Author: Seb Palmer

I popped out earlier to visit  a second-hand book sale in the village of Hilgay. Got six interesting books for just £9. Mostly art books, with one on restoring antiques, and another – yet another – on Waterloo. We plan to use some of the printed artwork in the art books around the house: I’ll chop ’em out, make frames, etc.

Back in the shed… er, I mean workshop, I loaded a bunch of stuff on to the newly painted set of shelves, and touched up the paintwork on the floor and adjacent wall. Later on I hope to get ye olde table back in there, and poss’ also to make a start on the ‘tool’ chest. Altho’ quite where I’ll put the latter, I don’t know!?

Returning to the books. I got a lovely old pocket-sized 1886 edition of Isaac Walton’s ‘The Complete Angler’, and the book Michelangelo and Raphael in the Vatican features some great reproductions, including a number that fold out, some making five-page spreads. Lovely stuff!

Funnily enough we’d just watched the episode ‘The Artist As Hero’ this morning, from Kenneth Clark’s magnificent Civilisation, which concentrates on Michelangelo, Raphael, and Leonardo da Vinci. So that particular book came quite serendipitously!

I tried moving the old table back into the workshop. But it wouldn’t quite fit. So I smashed it up. It was in a very bad way, with woodworm, advanced rot, it was practically falling apart. I’m going to use the timber for firewood! I just managed to squeeze the old chest into the space. Although even then I had to take some bits off to get it in. I’ll make a top of some sort for it ASAP.

I’ve taken the sides from the wardrobe, which I’ve had to cut and laminate: two layers, each of one wide piece and one narrow piece, with the top layer reversed, so the four pieces all overlap and reinforce each other. Pictured below the wood is buried under a load of heavy art books, to help it glue up.

I finally moved an old set of shelves I got off Freecycle a while ago into the corner of the workshop. They were very tatty, so I’ve roughly sanded them, and painted them a creamy beige colour.

To make space I had to remove two old decrepit shelves that I’m assuming Clive put up, along the left wall. I had a spillage of paint, visible on the floor in front of the shelves. I worked fast and slapdash, so both the rear wall, at right, and the floor, will need touching up.

I’ve had to move a knackered old table outside, and it’s pouring with rain. Well, hey-ho, it’ll have to sit there for a bit until I can create enough space to move it back in!

All of this has provided me with an opportunity to clear up and reorganise a bit. Well, it will do. At present the workshop is one almighty mess, with everything temporarily moved aside so I could get the shelves in and paint them, etc.

There’s also the bottom part of a wardrobe, which I might use as a chest for storing power-tools, to keep them protected from all the dust. But I’ll have to make a top for it, poss from scraps of what was formerly the top section of the same wardrobe, which I dismantled. We kept the mirrored door. We’ll find somewhere to put that!

As mentioned in my previous post, we visited Oxburgh Hall today. It’s an amazing and very beautiful property. And it’s only a 45 minute drive from where we live now.

The moat is one of many features that make Oxburgh Hall so fascinating and alluring. Ironically I’d been thinking, do we really want to go here again? We’ve been so many times before. It might be boring. How wrong could I be? I’d forgotten the chief reason I love Oxburgh Hall. The interiors.

It’s the incredible opulence of the interiors that really make this place sing. To me at any rate. I mean, just look at that fireplace, above. It’s the combined effect of all the elements: from the sheer scale, to the huge range of objects, surfaces, textures, patterns and colours. I find it intoxicating.

The chair above is in the same room – a library – as the fireplace. And what a chair! I love the patterns in the textiles. I love the carving of the wood. And the two set each other off. The carpets and wall decor add to the riot of design excess. Fantastic! Behind the chair you can just see an open door that’s worked into the wall. There are also similar ‘secret’ doors disguised as extensions of the book collection.

Even the areas between rooms are places where you could dawdle for ages, admiring anything and everything, from the paintings on the wall, to the walls themselves. The walls pictured above and below are ‘wallpapered’ in embossed gilt leather, itself painted in dazzlingly rich colours.

And then one can get lost in admiring just one aspect of the experience. Let’s take furniture and wood first:

There are loads of lovely chairs. Sadly you’re not allowed to sit on them! I bought a large carved high-back chair from Willingham auctions a while back, which we refer to as my ‘throne’. But, beautiful as it is, it pales against this one. I plan to try my hand at some carving inspired by such things. One day! And then there are chests, cupboards, sideboards, and whatnot. Look at the inlaid metalwork – brass, I think? – below. Amazing!

Equally breathtaking, if stylistically quite different, is the marquetry on such pieces as the chest pictured below. I want this level of fabulousness in my life! How it might work, or not, on our much humbler scale. Who knows? Got to be worth a try though, eh?

There’s a very dark room, shown in the next two pics, below, which is/was, I think, the smaller non-formal family dining room. Dimly lit – originally intended to be used and enjoyed by candlelight – and filled with richly carved dark wood, it’s just incredible. The wooden stuff is a crazy mish-mash, but it all works together beautifully. The library fireplace looked difficult to top. But then you walk in here, and it’s even more richly extravagant. Albeit in a rather different manner.

The sideboard above – only just visible in the gloom – epitomises the room; cobbling together elemnts of different eras, styles, and origins, it still works as a unified entity. And the lighting and wallpaper add to the opulent yet cosy charm.

The next few timber derived jewels are to be found in the sleeping quarters. The headboards and footboards, the side panels, the four-poster posts, all are ornately carved. Below are just two examples I liked enough to photograph.

And here we have a ‘simple’ stool like chair, one of a pair. Mechanically it’s simplicity itself. But the aesthetics, design and execution, on the other hand, are dizzyingly florid. Both bottom and top elements feature what I can only describe as ‘high-breasted nymphs’… lovely!

And then there’s the art, or the various types of objects, from weapons to bibelots. The social politics that allow some to wallow in such opulence, whilst for others it’s dung for breakfast, dung for lunch (if you’re lucky enough to get any lunch), rounded off with dung for dinner… well, it doesn’t really bear thinking about. But have things really changed very much, in this respect?

As Grayson Perry observed, in his Reith Lectures, ‘democracy has bad taste’. Or, put another way, for stuff to be such that anyone and everyone can have it, usually means it’s going to be cheap, crappy, mass-produced tat. Amassing vast collections of labour intensive master craftsman level creations will always be the preserve of the privileged few.

Dotted around the place are a number of weapons, and even some bits of armour. In the gun room, now serving as the NT bookshop, there are a number of Napoleonic era muskets (and an Austrian air rifle, of similar vintage). Pictured below are some terrifically attractive pistols. I have vague plans to make myself a pair of replica flintlock pistols, an idea seeded by seeing a pair of genuine articles at the house of my aunt and uncle in Harpenden.

Yet another brace of future projects revolve around storage. And whenever I see things such as the following chest, I take note. The avian theme reminded Teresa of the many bird-focussed artworks at Anglesey Abbey. The latter are mostly paintings. These are made with inlaid materials, in a chunky mosaic style, possibly using stone.

Heraldic items have a strange charm. I bought a small stained-glass window from an antiques shop in Framlingham years ago. Sadly it’s slightly damaged. I’ve long intended to use it as a window panel in a foot. But I’ve not got around to it as yet.

There’s a fab stone in one of the outer walls that features a stylise heraldic helmet, replete with crown and flowing bits that might be stylised feathers, or some form of drapery. I meant to get a pic, but had gotten satiated and lazy from a surfeit of photography by that point.

In times where toadying to the powers that be was an essential aspect of survival, grovelling to God – the ultimate power, in theory – could set one at odds with earthly powers. This is attested to by, amongst other things, the ‘Priest’s Hole’ at Oxburgh Hall.

Then there are such things as this, below, which – I rarely read the captions explaining stuff – looks like a model of a font cover. And, even more extravangtly opulent, the incredible altar in the nearby chapel.

Oxburgh Hall is an amazing place. Visits there are inspirational.

This morning I had to chisel off a little bit off the new runner I had made, to support the second drawer, in our new old Freecycle drawers. Excepting for the missing bits of trim, this is now complete. And it’s already in place.

We’re off out to Oxburgh Hall, a (fairly) local National Trust property now, to make the most of a beautiful sunny day, and both having the day off work. When we get back, I’ll load all my clothes into it.

Whilst disposing of the old Ikea chest of drawers at our local municipal dump/recycling centre, I spotted the writing box, pictured above, in the waste wood tip. Unbelievable! It’s such a lovely thing. So I asked one of the guys who work there if we could fish it out, and – if it wasn’t too bad – could I have it? In the end he charged me two pounds for it. Score!

It is fairly dilapidated. But not so far gone I don’t feel able to have a go at restoring it. It needs new fabric; we’re going to try and match the lovely original dark green velvet. There are some marks and dings, and a few little bits of wood that need replacing. And internally, there’s need of a fair bit of restoration to the internal components, which include some lovely little drawers. It also has a lock. Will I be able to retro-fit/source an appropriate key, I wonder?

Whilst examining it in the company of the dump employee, I found the above inscriptions. One reads ‘Ely—* Margetts, a Present from Edward Hodson, Esq, September 1850’ (or it might be 1858?), in a lovely copper-plate script. The other, dated May 18th, 1943, says ‘C. Edwards, 32 Creek Road, March, Cambs, Age 18.’ We live on Creek Road… fabulous!

Rescuing and restoring a bit of local history feels great. I’m going to give it to Teresa, as a bonus Xmas gift

Returning to my first subject, kind of, on top of the chest is another fairly recent restoration job, a Philips GF 446 portable record player. This was yet another Freecycle acquisition. Did I say I love Freecycle?

When I got it it wasn’t working properly. In the end it turned out all it needed was a new stylus, which I got for under a tenner, via the interweb. Here’s a video of it in action, sat atop our former Ikea drawers.

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* I can’t quite make the whole of this first word/name out!

I actually had my saw bench in my workshop today, and stood on it whilst painting the higher regions of the rear wall. It then came back in the house, with a view to Teresa using it.

But our moggy had plans of his own: a new object in the room? It must be there for me to sit on. What else could it possibly be for? He’d wanted to sit on it earlier, but had detected the Danish Oil wasn’t 100% dry.

I enjoyed making the bench, and I already love using it. It’s even nicer when other folk, be they human or cat, choose to use it.

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Oh, and I moved the chest o’drawers up to our room. I still need to fabricate a few bits of missing trim. And the second drawer still needs some fiddling before it’ll go back in. But most of the major repairs – gluing, nailing, fabricating trim and missing components (e.g drawer-stops and -slides) – is done.

I ejnoyed taking the Ikea drawers apart. I’m keeping the drawer-slide components, for possible future use. But the chest of drawers itself is destined for the local municipal dump.

A little while back, inspired by the colour scheme in the background of a Paul Sellers video, I repainted the back wall of my workshop. The colour I chose – a little different to Paul Seller’s scheme – was a very dark green, in the grey-green spectrum, from B&Q’s Valspar range, called Peacoat.

However, I wasn’t entirely happy with how it was looking. For one thing it’s too dark. And for another, it’s not grey enough! So I went back to B&Q, and ordered some more sample pots. I find them a cheap and useful way of testing colours in situ. And sometimes the little pots are all I need.

The new colour is called ‘Campground’, and I reckon it’s perfect. The single little £3 sample pot  was almost enough for the job! I also bought a pot of a pale creamy beige, called ‘Lark Song’, for painting any more storage units or cabinetry.

I added six spade-bit storage holes to my router bit doodad, and a couple of dowel pegs, one on the saw-rack, for ear-defenders, and the other just below the router bits, for safety-goggles and face-masks.

I got my new planes – the four I’ve currently restored are all in the saw-rack at present – out of the cardboard box they were in when I bought them (put that in the recycling bin!). It’s nice to gloat over them!

To my great satisfaction, I’ve now finished making my saw-bench. Sanding, knocking back corners, and a coat of Danish oil occupied me for about three hours this morning.

Thanks to James ‘Wood by’ Wright for both the inspiration and the knowledge on how to go about it. I chose to make mine much smaller, as my shed/workshop is tiny. And where he has funky 45° bench ends – which look very cool – I opted for a simpler space-saving regular rectangular design.

Once again, it’s turned out nice, and I did my two or three hours hard labour in the garden, under a clear blue sun-filled sky. Bliss!

In terms of successful joinery, my proudest achievement in this project are the mortice and tenons on the top, that hold the seat/cutting boards. These fit pretty snugly, and – to my eyes – look lovely, with the contrasting grain orientations.

Truth is, they’re far from perfect. And, like the whole thing, they’re  bit ragged. But they’re a heck of  lot better than one or two of my dove-tails! In the end I haven’t, as yet, filled in any of the voids left by the sloppier joinery. I may yet. But for now I want to get on with other stuff, like finishing the chest o’drawers restoration.

It’s only had one coat of Danish Oil so far. I’ve ordered some Liberon Finishing Oil off Amazon. I might put another coat of Danish on, or poss the Liberon … hmm?

I’m hoping Teresa will use this for her bedside laptop table, until I’ve built her a dedicated one, and cleared some space in the workshop for this ‘un. I have to confess, as shoddy-woddy as my woodworking abilities currently are, I’ve really enjoyed making this; I’m quite pleased with and proud of it. Result!

 

Well, an attack of insomnia is biting right now. It’s 2.40 a.m. and sleep, she jus’ don’t come. After an hour or so pottering around the lounge, gingerly tidying things up, I’m back upstairs. No nearer sleeping, it seems.

So I’ll start this wednesday’s post now… why not? I do hope I will get some kip in, as I’m hoping that today I might finish the saw-bench. Structurally, at any rate. Sanding, knocking corners back, and staining/finishing…  perhaps thursday?

I also have the chest o’ drawers to complete. I’ve hit a bit of a block there, in the mouldings used as decoration; I can’t find the right profiles in local DIY suppliers or builders merchants. But I can at least make the body and drawers relatively structurally sound.

There are several other projects either on the go or in the offing: Teresa’s asked me to make a small bedside table, to perch her laptop and/or tablet on. I want to make a medicine cabinet for the bathroom. A set of small drawers for my model making and painting area would be handy. And there’s a knackered chest to fix for tool storage in the workshop.

I wonder how much of this lot I’ll get done today, or during the half-term? And then there’s the front door, the cold-frames, the greenhouse, the workshop roof, the guttering on the house. So much to do. And my sleep patterns are shot to hell at present. Not very helpful!

Anyhoo, accompanying this post are several pics taken throughout the day. In the one below, the far left leg board split. Hence all the clamps. Next I’ll be transferring the peg shapes to the top boards, and drilling and carving out the holes to receive them. So, I think basic assembly will be completed today.

There are a few voids to be filled, in some of the less accurate joints. Then it’ll be a matter of knocking back some corners and edges, sanding, and finishing.

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Well, I finally finished the basic build for my mini saw-bench. It’s very rough’n’ready. But it’s been worth doing: my first half-lap joints, my first dovetails, and my first mortice and tenons. And to make it required restoring several old saws, and overcoming numerous other issues, as the build progressed. So there’s been a lot of learning.

Tomorrow I’ll sand it, and poss try filling some of the bigger gaps. Teresa can use it as her laptop table until I make her a dedicated one! And in the meantime I can clear up in the workshop, and make some space for this new bit of equipment.

One little footnote: despite practically all the pics, and quite a bit of the work itself, being situated in our living room, the bulk of the work, e.g. the cutting and dimensioning, was done in the garden. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous.

I haven’t got any room in the shed workshop itself. Occasional bits are done in there, such as drilling out the holes that will accept the tenons, before chiselling them square. But it’s way too messy and cramped in there at present. It goes in cycles: I clear up, and then as I work it gets messier and messier. I clear up, and then as I work it gets messier and messier. And so on, round and round!

Yesterday I made one foot and two legs of my saw-bench. Pretty badly, truth be told. Today I made the other. Much better.

This time, instead of sawing down to depth and then chiselling out across the grain, I used my ‘quick’n’dirty’ table saw to hog out the half laps. This produced a much better more uniform finish, which just needed minor tweaking with (sharpened!) chisels.

I then drew out and cut the dovetails on the stretchers, using my go to rip-saw. I cut the corresponding holes to receive them in the leg that’s glued up, whilst the second and better executed foot/legs glue. The stretchers are now also in place and gluing up.

So it’s just a case of waiting for everything to set up, and the glue to harden, before combining the base elements. Once the feet, legs and stretchers are all in place, I can work on the top.

When I was planning this I thought it might make another one day project. But it’s alteady taken three days, and looks set to keep me busy into the week. It’s coming out rough and rustic. But I’m learning all the time.

Well, my first ever shooting board is complete rubbish! I had to sand down the outer wall of the guide track, so the plane would ride flat on its side. That was ok. But the big boo-boo is the block that holds the workpiece, which just doesn’t have a properly flat face on which to register.

I’ll have to make a new and better shooting-board. And I’ll need to sharpen the plane blade a lot better, as it wasn’t shaving off wood so much as hacking it off. And even then not very well. Leaving me pretty hacked off. Oh well, you live and learn.

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The chest of drawers renovation continues. Pictured below are the four drawers, with various rescued bits of trim gluing up. I also fabricated a few corner pieces, using some wood taken from the wardrobe I acquired from the same Freecyclers.

I’ll need to make a new runner/guide thing for one of the drawers. Some drawer stops, and some of the profiled trim. I’m wondering if the trim profile is a common or standard one? And therefore whether I might be able to get some in a DIY store?

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I cut the saw-bench timber to size today. That was really enjoyable. My tenon saw is, despite sharpening it, still rubbish. I tried using it, but it needs re-sharpening. Again. My rip saw, on the other hand, is great.

Then I tried to saw and chisel some half-laps for the legs and feet. This was awful. I made a right pig’s ear of it! My chisels clearly aren’t sharp enough. It took bloody ages, and I only did one side!

Despite the right royal hash I made of this, it’s gone together, and is now gluing up. Looks like it might even turn out tolerably okay. Hopefully the second one will go a bit more smoothly? The amount of mistakes I’m making, I should be learning a helluva lot!