Wood Shavings Blog

Occasionally a piece of furniture you have a particular liking for gets a ding or dent in the surface.  Perhaps your enthusiastic child rams a toy truck forcefully into a timber leg or you accidentally drop an anvil onto your coffee table. Here is simple method to remove a lot of...

At Uptown Funky Junk we use a combination of power tools and hand tools to make our furniture. Both types of tools have their advantages, but it might be surprising to learn that power tools are not always quicker or better at performing a task than the equivalent hand tool....

Mid-century modern furniture spans the period of time from the end of WWII until the late 1960s and has it's origins in reconciling traditional craftsmanship with industrial production. Modernism is characterised by clean simple designs that empasise curves and angles rather than ornamental features. In the words of Hans Wegner it...

Trees can live for a long time.  We have lost some perspective on this due to modern plantation forest logging practices. In Australia, softwoods (e.g. pine) are usually grown in plantations. Trees harvested for logs from a pine plantation are typically logged at 20 to 30 years of age (more information on how to...

West End is currently having our annual kerbside collection for items people want to throw out. This is an exciting time of the year for me as there are piles of timber lining the streets looking for someone to take them home! I have collected a lot of timber that...

To the casual observer, trees appear to stand independently and without need for contact or communication with other trees.  They seem solitary and totally self contained, unable to converse with their neighbours. However trees are much more complicated and clever than they look. I have been reading a fascinating book...

One of the great things about working with wood is the variety of patterns, textures and colours that can be found in the timber.  No two pieces are ever the same and it is this uniqueness that adds greatly to the appeal of timber as a material to build with. Quilted...

Have you ever stayed up way too late at night searching the internet for the perfect desk, table or other piece of furniture for your requirements?  The table needs to be narrow enough to fit in that space and match the dresser timber colour and style.  As you crawl into...

A common misconception is that hardwoods are hard and softwoods are soft. This is not surprising given the names and it is true for the majority of timbers, although there are many exceptions to this generalisation. The classic case is balsa wood which is actually a hardwood. So how are...