Graeme Skinner – Graeme Skinner

A drop of snow

Graeme Skinner — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 09:19:54 +0000

Couple of pics from yesterdays wander.

Box #2 2026

Graeme Skinner — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 09:05:32 +0000

Made from Beech, Steamed Pear and Burr, with Sapele splines in the mitres.

Shall I prepare the guest room…

Graeme Skinner — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 14:48:11 +0000

Well, the best laid plans and all that I decided to have a practice making a box using mainly hand tools (I’ve still not sourced a planer thicknesser that I can use/afford) so I shaped an off cut of Elm for the lid which was good fun, then dimensioned some Maple for the sides by hand and shaped the sides. The workshop was rather cold when I wanted to glue it up so I ended up using a large cardboard box and a fan heater pointing into it to keep the glue at a reasonable temperature to work/go off. Sadly I was rushing too much and didn’t check the box was square when I clamped it up and stuck it into the cardboard box, so when I returned today to finish it the box wasn’t square and the lid didn’t fit correctly. Still, you live and learn

Fun with a plane

Graeme Skinner — Fri, 26 Dec 2025 09:54:30 +0000

We thought it would be a good idea to make a charcuterie board as a Christmas gift, I had some nice timber that was waiting for the right project but I still don’t have my planer/thicknesser working which meant the timber had to be planed and dimensioned by hand….

The Oak was really nice to plane…

Though it wasn’t as fun to plane as this Maple….

In the end we had a nice pile of shavings to get the fire started for a few days

Laying out the timber we decided not to use the maple and went with some Oak, Ash, and Walnut. Once it was glued up, scraped to a nice surface, edges rounded over it was time to zap it on the laser…

Serving board, I forgot to measure it before we wrapped it, however the longer edge was around 42cm

It was finished in several coats of food safe mineral oil and rubber feet added to the bottom.

Nice start…

Graeme Skinner — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 13:41:49 +0000

It’s nice to start the day with a sky like this….

Box 8 2025

Graeme Skinner — Mon, 03 Nov 2025 14:55:55 +0000

Or maybe it should be called a tale of two workshops I started this box some time ago as a birthday gift for my dad, unfortunately our landlords decided we really should live somewhere else so before I could finish the box I had to dismantle the workshop and finish it in on the edge of a bit of wood surrounded by packing boxes we haven’t had time to unpack yet

This one is made from quarter sawn oak and wenge, I’ve not used wedge before but it was interesting to use.

Box 7 2025

Graeme Skinner — Mon, 01 Sep 2025 15:57:15 +0000

Box made as a wedding gift using sycamore and walnut…..

Dimensions – 29cm wide 8cm high and 19cm deep

Samye Ling

Graeme Skinner — Sun, 31 Aug 2025 10:24:03 +0000

A few photos from our trip to Samye Ling, though I have to start with the photo of Julie finding the statue of me…

Wandering

Graeme Skinner — Sun, 17 Aug 2025 10:36:38 +0000

A few snaps from our morning wander, some I took just for reference

Box 6

Graeme Skinner — Sun, 17 Aug 2025 09:22:30 +0000

A box from three nice pieces of wood, the oak lid and holly band are from a local Cumbrian source, the walnut is the remnants of a plank I purchased many moons ago. It was finished in oil and several coats of wax. Outer dimensions are 27cm wide, 16cm deep, and 9cm high.