EddieJ

I was rained off yet again today, so had yet play and came up with this 'something' made from green oak.

That has made my day. Brilliant.

It a Holey Galahad see thru disk. I bought a coarse medium and fine when they were on special offer some time back, but the medium disk seems more than adequate. The coarse and fine seem to tear green oak. Both pieces are green oak that was destined for log wood.

I was rained off today so decided to drag the MS192 out for it first play. I still need to get a carving bar sorted for it, and the chain that it came with was utter rubbish. It jumped about more than a pogo stick! I still need to carry out some fine detailing to this piece which is my second go at carving with a chainsaw. I can't remember if I posted my first attempt at carving with a chainsaw, but this is it. I used a combination of my MS260 and and electric electric MS180

Natural Danger or Creature Of The Deep? This one is a work in progress, which sadly will have to wait about a month before I can started on it. Life always spoils fun!! It's another lump of oak that I dragged out of a ditch and whilst I had no idea what to do with it when I loaded it into the van, I was greeted by this angle when I took it out. I've quickly wire brushed it off to remove the moss and dirt. I then started to have a very quick play with one of the eye sockets, and I reckon that this piece has got very good potential.The only downside of this lump of oak, is that it is riddled with old staples and barbed wire. I'm half tempted to put golf ball size black glazed balls into the eye sockets, and I'll also probably drill holes into the mouth cavity, knock in some 25mm oak dowel, then carve them back to form razor sharp looking teeth. Once the carving has been carried out, I'll take it to get it sand blasted. I also reckon that it could very good mounted onto either a 25mm stainless steel tube approx 600mm off the ground, or even some how mounted with a bloody great stainless hook into the mouth.

APC, I'm afraid that I can't really help with your question, other than to suggest perhaps looking to see what evening classes are available. Whilst I carry out carpentry/framing work for a living, I have no qualifications to my name, and everything that I know is self taught. I personally feel that you don't need formal training to learn the basics, and in respect of say the many available oak framing courses, I reckon they they are just a waste of hard earnt money. The money spent on these courses would be better placed in buying books and tools. Where a dedicated carpentry course would score, is in the correct use of tools and workshop machinery. It would also be worth trying to work out what you prefer doing in respect of woodwork. No satisfaction can be gained from new build site work, but immense satisfaction could be gained from say cabinet making, or furniture restoration. Whilst I get great satisfaction from the oak framing, my days of continuing with it are numbered. It's taken it's toll badly on my joints, and my body is pretty well and truly worn out now. Try to find something light and easy.

And you said that I have talent! I couldn't even begin to make what you have. Very nice.

Thanks Slackblader, here are a couple of photos of it prior to having the tiles fitted. Hopefully the nice tight mitred corners on the batten show. I'm a bit of a tart when it comes to detail on things like that. The structure looks even better now with a brick floor, table and pots etc. In respect of the shape of that gazebo, here is another variation on the theme

As some of you know, I bought an MS192 at the beginning of the year, only to have it stolen whilst being delivered! I'm not sure that Interlinks claim of delivering it to completely wrong house some eight doors away from my own is correct, and why the hell did they do that anyway. Could it even be that the driver fancied it for himself! Either way Interlink are incompetent and can't be trusted, and whilst I have now just taken delivery of the replacement saw, which was delivered safely by Parcel Force, the poor lads in Wales have dipped right out, and only received £45.00 in compensation. The small print is on a weight basis only, and no liability was admitted for misdirection and theft of the saw. To me this just isn't right, and in my opinion Interlink should be made to meet the full replacement cost. Please tell as many people as possible about the crap Interlink service, as I'd love for them to suffer loss of work because of this. Anyway, as I have now received the last available saw from them, I now just need to get my order in to Rob.

And these are what I most enjoy making.

Sorry Tom, I must have some how missed your post. I'd be more than willing to price up any project that you may have lined up. When you have got to the stage of formulating plans and spec, just let me know. Here are a couple more 'non' waste wood projects that I have just finished. Three rustic style green oak benches for a client. They measure approx 1,800mm wide, the seat base is 450mm x 75mm and the back rest is 200mm x 75mm They look high as they are to be dug into the ground. And three oak roof trusses for another client. Shown here slotted loosely together awaiting final assembly.

I sat here for ages looking at the photos trying to work out why you had put the trunnels/dowel so high up on the lateral section above the knee bracing. I then realised the you had put a half dragon tie across the internal corners. Sadly so many people don't do this, but it makes a massive difference to frame rigidity. It's also nice to see a stock chamfer on the posts. Again this is something that only takes seconds to do, put makes a massive difference to the quality of a product. Edit.. I also like the way the you have successfully sat the ring beam onto the posts without loosing any strength from both components. A bit of thought had gone into that.

I wouldn't worry about it. I may build oak frames for a living, but this would be my dream hideaway. Rustic and simple wins every time for me.

Good find. Thanks.

Not log cabins, but I do design, construct and erect these on my own from scratch using home grown green oak.

Thanks again for the positive replies. Here are a few more things to be going on with. Someone tried to steal this one last night and snapped the tail off trying! And another very simple 'rough and ready' 15 minute to make deer.

Thanks again for the replies I used to be a tree surgeon many years ago, but lost my nerve, so got out of the game and taught myself oak framing and now make stuff like this from scratch. Making the projects from waste wood, is just a way for me to chill out and relax.

I would imagine that there are a lot of variables to this question. Quarter sawn wood is going to split less than say boxed heart and it also remains more stable. If the wood has shake in it begin with you are against it and in reality are just wasting time using it. I have only done one chainsaw carving which happened to be this week. It was cut from green oak and I applied two coats of danish oil then after the photo below was taken, I applied exterior varnish. The varnish was only added as I want to retain the fresh look to it and seal in the moisture to slow the drying out process down. It is shame to have added any oil at all to it, as the sanding had been carried out to an almost mirror finish and I love the look of un treated oak. With my hand carving in green oak, I apply danish oil as soon as I can, then work the timber with it already applied. It makes for harder work, but for example on this obelisk below which was carved last Easter, it was essential to stop it splitting. I did a few cuts, sanded it and then oiled again before continuing. Once again I wanted to retain the fresh look so used yacht varnish. And this was the same piece of timber last week. Only hairline type cracks.

Thanks for the replies. Here is a very rare and dangerous cone snake!! Made from wiring together old pine cones. A simple bird table made from an up turned oak branch a bit of larch for the feeders A simple deer made from old oak branches. And a bird box with a difference! More to follow.

Thanks Arborholic. This bit of oak had been laying against the side of a bank down a back lane for about the last four years. It would get knocked by various cars, but always stayed where it was, until last summer when I decided that I could do something with it. Ultimately it is destined to become another bench, but I want to use stainless steel to make single pole legs for it. After scraping the worst off of it, I had it sand blasted. More to follow.

Take one grubby bit of slab wood.. Clean it up and work on it a bit and this is the result.. One simple bench. The legs are just temporary. .

The douglas top has been really good. The bench is down on our veg plot, so is outside all year round, and it hasn't moved a bit. I'd highly recommend both Douglas and equally larch to anyone. I made this little fella about two weeks ago. Again made from waste oak, this time 2" slab wood for the body, and 1" for everything else.

Here is a simple radiator table that I made for the mum-in-law just before Xmas. Again made from waste oak. And this was a little pot stand come bench that I made as a freebie for a client to go inside of the porch that I had made. More to follow.