• Hi all and welcome to TheWoodHaven2 brought into the 21st Century, kicking and screaming! We all have Alasdair to thank for the vast bulk of the heavy lifting to get us here, no more so than me because he's taken away a huge burden of responsibility from my shoulders and brought us to this new shiny home, with all your previous content (hopefully) still intact! Please peruse and feed back. There is still plenty to do, like changing the colour scheme, adding the banner graphic, tweaking the odd setting here and there so I have added a new thread in the 'Technical Issues, Bugs and Feature Requests' forum for you to add any issues you find, any missing settings or just anything you'd like to see added/removed from the feature set that Xenforo offers. We will get to everything over the coming weeks so please be patient, but add anything at all to the thread I mention above and we promise to get to them over the next few days/weeks/months. In the meantime, please enjoy!

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  1. M

    How not to do Customer Service

    I 'm pleased to see that Steve M has had a positive experience with Customer Support from his bank. My recent experience of Customer Support was somewhat different. I recently made a, somewhat rare these days, visit to our local B&Q store a couple of days ago and, inadvertently, left my phone...
  2. M

    For those interested in metal working machinery

    Those of you with an interest in metal working might be interested in this You Tube video - It’s a documentary about the fabrication of the Sterling sub-machine gun at the Royal Ordnance Factory at Fazakerley. From the look of the lorry in the opening shots, the machinists clothing and the...
  3. M

    Why us a handbasin so called?

    A question our daughter, an Occupational Therapist, asked my wife. The answer is that it’s for washing hands not feet! Serious point: if you’re getting on a bit, trying to wash your feet in a handbasin is not a good idea as it’s easy to fall and break something as my wife found out.
  4. M

    Any pyrographers on here?

    Our local Arts Society recently organised an exhibition of arts and crafts produced by our members. The works included paintings, ceramics, quilting, embroidery and stained glass. One of the members, a very talented artist, brought along some pyrography that she had produced. She has only...
  5. M

    Tourist rip-off

    Whilst visiting Snowdonia (apologies to the Welsh) last Autumn, our daughter bought my wife and I a box of fudge which some nice pictures of Snowdonia on it. The size of the box was 9 inches by 6 inches. Opening the box, the packet inside measured 6 inches by 4 inches, i.e. less than half the...
  6. M

    The problem with old houses - part 2

    As mentioned in my previous post, the doors of the house are subject to direct sunshine for part of the day. In the case of the back doors, this is about 6 to 8 hours in the afternoons and evenings in summer with temperatures reaching over 30C whilst in winter, temperatures can drop to -10C. The...
  7. M

    The problem with old houses

    The house where our daughter and family live in France is a bit of a curate’s egg. It’s hard to be sure how old it is, possibly mid-1800s but was obviously built from reclaimed materials possibly 200-300 years old. – one foundation stone has a date of 1661 and, in another place, a stone sink has...
  8. M

    Another use for Accoya

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-67635247 Probably going to cost a fortune but at least it should last; they reckon 50 years. Presumably, in the olden days, they would have used teak.
  9. M

    A decent money earner for some woodworking company

    The village where our daughter and family live in France has a chateau at the top of the hill. Until a few years ago, this was owned by a, somewhat distant, descendant of a knight who went on the Fourth Crusade. The original castle was heavily modified in the 18th century to turn it into a...
  10. M

    I've heard of Grinling Gibbons

    But not of Luke Lightfoot. On a recent trip to East Anglia, my wife and I stopped off at Claydon House, a NT property near Milton Keynes. Although not one of their better-known properties, I was impressed by the wood carvings on the walls, doors and ceilings as well as the marquetry on the...
  11. M

    The Table for the Nation is on the move

    In case you were unaware, “The Table for the Nation”, the 40 foot long bog oak table, is on the move from Ely Cathedral to Rochester Cathedral – see https://www.thefenlandblackoakproject.co.uk/news and https://www.thefenlandblackoakproject.co.uk/the-table It must have been an interesting job...
  12. M

    Transparent wood anyone?

    Following on from the recent thread on timber buildings, I was interested when You Tube recently mentioned to me a video showing the presenter making some transparent wood. In the video, the presenter mentions an article describing a process that has been developed which somewhat differs from...
  13. M

    A couple of woodworking items from New Zealand

    My wife and I are currently in Christchurch New Zealand visiting our daughter and her family. Last week we took a trip into the City centre and called in at the Arts Centre which has been renovated following earthquake damage from the 2011 earthquake. In one of the rooms, they explain how the...
  14. M

    Japanese Carpentry

    Those of you who are interested in Japanese carpentry may be interested in the following video from Robin Clevett. In it, he and his 2 apprentices visit the Japanese Carpentry Exhibition at Japan House for a private guided tour of the exhibition. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo1JP6IZKVk
  15. M

    Health and Safety - French style

    Our daughter and son-in-law in France needed the chimneys swept and there was a problem in that rooks had built nests in the top of a couple of them. So my son-in-law noticed that here were some chaps cleaning chimneys at the top of their village and asked if they could help. Bien sur (for...
  16. M

    M B B

    More bl**dy bureaucracy After hesitating for some time, my wife and I have decided to go to France to see our daughter and her family. It’s her 50th birthday next week so we thought we ought to make the effort despite all the paraphernalia about COVID precautions. We haven’t been over to...
  17. M

    A new addition to the (military) drill manual

    Those of you with a military background may be interested in a new addition to the drill manual, at least in Germany. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ep8QEAelp4 or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SCQr46tQPg How does our Brigade of Guards do it? Elsewhere on this channel, one of the...
  18. M

    80 years ago

    Charles Upham won a VC (his first). Upham was a boyhood hero of mine and featured in a book that I was given as a birthday present ”The Boys Book of VC Heroes”. When journalists talk of footballing or cricketing heroes, I cringe; Upham was a proper hero - see here if you don’t know his story...
  19. M

    Pergola question

    I have a “commission” to build a lean-to pergola for my son and his family. Kits are available but theirs needs to be of a custom size and, unlike many pergolas, they want a sloping “roof”. Although I’ve tried searching the internet, I couldn’t find an answer to my problem. What I need to...
  20. M

    Some of my projects

    Just to show that I do actually do some woodwork from time to time, as well as asking a multitude of questions both here and on the other place, I thought that I’d show some of my attempts at woodwork over the years. It has to be said that I’ve spent a lot of time over the years helping...
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