Magazines

It’s all too easy to forget that it all happens with wonderful live trees, so this issue gets to the, er, roots of our obsession – in an entirely good way – with timber, from its felling to ingenious ways of using it. We meet David Vickers who runs a training school that aims to qualify students in safe chainsaw practice among other objectives, and we feature the wooden bicycles made by a Dutch company. A couple of years ago we met Crispin Keyzar, the man who successfully brought down those colossi of the forest, sequoia, and in this issue he shows you how he used wood from this giant to build a mobile thatch-roofed shed. Dave Roberts meanwhile journeys back in time 5000 years to talk ancient bog oaks with Hamish Low.

Michael Huntley shows his foundation course students how to make and use a shooting board to ease the process of planing, and Edward Hopkins visits a furniture maker who is both a perfectionist and a ‘productioniser’. 

Phil Davy cuts into his precious worktop, and Andy King reviews seven jigsaws that would have been more than equal to the job. And Les Thorne turns a trio of objects.