Thread: Greetings

Hi Gadge,

Hear you, but nothing to report (unless you want to hear me complain - not that I ever complain ). It has been very quiet (seems to get that way now and then).

Steve

Eh? Huh?

Hi, Gadge, Steve.

Nothing to report (lots of work, though!) Hope you're well.

Hi Becky,

Glad to hear that business is going well. Anything exciting you're working on?

Having a hell of a time with a 1920s Malaysian opium table that came apart at some point, then was glued (badly), and came apart again.

Soaked off all the old glue and am fitting it back together, bit by bit. Wonderful joinery (though not as complex as Japanese) and beautiful wood.

But it's somehow shrunk in some places while expanding in others since removing the glue: it's been from Kuala Lumpur to Somerset, England, to here on the Mysterious Island, and now the poor thing's gone mad. So I'm shaving hair-thin bits off joints that are too tight, and adding rice paper to others that are too loose (and praying it doesn't swell like mad at some point and split, which is why I'm not using wood)... generally cursing a lot knowing I'll never have the heart to ask for what I should be paid for it (old lady, leaving it to grandson, stupid soft-hearted person hard at work on it...). But it's a beauty, and lovely just to have around and handle.

The rest of the stuff is your run-of-the-mill jobs. A yard sale piece the client wants stripped of its paint and repainted a different color; a nice old (Victorian) tiny drop-leaf with a lovely pedestal that's badly in need of refinishing; a broken Nakashima chair I have to order new spokes for (from Nakashima, pleasantly enough)... stuff like that.

It's just good to have work.

What's up with you, boyo?

Originally Posted by yojimbo

Having a hell of a time with a 1920s Malaysian opium table that came apart at some point, then was glued (badly), and came apart again.

I've heard opium will do that to you. Maybe you can substitute something from Ikea if things don't go back together - maybe they won't notice? Anyway, sounds like a nice project.

Me? Working on more lamps: https://www.woodworkforums.com/f40/more-lamps-174365/ Still mulling the frame business. Keeps me entertained.

Nice work, Steve!

Yeah, the opium slowed me down at first but, sadly, there's none left. Best I can do is reduce the table to sandpaper and snort that.

Originally Posted by yojimbo

Nice work, Steve!

Yeah, the opium slowed me down at first but, sadly, there's none left. Best I can do is reduce the table to sandpaper and snort that.

Well, smoking/snorting/chewing tabacky etc. is bad for you, so maybe set the dust on fire and roast marshmallows - more fun than me sniffing lead solder fumes (talk about slowing me down, not that anyone would notice the difference ha, ha. Tho' I am a shade slower, actually).