Surfboard Meeting Table

This job took me back a little.

This is the second time I've made a Surfboard table; the last one was the Surfboard Coffee Table
back in June 2013 which I designed and created to expand my work.

This one is a world away from that one; at 3 metres long (10ft) and a very high 110cm tall (431/2").. it's much bigger, which was the initial brief from Sketch Studios.

The only way that I felt the Surfboard would look right, was if it was a 1950's style longboard, with quite a traditional look, sitting on the trestles or bench that it was made and finished on.

The juxtaposition of the stripey high gloss board with an old, well used and distressed frame meant the board could be complimented well. Made from Grey 'Sun bleached' timber that would work, and look great on the South coast of the UK.


Normally here, I would go through how I built this seriously cool table...

This time, a lot of the build was on Twitter with finer details and explanations for my followers to view. https://twitter.com/jam73e

We have taken so many photos, that when I came to edit them down, I had about thirty left and just thought I'd put loads on here for you (and me).

So here you go, enjoy (by the way, new photos added at the end of the table in situ )

Please click on photos to enlarge

In the display area of my workshop

The framework beneath

This timber was new, but Sun bleached.

All new cuts i.e. joints exposed 'new' wood, so it all had to be coloured to get back to the Grey finish.

We carried the table outside to get some natural light onto it.

Love the reflections of light through the trees.

The Ash & Sapele was a good choice as the woods 

compliment each other highly.

It was difficult to choose the images to not include,

 its just so cool.

Well, every now and then you have to be in the frame...

Probably my favourite (above) 

And you can't help but run your hands over it. Silky smooth, Cheers Matt

I'm 5'9" so this shows the scale

The underside in the daylight is just so great.. I love it

Hopefully you'll agree, it just doesn't look new, at all.

The paint splats and drips.

With my stamp just on the end grain of the through tenon.

Carpet over the top timbers to keep from scratching the board when you are polishing them up.

Love the Grey and the honesty of the jointing.. I've even used nails to show the simplicity of the framework that would be made for this 'workhorse'.

Another few in a different location..

Then back into the workshop to finish off 

More wax on the fin.

Satin finished on the underside, all sealed and waxed on here.

Under the bottom rail.

Had to be dated.

Back on the floor where it was distressed.. 

Just fits in perfectly as 'the bench they were made on'.

Rings and drips.. love it.

Remember all of this frame was only made last week. 

I hope you enjoyed that. I loved making it and especially the finishing on the base.

Thank you list.

Beth, for finding me.

Ruth, great communication during build.

Tom, intern with me. "Only a few weeks left now Tom"

Matt, for the high gloss.

Ellie, photos and delivery.

You can follow me on here and on Twitter, where you would see more work in progress shots and during build photos.

Thanks for looking 

All the best

Jamie

Here are the photos of the table in the office, a great setting for this unusual table.

So much daylight.. 

Love the lighting above.. great colour scheme 

the contrast of the top and the base makes me smile...

The view as you walk in from the decking

The view as you walk in towards the meeting room.

The gloss is great, and you can now see the decking, with it's great weathered look

Do you want something different ? or need something different ?

Thanks for looking

Jamie

During the.. International Festival of Glass 2015

I've heard so much about this Festival of Glass. The last one was in 2012,

Just before I first visited the Ruskin Glass Centre so I missed it, and missed out apparently.

The Festival was moved from 2014 to 2015 due to more building work that would have made it harder to get around the site. So its been three years since the last one, and I was trying to think 'where do I fit into all this' ?

I'm in one of the renovated old buildings, on the site of the old Webb Corbett glass factory, where glass has been made for hundreds of years. Having my workshop in the front corner of this great building. I felt that I really needed to do something to stand out from all of the glass around. People come to see shiny glass.

'Would they be interested in looking at Wood' ?

Firstly mine is a workshop, that I make either make or restore everything that goes through the doors, so I have machinery and benches and quite a few tools.

Then, I would need more space for people to come further into my workshop. They had 20,000 visitors around a number of different sites in Stourbridge at the last Festival.
I then thought that if I make more room, I need to give people more pieces to see... After a chat with a couple of friends (that were customers) I could get a few bespoke pieces back into the workshop for people to see...

Then it hit me, its more of an exhibition. so why not call it that and invite people to come and see pieces that they would normally not get to see.

so here it is.. Jamie Hubbard Furniture Exhibition

Exhibition of Furniture & Accessories.

28th - 30th May 2015
9am-9pm

Here are some of the items on display;

Thomas Chippendale Mahogany Pillar

and claw tripod table 1992

Art Deco inspired Display Cabinet 1992

The Olympic Torch in Wood 2012



Surfboard Coffee Table 2013

75th Anniversary carved wooden book 2013



Big J 2013

Bespoke Stool for #SSBO 2014

pictures to be added

View blog post

The Grand Designs collection 2014

Alice in Wonderland dressing table 2014

pictures to be added

View blog post

Natures Ash Stool 2015

new piece completed for the show

Ash Trestle table 2015

new piece completed for the show

A variety of chopping, cutting and carving boards

Including Nando's, Beech Tree, and the Bombay Gin Set Trio.

This list will be added to, and pictures added between now and the event.
Keep coming back to see what else has been added.

Please contact me on 07801 289 438 if you require any more details.

I hope you can come along and see these pieces together for the first time.


Jamie

Wooden pram in Elm

I just loved making this wooden pram.

When Helen brought me a picture of the type of pram she wanted for her little daughters 2nd birthday, like this but more handmade, in lovely wood, just natural...

The way you make things... I just had to say yes.

This is from Myriad

I'd got a few weeks, so I was asking around timberyards for something a little different. An old yard with loads of reclaimed wood came into mind. I went to see them and remembered that they once had a quantity of thin Elm planks that were from the end of an old barn.

I found them, tucked away under loads of other timbers, not as many as I thought.. 

So I had what was left.

 click on photo to enlarge

The grain in this Elm was wonderful..

It had all been protected under a few coats of Sikkens, and this just peeled away, like peeling gloss paint from an old window that wasn't keyed up properly. So I let it dry for a while..

I invited Helen in to see the timber and we set to working on patterns. That way we could come up with a design that would work with the doll she was making.

Made not just suit her little one's needs now, but also as time goes by, it could have the wheels and handle removed to just leave a cradle. So most of the joints are fixed, but parts can be removed for repairs if needed.

Not many photos of the pram during build but here are some of the finished pram.

List of timber used;

• Elm - recycled
• Oak - from off cuts
• Cherry - from offcuts
• Sweet Chestnut - from a friend, who is a local Woodsman. - offcuts 

Here it is finished

And here is the finished pram.. I just love the recycled Elm body of the pram..

.. fabulous colours..

Even the waney edge has been left on in places, then just rounded off to soften the edges

Helen's daughters initials CRC carved into the back of the Elm

The 'rolling pin' Sweet chestnut handle, suits little hands and good for adults to carry too.. 

The ends of the Sweet Chestnut coming through the side of the Oak handle supports.

Wedged to hold the handle in place and firm. 

The wheels are in Cherry, with Sweet Chestnut hub caps

Helen came in to pick it up, and bought Lucy the doll to see how it all fits together..

A labour of love on both sides, it worked really well.

Helen emailed me.

Thanks for looking

All the best

Jamie 

Take an old Pair of jeans...

This blog post has been in 'drafts' since March last year, I was going to do a photo type instruction, but just don't have the time anymore, so just a basic instruction,  but feel that now would be a good time, as more and more people are recycling things. I hope you like it, if you do you can follow my blog and get updates when I publish new posts.

cheers

Jamie

March 2nd 2014

A new apron

In the workshop I'm finding that my apron of twenty years is getting more grubby, and when I'm oiling a timber bread board or serving board it's really suffering..

So what to do..

I don't keep rubbish, (I'm sure Lynn would disagree.. well I try not to)..  but I haven't thrown a pair of jeans away for a while, and then when I was trying to work out what fabric to use for a new apron.. I thought, That's it.. jeans..I've got three pairs that were going to be used for something else...but... (I'll tell you in another post)

They fit me still, with some thinning on the knees..and the length of the leg, is just right for the length of my body, for an apron.

Ahh..therefore, a ten year old's jeans would suit the height of a ten year old..

Simple..If you are a larger person, you need a larger apron... you have larger jeans..

You have to use your old jeans. That way you get to re-use your old clothes. If there's a hole in them, then we'll cover it with a patch or a pocket. or your favourite band patch or football club

Right, now for my pet hates..Boyfriend jeans..I hate them, honestly girls, they were just wrong. And if anyone said you looked good in them..they were lying, I'm sorry to have to tell you that ladies.  (Yes, I lied too)..

And if you still have them and you're not going to wear them again... cut them up..

I spent all of that Sunday working out how best to get a pair of jeans to work out as easy as possible.

One pair of jeans into one apron... an apron you can wash with the work-wear or other jeans..easy

                                                           So this is my first apron..

click on photo to enlarge

So with minimal sewing you can achieve a pretty good apron. 

A quick 'how to' for you... 

1. The centre panel and left panel are still original seams (left leg, front & back)
2. The right hand panel is the back of my right leg
3. The bottom seams are the bottom of the jeans
4. Patch pocket at the top is still in the original position (bum pocket)
5. With the waist pocket made from the front of my right leg (avoiding a hole)
6. The top seam is that seam just under the waistband...have a look, it does make sense.
7. Finally, the neck loop and waist ties are from the leftover thick seams.

go on have a go.

All the best

Jamie

Wenge chair arm fix

Just a short post

Antique Yew Windsor Bow chair

The deeper you dig, the more you find..

Steve bought this chair in for me to repair after he had fallen over and landed on top of it, easily done. And at first glance there was a fair bit to do, but not too bad.

Here's the finished chair.

List of jobs to do.

1. Crinoline stretcher broken joints both ends. One broke clean off at leg 'clean break', the other split from right hand end.
2. One broken stub stretcher joint (needs doweling back into crinoline stretcher)
3. One split stub stretcher at the crinoline joint (that had previously been restored) Needs a new piece of Yew scarfed in.

Here's the chair before I started working on it.

Yes, that's how it looked..

Top of the photo shows the stub stretcher with the previous fix,

bottom of the photo is the split crinoline end..

Top of this photo shows the broken tenon/spigot

bottom of the pic is the 'clean break'

So I started by fixing the scarf on the one end of the crinoline

Using an old piece of Yew I sorted out the scarf joint.

I planned to shape some of the old timber into the shape of the new,

this will help lose the perfectly straight joint line and blend the colours in.

This is the repair to the split stub stretcher with the old dowel.

That old dowel has been removed by planing the area flat to take the new piece of Yew.

The new parts have been fitted into place.

I've copied the whittled ends of the stretcher to ensure they look the same.

To get the crinoline and stub stretchers back into the sockets of the legs, I had to loosen the back legs. One of them came out quite easily, the other was a bit tighter, but what I found, was that the rear of the Elm saddled seat had lots of woodworm, the dust was just falling from the seat with each tap of the hammer.

After Setting the legs back in place, and using sash cramps to ensure the back of the seat was going to be structurally sound and included in the glue up of the rear legs, I treated the woodworm. With a quality woodworm killer, using a syringe, I injected the fluid into every hole and crevice in the chair.

I then noticed that the seat either side had a split in the edge, just a small step in the Elm

Here it is, just by the two holes.

And the other side, not too sure what the yellow patch is but I left it alone.

When the legs were out there was no evidence of a fixing screw so..

With no evidence of the split across the seat,

but you can just see a crack line between the spindles.

I then decided that the chair needed all the help that I could give it. So a week or so after the woodworm treatment was dry, I used another syringe to inject a very strong resin adhesive into the old flight holes. Over 80 holes were filled, with the glue occasionally coming out through some of the other holes.. I used at least three 30ml syringes full of adhesive.. 

that's a lot of glue going down 1.5 -2mm diametre holes.

After the adhesive was applied I then removed all drips and wiped out the adhesive from the flight holes, I was after a small dimple in each hole, that would then be a pocket for a small amount of dark wax. This would then give the appearance of very old holes that had been filled with waxing and polishing over a period of years.

It's worked really well, and the chair is now looking great.

After stain and polishing, then a few coats of wax polish the chair was done.

The chair has had a few more wax polishes since these photographs were taken, 

and looks even better.. I'll be sad to see it go, it's been a roller-coaster.

Till the next time

Jamie