Well, thank goodness! With the tourist season finished, we have closed Woodhutt Manor to the public until next year and while Lady Woodhutt is busy conferring with the Head Gardner about refurbishing the formal gardens and re-stocking the ornamental fish ponds, I am finally able to get back to woodworking.
So it was with a glad heart and spring in my step that I saddled-up my old hunter and rode over to the workshop which lies some distance from the manor house (the old mare needs the exercise now we can no longer ride to hounds). Actually, ‘workshop’ sounds such a common term to describe the magnificent Palladian structure with its Doric columns surrounded by ancient oaks and set in the deer park.

The new project is a memento box to house memorabilia (maternity i.d. bracelet, first pair of bootees, first cigarette butt/ beer bottle cap etc.) for the new addition to the Woodhutt dynasty, grandson Master James (Bart.).
The first step was to make a pierced carving which will form the centre piece of the lid. The wood for the carving came from a pair of old bookends I found in a Sally Army shop ( I enjoy up-cycling). I can’t identify the wood but it’s dense and hard to work but cuts very cleanly. The design for the carving came from a web search for leaf patterns, printed and transferred to the wood with old-fashioned carbon paper. A coping saw was used to rough-cut the piercings and the cuts refined using chisels and small files then gouges used to scallop the leaves. The carving will be framed with tongue and grooved cherry to form the lid of the box.
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