I'm feeling a bit down today and it's all to do with nails.
Yes, that's right,
nails. And I'm not talking about a bad manicure.
I'm talking about hidden nails in the original hardwood floorboards from our old house.
I've been harping on for ages about how I was going to get a table made from them and when we finally get around to talking with a specialist furniture maker (today), we discover there are hidden nails in the boards which mean they can't be tarted up in a machine. Even if they're taken out, they'll leave large, unslightly holes.
We found all this out after making a trip up the Northern Beaches to Mona Vale where craftsman and furniture-maker
Jeffrey Broadfield has a studio. I learnt about his work when I did a story for
Green Magazine on ultra-green architects and lifestylers Ashley Dunn and Lee Hillam of
Workshop 1. Anyway ... It wasn't until Jeffrey put one of the boards in his machine sander to check out the wood that he discovered the nails. And, thankfully, didn't ruin his machine! The sanded wood ended up like this ...
Jeffrey does some amazing things. He showed us a massive door made from ironbark that was 3 metres by 1.8 metres, custom-made for someone's house and a bathroom basin made from recycled wood surrounding a copper chef's bowl - very cool. My plan had been to have a long, narrow trestle-style table that could line the stone wall which will flank one side of the entrance hall.
But, alas, useless timber and a floorboard table we will not have. Sigh ...
