Hi everyone,

As a long time lurker of SMC, I thought it was time to register once and for all and say thank you all for sharing your knowledge and experiences, it has been a true help and inspiration to me.

I wanted to give a quick introduction to say hello, and show some of the projects that have led me here.

Having always made things (like bike wheel tables), over the past few years I have slowly made the transition into focusing nearly all of my attention to working with wood. The project that started it off was the need for some saw horses, as I was getting increasingly frustrated with the shop bought ones we had in the shed...

Not wood but still made only with hand tools:
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So I, as is my way, bit off more than I could chew, and took on the Paul Sellers saw horse build as my first ‘real’ project, needless to say PS made it look much easier than it was, but I was, and still am, pretty proud of how they turned out - the compound housing joints for the legs were not easy!

Tall Saw Horses:
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As time has gone on, I have fallen ever more into the japanese style of woodworking - both for the ‘romantic’ side, but also just as important the realities of my workspace. I don’t have a workshop (yet!), so my work areas need to remain fluid, so the use of planing beams, short saw horses, etc. I find this so much easier than trying the Western way, without any vices or a solid workbench to plane/saw/mortise on. Now i can just stand or sit on the work - no problems!

Short Saw Horses:
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I also don’t have anywhere to keep my tools permanently, without the risk of rust in the shed, so I have built a japanese style toolbox to hold all of my best tools - the Stanley Planes now don’t see much action and live in the cupboard.

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Now I am embarking on the journey to make shoji - but at the moment I am just making all the jigs necessary, and practicing my sawing, mortising, and jaguchi joints. Once I have something to show, I will report back

I look forward to continuing this journey with everyone here, learning, and contributing my own lessons learned (mistakes?!) along the way.

Thanks,

Dom