A set of three mitred Keep Sake boxes with floating bases and character wood lids. Blue decoupage paper in the box lining gives a splash of colour and adds a rich contrast to the warm woody tones.

Throughout my career I’ve used native scottish hardwoods almost exclusively. There is a sense of place and environment about locally sourced timber that appeals to me and suits my work.

When I set up the workshop a couple of years ago I bought this second hand Axminster ADE 1200 extractor as a temporary ‘fix’ for my extraction needs. Fastfoward to now and I’m still using it…

The Festool CTL is a ideal small shop vac that works well with most powertools. But can it be made better? Adding a cyclone separator filters out most of the waste before it gets to the expensive dust bags.

Back in January I spent a couple of days up in Inverurie milling Elm with Keith Threadgall and Tom Cooper. Despite the cold weather we got some good cutting done and graded through 7 tonnes of logs. We were fortunate to be able to pick and choose from 20 plus tonnes of Elm to get a good mix of straight grain, character and burr boards. Lengths varied from 1500 to 2800mm and upto 500mm wide which we cut to our usual sizes of 32, 40 and 54mm thickness with a few boards at 60mm too.

It all begins with an idea.