The art of the Christmas Present

Some people spend days in department stores;

And some shop until their credit cards melt;

Some grow ill from the stress and worry;

And some slaughter the mink for his pelt.

But I did all my Chtristmas shopping at my lathe. And I don't really care whether people liked what they were given, because I had fun making it!

And here are some photos of a few of the outcomes.

Two angles of a New Guinea rosewood

cake stand. I look forward to a sponge-cake from it. Thanks to SkyW for the photos - a good job.

A camphor laurel bowl. I hope Pat enjoys it.

There was a cyclone

African mahogany, victim of the chainsaw gang, and alas, too big for my modest abilities.
Inspecting a paperbark, some of which is now added to my stock.

Darwin, the city in which I live, work and destroy lumps of timber, is in the tropics, and so subject to cyclones - you know, big winds, lots of rain, trees and houses fall down, ships sink.

We had a smallish cyclone a few weeks ago. No houses fell down, no ships sank, but some trees did fail to survive. Fallen trees = wood available for the taking.

So a number of evenings recently have seen me on the roadside, saw in hand, making merry of natures abundance.

I am now rich! I have big mobs of black wattle (delicious), some nameless timber from the verge that might or might not be useful, and tonight I liberated some paperbark from the parklands down the street.

But, as every fisherman knows, the one that got away is the biggest. The photo is of the remains of an African mahogany, felled by a cruel woodsman's chainsaw - just because it was big! I wanted to bring it home, but my teenage son wasn't willing to even try to lift it. What's the modern generation coming too?

It will be some time before I can produce anything from this windfall (nudge, nudge - windfall - get it??), as the wood is so green the sap is literally running out of it. But I'll record some results on this site when they happen.

All the best, vsquared.

The Tale of a Lump of Wood

Small bowl - Raintree.

A small clock, inset into Raintree. Thanks to Tom for the photo.

Vase - Raintree timber.

Some time ago a little old man was walking through a forest - well a city park with some trees in it. He saw, lying on the ground, a lump of wood.

It was not a really small lump of wood, which would not have been any good for anything; it wasn't a really big lump of wood, which would have been too heavy to pick up; it was a medium size lump, just right to pick up, carry back to his car, and take home.

It was a piece of Raintree, and had been lopped from a tree by city Council workers that very day. The little old man saved it from the dreaded woodchipping gang.

And the little old man had a woodturning lathe. And the photos show what he did with the lump of wood:

It also provided the timber for another clock insert, smaller than the one in the photo, and for a couple of pens.

I'm sure my piece of Raintree must be very happy I saved it from the dreaded wood-chipping gang.