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Stirling Women’s Shed – an exciting partnership!

We are excited to report that The Joy of Wood entered into a pilot partnership with The City of Stirling, from 1 July 2023, to operate and to grow the Stirling Women’s Shed in its current location in Scarborough. The City of Stirling and The Joy of Wood are committed to working together to continue…

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Homeschoolers! – Come and learn some woodworking skills!

We have been running workshops with Homeschooled kids and families for many years – until the arrival of Covid. That changed everything. Now, here we are nearly 5 years later, and we are very pleased to be putting the wheels back on for Homeschoolers again! It is very exciting! The thing to remember about these…

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Hooray! Public Workshops are back! Don’t miss them.

We haven’t run any Public Workshops since the Western Australian Covid-19 lockdown, in mid-March 2019. So we are delighted to be back running an “interim” Public Workshop Program in January/February 2021. To comply with social distancing requirements, we have a maximum of 6 participants in each workshop – so you need to be quick to…

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Adapting to Covid-19.

The world as we know it has changed considerably in the first part of 2020. The Covid-19 Pandemic is still sweeping the world as I write this. Millions of people around the world are in isolation, practising “social distancing” as a way of reducing the spread of the virus and keeping each other safe. People…

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A Shaving Horse for Kids!

Introducing our Adjustable and Portable Shaving Horse for Kids! At our Heritage Woodcraft Centre, we have a varied stable of Shaving Horses, but I have been conscious for a while that none of them suit the younger kids that we work with. The kids’ legs are too short to effectively use them. So it was…

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The Humanity in Hand Tools

What delights me most these days is the way my two great passions come together: working with wood and working with people. Almost every day I get to teach and encourage people of all ages in the wonders of Woodcraft. This year, 2019, marks 10 years since I started running hand tool woodworking workshops. It’s…

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The Joy of PalletCraft – Recycling Pallets and Packing Crates.

Pallets and packing crates are moving around the world in the countless millions  every day. The majority are made from wood, and while many are reused again and again, there is a massive number here in Australia which end up in landfill.  Madness, really, for the following reasons: 1. Organic matter in an anaerobic decomposition…

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Combining a Shaving Horse and Bowl Carving Bench – My “Mk III” Shaving Horse.

I’ve got about 8 shaving horses, which I use for running public workshops. I had previously made a batch of shaving horses from packing crate material and other recycled wood, which I did a post about  in July 2014. Since then I have made another version, like a super-modified saw horse. Let’s call it the…

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Love that Double Spring Pole Lathe!

It all started when I did the Woodcraft Week with Roy Underhill in North Carolina in November 2013. I saw and tried Roy’s Double Spring Pole Lathe. Roy Underhill at work on his Spring Pole Lathe. Roy’s lathe knocks down and all fits into a golf bag! It was the first time I had seen…

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Back to basics – making Lund Stools.

One of the things I love about green woodworking is the sense of history behind it. We use ancient skills and techniques to make simple functional items from pieces of trees. Then there is the magic of making… sharing something with other craftspeople down through the ages.  I have been enjoying following Christopher Schwarz ‘ posts about the…

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