craft – Graeme Skinner

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

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

Box 5

Graeme Skinner — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 18:54:31 +0000

I had a piece of Burr Oak which was calling out to be used, so I decided it would make a nice box lid inset. The sides we made from Maple with some Purpleheart splines in the corners.

Closed dimensions 15x15x15cm

Writing time

Graeme Skinner — Thu, 10 Apr 2025 14:54:53 +0000

Well, not really, decided to try turning a pen, the wood was from a tree that came down in storm Arwen in 2021, the box is from some oak offcuts.

Box 3

Graeme Skinner — Sun, 23 Mar 2025 14:40:29 +0000

Another box burr lid with oak hinges, sides are from steamed beech.

Memories

Graeme Skinner — Fri, 02 Aug 2024 13:52:48 +0000

Memory box time, this one was made as a wedding gift for my niece, and was made from three different woods – Walnut for the two side pieces, Ash for the front and back pieces, then Oak for the lid. For the hinges I used some more of the Walnut, no metal fixing were used on the actual box, though screws were used to fix the name plate inside the lid.

The Wave

Graeme Skinner — Tue, 16 Apr 2024 13:20:18 +0000

Far too many years ago I bought a piece of wood, it wasn’t a large piece of wood but it had very nice grain, it was labelled Tiger Striped Oak not one I’d heard of but I thought would make a nice box lid. Fast forward 15-20 years and I start to plane the wood only to discover a rather unfortunate split, wood being rather expensive these days and still liking the grain I attacked it with an arbotech blade I’d borrowed from my dad. The blade is one of those bits of kit where you check for spurting blood whenever you’ve used it, but, for all it can make you a little nervous in use the results are rather good. For the body of the box I used some remnants of Beech wood that I bought around the same time as I bought the Tiger Striped Oak.

The Wave – 26.5cm x 14cm x 9.5cm

Thanks for the memory

Graeme Skinner — Thu, 19 May 2022 11:45:01 +0000

Another memory box, this time out of Ash and Cherry, with a touch of Walnut (okay, Ash sides, Cherry lid, and Walnut wedges).

*Title stolen from Red Dwarf

Keep on turning

Graeme Skinner — Wed, 06 Aug 2014 17:49:07 +0000

Or, Oh No I turned an Ent!

This morning I decided to start sorting out the new workshop, it’s not the most exciting of jobs but needed doing. After a while of moving boxes of tools, stacking wood….. I put the lathe together and found a suitable place for it. Then I wondered if it still worked as it had been a while since it turned anything. Satisfied that it started I then wondered if the chisels were sharp

This is a piece of Sapele otherwise known as Entandrophragma cylindricum