Woodworks

Playing devils advocate for a moment. I get they can hit us with targeted advertising but thats probably better than irrelevant stuff popping up on ones timeline. They know that I went to the shops and bought some Marmite then had drinks with Derek. How can this all be used against us?

Easily. The year before last due to covid messing things up my softwood didn't get felled and delivered until September. Still had it dry and for sale at the back end of the winter. That was douglas fir

You are probably going need to get knife sharpening jig then. I dont think keeping the angle right is any easier on a water stone just different. Looking at some of the beautiful knives linked in this thread I might have room in draw for just one more 😃

I have have fancy water stones in the workshop and even a wet stone grinder but never use them on knives. As I said regular use of a diamond steel keeps them sharp and quick to use. I guess if you want the very best edge and are prepared to use them every use a 6000/8000 grit water stone is good but the hassle! There seems to be lot of snake oil salesmen for kitchen knives saying you have to have this or that. You are just removing metal to leave the thinest edge possible. Harder steels need a harder sharpening medium hence ceramic, diamonds and water stones (these are actually soft but wear fast to expose fresh sharp grit)

Good old carbon steel takes a far better edge and is easy to sharpen. You never see chisels and saws made of SS for good reason

Sharpening is the key Mark. For me all I use is diamond steel. It removes enough when used often to never need to regrind the knives A cheap knife well sharpened is better than exotica left to go blunt. Think our knives are knock off Global but take an OK edge. Dont put them through the dishwasher!

Beech and oak will not be the best as they are very heavy timbers. I still have yet to weigh a cube of fresh logs that was more than 500kg

It is a staggering amount of money but I think that is the budget put aside for it in total not what has been spent so far. Worth bearing in mind that there have been over 400 million tests to date. If the money ran out now thats £92.50 per test and any subsequent tracing. I am no fan of this dubious government but maybe this is not as awful as it first looks This is the most up to date spending I can see NHS Test and Trace cost £13.5 billion in its first year - Full Fact FULLFACT.ORG £37 billion is its two year budget, but it only spent £13.5 billion in its first year, which is less than expected.

With the way the costs of electricity are going you will probably save a few bob 😃

First picture of the tough plastic pallets I have used and the second is of the ones that have become brittle with UV

IBC have bases that lift the logs off the floor anyway. No need for a pallet under them. Make hats for the IBCs from the plastic liner Edit. If you do use plastic pallets they are variable in quality. I have some which we built movable raised beds on that have been bullet proof but others seems to suffer with UV and become brittle.

Not used elm much but presuming its much like other timbers I would sand with the grain working through the grades to 240grit. Wipe/brush off all excess dust. Then an oil finish. My preference is Liberon finishing oil but other swear by Osmo. IME Osmo leaves a paler less deep colour but is incredibly easy to apply

Butterly joint can be very attractive and I have used them on a few jobs over the years. Not got any pictures of them on a top but here are some around the edge of this set of tables. They are immensely strong

If you are going to joining board often get a biscuit jointer. Brilliant piece of kit and you dont need to be so precise about positioning as you do with dowels. You can also get cutter to use in a router to do biscuit joints. For a good join you do need the faces of the two boards to meet up near perfectly. PVA glues dont gap fill but are cheap and easy to use PU (Gorrila) glues do gap fill but will not be strong if there are gaps. Epoxy will gap fill with strength but are costly If you have a circular saw set up a straightedge clamped down the length of the boards. Make sure the blade is set perfectly square to base of the saw and blade is sharp. Do a couple of practice passes with blade retracted so you know you can run the saw down the length of the board without rocking ie keeping the saw base perfectly flush with the board throughout the cut. With a bit of luck this should give you a pretty clean square edge. In the ideal world you would run a plane down it to clean off the saw marks for a near invisible joint. Be warned though a blunt plane not set up right might make more of a mess than the sawn edges.

That looks brilliant. Would have loved one of those as a kid..........still would 😆