[The Apprentice]

My faviorite subjects at school were woodwork and metalwork, where I was lucky enough to have extra tuition in those subjects and could skip classes and avoid other mundane levels of education.

Here in many of my creations shown is the culmination of those real life skills, that in my humble opinion society is by and large seriously lacking today in young hands, skills that were extant fourty years ago right across the United Kingdom.

My homemade Dutch style greenhouse made predominantly from Western Red Cedar, the traditional timber for a long lasting wooden structure, known for its anti rotting properties.

The whole structure sits on top of two elongated raised beds, leaving a meter wide central well in between, the two raised beds and or boxes were made from recycled scaffold boards, she has a footprint measuring ten feet square, made possible by the Leaning Dutch style construction.

The toal cost for materials including the twin skin plastic glass and two sliding rails for the doors came to six hundred pounds, which is a huge saving from the retail world, a saving of almost three thousand pounds at this specification today.


20160923_122904 by apprentice 01, on Flickr

The entire structure was made on this one hundred pounds budget style table saw, all of the beading which holds the glass in place was carefully cut from the corners of the two inch square sections which leaves behind a corner shoulder at the same time for the glass to sit, then the whole frame is dry screwed together for easy dissasembly as and when repairs are needed.

20150101_000215 by apprentice 01, on Flickr

Showing the internal spaces, she has two sliding doors, one at either end and two internal upper shelves made using standard 2 by 1 inch wooden roofing lathes, on one side shelf I errected an enclosed hot box for bringing on early seedling. 

The floor of the hot box become one of those shelves which allows a through flow of air so things don't get too hot on the warmer spring days, this flow can be regulated by pushing the lathes closer or further apart, it works very well without extra heating needed earlier in the season.

20150101_002242 by apprentice 01, on Flickr

Once the seedlings become plants we place them on another removeable wooden table and then down on the soil once the last frosts of spring have passed to harden them off before planting out, we have had great success doing it this way for over 15 years.


20170501_183127 by apprentice 01, on Flickr

20170414_180138 by apprentice 01, on Flickr

Solid copper watering can by Haws, wooden foldable table shelf is from the fifties.

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One of my other hobbies is keeping Honey bees, here is my homemade Solar wax melter for recycling my wax for making candles and wax blocks for my shoemaking hobby, works great for seasoning my waxed twin cords for sewing in my shoe soles.

It was made from the cheaper grade shuttering plywood to a pattern I saw several years ago, the entire box section is dovetailed together and built around a stainless steel catering tray which sits inside, and is also dismantleable for easy repairs and held together without any glue by a few screws overall.

The lid is made from the same double glazing glass units as my garden mini greenhouses,  the two panes of glass have a 20.00mm gap to allow superb insulating properties, I have recoded a temp of 258 degrees on a sunny day inside, which is more than enough heat to melt beeswax which melts at 140 + degrees.

20150101_015549 by apprentice 01, on Flickr


It has a double compartment in the guise of a cooler lower box at the front where you place  glass bowl containing a little water for the wax to drop through from the upper sealed compartment so it is cooler to handle when emptying the bowl, this is done through a sliding door at the front without needing to lift the lid during the melting process and letting out any heat that has built up inside, she is a superb user feindly addition to my beekeeping tools.

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My homemade kitchen wooden preperation block, made from Douglas Fire blocks, each block is cut and positioned so the end grain is facing upwards for greater durability and then glued together and clamped securly using high strength ratchet straps, then I coated the whole block with boiled linseed oil for a good waterproof seal, which can be cleaned and re-oiled whenever needed.

20150103_012008 by apprentice 01, on Flickr

This is one of the most used items in our kitchen today and should last for many years to come.

20150103_082336 by apprentice 01, on Flickr



Next is my homemade shaving horse or often called in antiquity as the old grey maire, made from a solid plank of English Elm with a unique ratchet style system on the clamping jaw/table, in the form of a solid English oak ratchet and pall stytem instead of the traditinal wooden wedge that is normally placed between the main plank or seat and the tilting table.

A quick flic of the locking pall in the seating plank then you can raise or lower the table to accomodate any thickness of material up to five inches and it will never slip out like a wooden wedge can under duress during use.


20150101_015531 by apprentice 01, on Flickr


If anyone would like more pictures etc to have a go at making any of these items yourself you are welcome to visit or have some layout plans etc.

Please note, non of these items are for sale.

Thanks for looking.