Working with Wood

sThere is something about the smell of freshly worked wood, isn’t there? We attended the WoodCraft Fair on Sunday with our SLG friends and joined the throngs of people at the Horticultural Hall. Everyone was very interested in the old pole lathe being demonstrated. Wood shavings fell to the floor as he worked away. This is how wood was turned for centuries, before the advent of motors and power tools. It obviously takes a huge amount of skill to make a set of chair legs all looking exactly the same.

Working the pole lathe

Craftsmen had stalls set up around the hall with all sorts of items on sale to tempt the visitors. One woodworker was selling off his unwanted tools. He must have been a bit of a collector as he had lots of vintage tools on offer too. There’s plenty more of these at home, he told us.

A box of old wood working bits and pieces for sale

Robin was on the lookout for a nice timber wall clock for the caravan. He spotted one he quite liked early on, then checked out the other stalls to make sure there wasn’t an even better one further around the hall. No, there was nothing else that took his fancy. Then it was back for the original clock, luckily it hadn’t sold to someone else in the meantime. As the craftsman wrapped the clock up, Robin was sent to the central sales point to complete the purchase. (Yes, he had asked me if I liked the clock before he bought it).

Robin paying for his new clock

As well as the usual bowls, platters, wooden toys and trinkets, there were some truly amazing pieces of work. One man told us that he “didn’t do round and smooth, he like to work with curves”. He likes to draw his designs on paper, to work out how to achieve the look he is after. One of his pieces for sale was an interesting Celtic style platter. How did he do that, we wondered.

Celtic design platter

We gazed in amazement at the items on another stall. These eggshell thin decorative bowls had the look of lace about them. I asked the woodworker how he did such intricate work. All achieved with dental drills, was the answer, and there are only two people doing this sort of work in the country. They were just so beautiful, and I am sure that the price tag did not compensate for all the hours of work.