Many people tell us
how lucky we are to work wood professionally and how relaxing it must be. Well,
sometimes it’s all hand planes and chisels, while at other times it’s just hard
work and dust.
Our workshop has a
sanding room called “The Grotto”. It is in this room where the really hard yards take place, and in
this series of shots by Bronwen, you can see the grit more than the glamour.
The Grotto is a sealed
space with its own dust extractor and lighting. The rule is that any serious
sanding takes place in The Grotto and there is no bigger sanding job than a
stool run. In this series of images you can see the hard work it takes Alex and
Dan to put the “love” into thirty blackwood stools.
Alex is the undisputed
champion of the Dynabrade random orbital air sander. He uses the Dynabrade with
the same skill, flair, dexterity and confidence that any classical woodworker ever
applied to chisel work.
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| Alex working the Dynabrade random orbital air sander. |
Dan works
away in tandem with Alex. They work as a team to do the final shaping and finish
sanding. Dan is the bloke you want on your right hand side in the shield wall
while the barbarians attack. Dan doesn’t get ruffled, never stops and never
backs down.
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| Dan works on a stool in "The Grotto" |
This is hand work at
its rawest. Make no mistake; Dan and Alex are in competition with each other.
Like two gun shearers trying to ring the shed, if you get in their way they
will steam right over the top of you. The game is to do the best possible job
in the shortest possible time; its is more about professional pride than
anything else. These two know that they can do a better job than anyone else
and in less time than the next-best person. This is what it means to be a
professional craftsman. This is what a day’s work looks like.
