I was down to my shop last weekend for a little wood workout. A little oak bench. I don't do much turning any more but i do enjoy it when i get to a fun little project like this. I left the sorters paint mark on the end , just because

​This is the Collingwood driftwood table completed. A console table as it is used here or it could be a hall table. The maple contrasts nicely with the dark couch. The piece of driftwood forms a triangle preventing the piece from racking.

I don't know about you but I spend almost as much time in the living as any other room in the house. So this coffee table and matching dove tail side table are central features. Today I flipped the side table and what do you know. I have myself a cool laptop table slash lazy guys TV tray. Its a bench to sit on when the room fills up to. Every living room needs these

If you spend as much time outside and in the forest as I do you may have noticed something peculiar this fall. There are very few if any nuts, seeds or acorns on any of the trees. This is probably due to our very dry spring/ summer this year and the trees will get by as they know how to. It will however be a very lean year for our forest friends the squirrel who depend on the trees for food. Squirrels have taken a bad rap over the years, thought of only as destructive pests that rob bird feeders and destroy our property. I assure you nothing could be further from the truth. 
    Squirrels are the true shepherds of the forest and play a very important part in the health and vitality of a true forest. Squirrels in all their busy foraging plant trees and they cull unwanted species out of the forest but their most important part is unseen by our eyes. Squirrels distribute mushroom spores much like bees pollinate flowers. Mushrooms and their hidden plant mycelium provide food for trees by digesting dead trees and leaves much like probiotics in your stomach. So this winter set out something for our friends that tend to our forests for us, They could use the helping hand this winter. Please share this to friends in Southern Ontario and help our forests
​ Thank you Don

Well I haven't posted in a while. Truth  be told it was so hot this summer you couldn't even walk in to my shop let along actually work in there, but what a summer it was. I spent it getting back to another one of my true loves, forest running. I'm down about 15 pounds and very smiley, This is my first effort at live edge and I think it turned out nicely. The gracefully tapered legs contrast the rustic edge and the whole thing is in walnut, a beautiful tree and even more beautiful wood. We are having an open house this weekend so drop by if your looking for something to do this weekend (15-16) You can see more of my furniture and some fantastic wooden clocks. our shop is located at the corner of York and Victoria behind the Guelph Grotto climbing gym

I drove by this place today and for some odd reason I turned around and went in to find this. Walnut logs being turned into firewood. I left a note on a business card. Precious are our trees and this lovely wood deserves better

I am working on a new hall table design. Here you can see Mach up of a leg being shape in pine. When I get a shape I like it will be transfered to four blanks of walnut

with my shop on the top floor it gets unbearable in there in the summer so I go to the cool forest to get my wood fix . This is a giant oyster mushroom I came across.

This is an outdoor stool I made a number of years ago. A huge cedar timber and the legs are turned mahogany. The legs have not come loose even though this piece has spent many years outside in the rain and weather. The spindles where turned slightly over sized and then I heat the tenon portion with a propane torch while it is spinning. After it is thoroughly heated and the wood has shrunk I finish  turning the tenon to size, saw in a blind wedge and glue it then pound it into the socket. The relatively wet timber then shrinks around the tenon making the joint extremely tight. Every now and then I resurface the top with a hand plane so it looks fresh and smells sweet to.