This piece was originally designed as a bit of fun: a simple carcase construction with a handle detail that would provide me with a challenge while satisfying my passion for curvy, organic forms. I made the original version in maple with a bloodwood veneer. The contrast in timber and the handle detail made for a striking piece and I was commissioned to make another in cherry with birdseye maple veneer.
It’s not my original idea. I used to live in Tutukaka and we’d go on 4WD rallies and claybird shoots in the backblocks where there was no power. It was a lot of fun. One time a guy turned up with a battery-driven spit and the idea stayed in my mind. You could take it where there was no power – I always said I would design something one day that worked with no power.
This may interest you if you’re a Shed subscriber.
Did you know that the plastic wrapping that acts as an envelope for your home-delivered copy of The Shed is recyclable?
Good news for our Australian readers of The Shed.
The September/October 2019 issue is on sale from today at your favourite magazine retailer. Click on the link below to find your nearest store or head to https://magstore.nz/ to purchase a copy or to subscribe to a print or digital version of the magazine.
https://the-shed.nz/home/2018/9/5/find-your-local-australian-the-shed-retailer
Meet the knifemaker from The Shed Issue 86 and watch how he makes a fully forged knife in his Whanganui shed
An aspiring woodcarver who builds on a solid foundation of knowledge and technique will soon be creating impressive carvings. To demonstrate basic knowledge and techniques, we are going to follow the carving of a Tudor rose.
Aluminium alloys have one critical failing, for all their good qualities of lightness, conductivity and strength. They corrode. One way to guard against corrosion is to create a hard oxide film on an aluminium alloy by anodising
We are looking for twelve great shed shots for our first ever The Shed calendar. This calendar will be included with all subscriber and New Zealand retail copies of the January/February 2020 issue, on sale December 2 2019.
Brought up in a family of artists, Rudi Buchanan-Strewe has tried to break the mould and, after work experience as a blacksmith, he completed a motorcycle apprenticeship at Classic Cycles in Upper Hutt. A move back to Auckland saw him working for Ken McIntosh on his Manx Nortons before deciding, about eight years ago, to give in to his genes and pursue his love of sculpture.
Shannon Jordan and Louise Simmons sold up in suburbia and bought a block of land in Ruakaka, Northland, three years ago. They planned to live in a caravan while planning and saving for their house. From this magazine’s point of view, they had their priorities right and decided to build a shed first.
I think most turners get frustrated with constantly having to stop the lathe and measure and re-measure the length along the bed as the work gets reduced.
Now with new, lower pricing
Honda’s inverter generators are famous for their reliability, fuel efficiency and portability but they also supply ‘clean’ power for phones, laptops and power tools. Older generators can produce power spikes or variable voltages that can damage modern appliances.
Tusk HRS drill bits, made from M2 high-speed steel also have a titanium nitride coating for longer life. Their 135-degree tip offers a faster drilling rate and lower feed pressure.
In the October/ November Issue 86 of The Shed, we first head to Whanganui to meet blacksmith Josh Timmins.
Josh has his own way of making knives and axes and shows us how to make a Viking Knife starting with a piece of new steel right through to the finished product.
Then we head to…
This brick forge is constructed from lightweight insulating firebrick. Known as a K26 brick it is available from Certec in Auckland.
These insulating fire bricks are rated to 1426°C and measure 230x115x75mm. They are commonly used to line foundry furnaces, forges, and kilns. These soft bricks can easily be cut to size with an ordinary wood saw, drilled to create burner openings, or routed to create channels.
Watch this video to see how we built this gas forge and an oil-powered version as well.
As featured in The Shed Issue 85
The Shed magazine is eclectic, informed, and always fascinating. Aimed at those with a few tools and perhaps a few clues: this is the magazine for real sheddies.
Packed with ideas, projects, advice, and peeks into other people’s sheds providing inspiration, ideas, and techniques, or just for the sheer enjoyment of the sheddie’s endless inventiveness, The Shed is the project enthusiast’s bible.
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