchen table.
My mum was pretty unhappy about that, but the
cluster of nail holes are still there and it
remains one of her favourite stories. About
the age of 10 my grandad bought me some tools
and made a workbench (at least nothing got nailed
to the table any more) some of the tools are
still in regular use today.
During school years woodwork was one of my favourite
classes. At the end of school I contemplated
a career with the Royal Navy and then the Royal
Marines but I ended up with a job making and
restoring top quality hunting rifles and shotguns
in a small Central London workshop. My career
path was set when three years later I was enrolled
in a diploma course to study furniture design
and making at High Wycombe College.
Q:
Who are your woodworking heroes/gods/gurus?
A:
My grandad, one of the last men in London to
make coffins by hand. Frank Tanzi gun maker
extraordinaire who taught me an eye for fine
detail. The lecturers at High Wycombe College.
James Krenov. Alan Peters.
Q:
What do you mainly make?
A:
For food: kitchens, wardrobes, laundry cupboards
and the like. For fun: chessboards, tables,
chairs and anything else that takes my fancy.
Q:
Your thoughts on traditional vs ‘new’
and digital?
A:
You cannot master the new without mastering
the traditional. You can master the traditional
without mastering the new.
Q:
What are you pet woodworking hates?
A:
People who claim to be cabinetmakers, but only
assemble kitchens.
Q:
What is your desert island hand tool/ machine/
timber/ woodie book?
A:
Hand tool: a very old, small London pattern
cross pein hammer bought for 50 pence at a junk
shop many years ago. Machine: the Wadkin spindle
moulder. Timber: English oak. Book: H. E. Desch,
Timber, it’s structure, properties
and utilisation.
Q:
The best thing you’ve ever made?
A:
My lath-back Windsor chair.
Q:
Your best excuse for not getting something quite
right?
A:
Blame the architect.
Q:
Your most often-made mistake?
A:
Working for people who expect you to start work
at 6am.
Q:
Your biggest woodworking disaster!!?
A:
The de-laminating of a laminated rocking chair
due to contaminated glue.
Q:
The thing I would most like to change about
wood is…
A:
Interlocking grain.
Q:
The thing I would most like to change about
woodworkers is…
A:
Some of us take ourselves way to seriously,
relax you can’t be seen from space!
Q:
The thing I would most like to change about
my own woodworking is…
A:
Maybe I should take myself more seriously!
Q:
My final word on woodwork is…
A:
Don’t do it for the money.
Visit John's website: www.jonathanchappell.com |
