Woodwork Ireland

July 28, 2006

Lisnavagh Timber Project

William Bunbury of the The Lisnavagh Timber Project was kind enough to leave a comment saying that they, as well as Abbey Woods, sell timber in Ireland. Moreover, quoting from the Lisnavagh site:

The Lisnavagh Timber Project grows, sources, conditions and supplies fully traceable home-grown Irish hardwood timber, from sustainable resources, to Ireland’s furniture makers and woodworkers.

So that’s real Irish timber.

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While hunting for tools, I stumbled across an excellent UK site specialising in selling used and antique tools: secondhandtools.co.uk. They deal in woodworking tools, among others, and also carry relevant books. I’ve been looking over their carving chisels and trying to resist - they have some really nice sets, at decent prices.

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Woodcarving Tools

My wife, Nina (who has her own food and culture site, Rocking Grass), is thinking of taking up woodcarving. I showed her the most recent Rutlands catalogue, in which there are sets of carving tools ranging in price from about £15 (€22) to £200 (€290) - most of them being boxes of eight to twelve chisels in the £40 (€58) range. Rather than buy straight from Rutlands by mail, I figured I’d have a go at supporting local businesses, and went to a hardware shop near where I work. There, I was shown the one “carving” chisel they had in the place, an oversized gouge with an ugly plastic handle, and told it would set me back €37.

I’ll give the specialist tool shops in Capel Street a try, and if they don’t have something a touch more reasonable in price, size and utility, I’m definitely going to be ordering from Rutlands.

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July 23, 2006

Good Woodworking, Issue 177, August 2006

I’m still confused when I see “August” as the publication date of a magazine I bought in early July, but never mind that.

This month’s Good Woodworking contains project plans for a leaded light cabinet, a waste paper bin, jigs for large tenons, a barley twist candlestick, a router table, and sheet cutting devices. The techniques articles include batching tenons by hand, assembling lapped tails, repairing a broken chair leg (with particular reference to Victorian and Edwardian chairs, and the annoying narrow parts), planing across an edge, and quick and easy carcases (wardrobes in this case, but the principles carry).

There’s also an extensive comparison of scraping tools - scrapers and scraping planes, for the most part, with commentary on their use. Based on the advice in the article, I’m likely to be picking up some new kit for myself.

There’s a feature article as well on the construction of a small, purpose-built workshop, which contains a few useful ideas, and a sidebar that advises against vinyl flooring in a workspace - it becomes dangerously slippy under sawdust.

As ever, the magazine is worth buying, and if any of the items above are on your list of projects or problems, it could save you a lot of headaches.

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July 22, 2006

Timber Sellers in Ireland

After considerable amounts of digging, I’ve managed to find one timber merchant in Ireland who has a website. I’ll be adding this to the links in the sidebar, but I figured it might be as well to list it here as well.

Abbey Woods have premises in Dublin, Cork and Sligo. They offer American Hardwoods, European Hardwoods, Tropical Hardwoods, Constructional Timbers, Hardwood Decking, Veneers, Laminated Worktops, Layons, Custom Mouldings, Timber Claddings and Weather Boardings.

There’s a fine listing of other Irish wood sellers on Homewise.ie, with phone numbers and postal addresses.

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July 8, 2006

Woodwork on the Internet in Ireland

There’s one thing that’s becoming very clear as I’m developing this site, and gathering material for it - the woodwork industry in Ireland is badly behind with regard to the internet. I was brought up in a workshop, and most of my family work with wood in one form or another, so I know the businesses are out there. Searching, though, reveals nothing. For example, having spent twenty minutes looking for any timber retailer at all that I could place a link to, I’ve found none. Either the timber sellers in Ireland don’t have websites, or they’re so badly designed that the search engines can’t find them. In an age where more and more buyers are seeking information online, that seems insane.

I’ll follow up with other sources, and see if I can provide some links for timber sellers that aren’t your local hardware shop. They’re not making it easy, though, and that has to be costing them sales.

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Collins Complete Woodworker’s Manual

The Collins Complete Woodworker’s Manual is quite possibly the definitive woodworking book. It covers the basics, from tools and setting up a workshop to materials, to design, construction, technique and skills. Every element of woodworking is detailed - joints, bending wood, veneering and marquetry, woodcarving and finishing. The only criticism that can be levelled at the book is that it covers so much that there can’t be much detail on any one topic, but as a basic reference work, it can’t be beaten. This is essentially the woodworker’s dictionary - or possibly bible.

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Green Woodworker’s Pattern Book

The Green Woodworker’s Pattern Book looks like an essential resource for traditional crafts in wood. It holds more than 300 patterns and plans for traditional craft projects - fences, gates, and garden furniture, through benches and stools and small tools. All plans have metric and imperial measurements, so there are no messy or inaccurate conversions. Every plan has clearly annotated black-and-white line drawings and plans, a description, some details of historical use and placement where relevant, and information on the timbers types and materials that should be used. Old style tools such as cleaves, rounders, shaves, horses and setting frames are covered, as are fencing and gates from post and rail to wattles and field gates, along with garden furniture and tools, turnery, chairs, baskets and miscellaneous household tools.

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