05 April 2009

Pixies in the Woodshed


Saturday was Yandles day, and what a glorious day it was too...a real Spring day, mild and sunny. I had a pleasant motor down to Martock in the Landy and having parked, went to say 'hi' to Philly and then bumped into Martin and Waka for a natter. I then went over to the woodshop and had a rummage around for a piece of burr material for the inlaid sections of the cherry table. After a lot of ferretting about I managed to find a really good piece of elm burr which was just about the right size at a very reasonable price of £18 so I was moderatly pleased with that. I then had a wander round all the machinery stalls and was looking at a Record table saw in particular which quite caught my fancy. Seeing the TS200 in the flesh reincforced my already high opinion of it, so it may well be a contender in a couple of years time...it's certainly the right size. I also had a decent chat with the Camvac rep who convinced me that an extraction system based on one of their machines would be better than a conventional twin bag system...one of the mitigating features was that the footprint in the 'shop would be a lot smaller than the equivalent system from Axminster.
Then I decided to have a wander out to the woodshed again to see if there were any decent offerings to be had...in particular I was after some more elm for another cabinet later on. After a couple of minutes of turning over boards I spotted a decent bit that was about 60mm thick. I had a good look at it and saw there was a bit of worm in the sap...''not too bad, whip that off when I get home'' I thought, so I happily continued to turn over the elm and found another couple of decent bits, paid for them and loaded them up into the Landy.
When I got home though, to my complete and utter bloody dismay, there was a load of worm holes in the 'so called' decent heartwood of my big bit of elm...it was only when I got home and saw the stuff in the bright sunshine than I spotted the tell tale holes. Now I know we've all heard of the Gnomes of Zurich and their mysterious 'goings on' deep in the bowels of unknown Swiss banks but I'm totally convinced that they've got got malignant little pixie cousins who live in the woodshed at Yandles, 'cos when I was there examining that bloody timber, I didn't spot the worm holes...they'd put a spell on it!!
Even more astounding, and I can already hear you sniggering to yourselves...this isn't the first time it's happened. Is it me, or should I have gone to Specsavers?

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