Oaky dokey

Well I dunno where the time goes; could have sworn I'd only Blogged a day or two ago. Anyway, progress is being made. Saturday saw me reach this stage. Joints cut and fitted and it's looking like something instead of a pile of scrubby-looking boards - which is marginally encouraging. A good deal of chisel work involved, plus a lot of sharpening. This oak is pretty well seasoned now, and chipping of edges was commonplace. I steepened the bevels, but even so it was a struggle. I've worked out where it came from now. Three sources in total; British Hardwoods, left over from the Millennium gate I made; a factory in Swindon via a mate of my brothers; and the Tregothnan Estate here in Cornwall. So some is air-dried (and pretty flippin' useless, if I'm honest), most is kiln-dried, and all of it has been skulling about in the workshop for "a while"...

Monday saw me going insane with planer/thicknesser and bandsaw, turning all remaining available oak into as much 1/2" stuff as I could. I had to tickle up the edges of the planer blades twice during the process - did I mention how tough some of that oak is? Things were not helped by the blade on the bandsaw being as blunt as a comment from Dame Edna Everage. I just squeezed out enough for the job. Putting most of it temporarily in the framework seemed the best way to keep it reasonably flat and straight - the rest is in stick under weights. I've yet to play about finding the best combination of boards for looks. Should be fun; I've only a couple of pieces as wide as 6", a lot of it being under 2" wide... Anyway, I've now got some alleged exterior glue to glue up the panels, bought this morning, but it ain't gonna happen soon 'cos I have a stinking cold.

Caution: Pathetic sorry-for-myself moaning follows.

On Sunday morning I had a sore throat - now I have an alternately running and blocked nose, sore throat, headache, cough, sneezes and occasional rises in temperature. If I was a bloke it'd be 'Flu ;~) So I'm feeling very sorry for myself (can you tell?) and crossing everything that it'll get it all over and done with now so I'll be hale and hearty for Sunday. Being sick on Christmas Day is No Fun. I'm properly fed up with waking up every couple of hours to allow the gunk in my head to subside so I can get a couple of hours more sleep, I tell you.

Okay, finished now.

To cheer me up, I've had not one, but two unexpected Christmas pressies from fellow woodworkers. How nice is that? I'm hopeless; I can't even make stuff for my own family nevermind be organised enough to do that. Must do better next year.