Recycled Custody Counter

[Wildfuzz]

Our station is being demolished so I snaffled the old custody counter from the builders, it seemed too good to go in a skip. turned this shallow platter from one piece, Ionder what the previous customers would say!!!!!!

 

 

 

[Wildfuzz]

24" x 1 1/2"

[Wildfuzz]

Laminated oak worktop.

[Essexgirl]

That is lovely. Well done. Being an ex-police officer myself (my husband still is) I like the idea of having a lasting memento. Essex are closing lots of their stations too. I will have to see if my husband can salvage the custody counter at our local nick, when the time comes!

Andrea

[BroadScot]

Well done Stuart,  clever laddie, you are in the wrong job !

Iain

[Wildfuzz]

22 minutes ago, Essexgirl said:

That is lovely. Well done. Being an ex-police officer myself (my husband still is) I like the idea of having a lasting memento. Essex are closing lots of their stations too. I will have to see if my husband can salvage the custody counter at our local nick, when the time comes!

Andrea

Yes I started in Essex myself, Clacton, Colchester and Brightlingsea to name a few, must say I wouldn't go back now, Norfolk is as good as it gets. If hubby does get the counter give me a call and I will see what I can do for memento for the troops.

 

S. 

[Essexgirl]

That would be lovely, thank you. Nothing official has been said yet but departments are being moved and it's only a matter of time... Criminal to think how it has changed since I started in 1993. 

[Timbo]

Excellent work...I'm saving hard for a lathe now!

47 minutes ago, Wildfuzz said:

 wonder what the previous customers would say!!!!!!

I was framed...if it weren't for these meddling kids! 

[Viking23]

A source of cheap well seasoned wood can be your local charity shop that do old furniture, or similarly free cycle.

The older the better, the older timber is more likely to be decent timber, like mahogany or oak for example, the denser the better. Just run a plane over an edge of the timber and you will see the richness of the wood coming through.

We have so called "hardwood" windows but the grain is so open, it is like balsa wood, and if not treated, will rot quicker than pine.

Modern timbers are not seasoned, they cut the tree down on a Monday, it's at the saw mill on a Wednesday then cut into planks, on Friday it's being cut and shrink wrapped, and on Sunday, it's in goods inwards at your local Wickes. I often wonder if you stuck it in the ground it would start growing again.

How many of us have bought a prepack of 10 lathes, only to cut one of the straps for it to explode in a flower arrangement, but just of stalks. 

I spend hours at places like Wickes selecting timber, often rejecting 80% due to warps, bends or twists, when I do find one, it is full of shakes.

 

 

[Wildfuzz]

My lawn needs cutting as well I noticed!

[Timbo]

14 minutes ago, Viking23 said:

A source of cheap well seasoned wood can be your local charity shop that do old furniture, or similarly free cycle.

The older the better, the older timber is more likely to be decent timber, like mahogany or oak for example, the denser the better. Just run a plane over an edge of the timber and you will see the richness of the wood coming through.

We have so called "hardwood" windows but the grain is so open, it is like balsa wood, and if not treated, will rot quicker than pine.

Modern timbers are not seasoned, they cut the tree down on a Monday, it's at the saw mill on a Wednesday then cut into planks, on Friday it's being cut and shrink wrapped, and on Sunday, it's in goods inwards at your local Wickes. I often wonder if you stuck it in the ground it would start growing again.

How many of us have bought a prepack of 10 lathes, only to cut one of the straps for it to explode in a flower arrangement, but just of stalks. 

I spend hours at places like Wickes selecting timber, often rejecting 80% due to warps, bends or twists, when I do find one, it is full of shakes.

 

 

Like Viking says, finding decent timber is a right pain in the backside. Keeping everything square is a big battle for me. Even though I have a planer/thicknesser it's never properly square. Finding a good woodyard is half the battle though. At home I use Skuma Timber in Sunny Scunny. They have a reasonable selection of hardwoods and when they know it's for me they mill to my requirements. Tim Collins at Wroxham always makes me chuckle as when he knows it's me he looks for the straightest possible board knowing I will probably make a hash of it whereas if I tell him Doug is helping he knows Doug will do a better job of making straight and true.

After watching a Tubeface video of a standard Home Decor store's timber section I lament the lack of similar in the UK. Such a choice of timber from walnut, through oak to purple heart, maple and cherry...If only!

[JanetAnne]

1 hour ago, Timbo said:

Like Viking says, finding decent timber is a right pain in the backside. 

The best timber we have used so far have been two mahogany steps rescued from Norwich Debenhams staircase when the store was refitted. They now form part of the cabin side framework and the colour, now varnished, is beautiful.

Reclaimed wood is far better quality than the modern equivalent. We can tell if it's old because the first thing we have to do is sharpen the chisels!

[Wildfuzz]

I mill my own as far as possible, I go cap in hand to local Arborists and buy the logs, then mill season and prepare as much of my own timber as I can. The picture is of an old oak log that had been sitting in a yard for years, firewood price, milled it into some boards and made a wand display rack for a friend.

[Wildfuzz]

Its a kind of magic..........

[BroadScot]

Give up the day job Stuart !!!! You are wasting a talent being a plod ! 

Iain

[Wildfuzz]

Its very different doing it for the enjoyment as to making a living, my hourly rate on some of the stuff I do would have to be enormous..... Besides doing something because you want to, is very different to doing it because you have to. How many builders still have walls to build or rooms to plaster at home....... For me its the fun and distraction that makes the wood work enjoyable, for the money and mortgage I go to work.  Nice thought though.

[BroadScot]

Can see where you are coming from Stuart, but as a tradesman, all be it a retired one, I do admire your skills with wood. 

Iain

[grendel]

another good source for straight true timber is ikea's sin bin of bits and pieces, often it is laminated and has those special joints in the laminations, but its straight and good and strong (often stronger than a single piece of wood), and from the sin bin its cheaper than a piece from a timber merchant.

[Wildfuzz]

I just cringe when I see firewood being delivered, the rocking horse I made for my son the year before he was born from a tree that a neighbor had felled and was gradually burning in his back garden. Now there is a family heirloom instead of 20 minutes heat up a chimney

[BroadScot]

9 minutes ago, Wildfuzz said:

I just cringe when I see firewood being delivered, the rocking horse I made for my son the year before he was born from a tree that a neighbor had felled and was gradually burning in his back garden. Now there is a family heirloom instead of 20 minutes heat up a chimney

Superb !!! 

[ExUserGone]

I would like a momento from a police station too, any chance you could get a burglar stuffed and mounted for me Stuart?

[Poppy]

11 minutes ago, LeoMagill said:

I would like a momento from a police station too, any chance you could get a burglar stuffed and mounted for me Stuart?

Any old doughnuts knocking about.....? Probably not, I suppose.

[Wildfuzz]

16 minutes ago, LeoMagill said:

I would like a momento from a police station too, any chance you could get a burglar stuffed and mounted for me Stuart?

Taxidermy not my forte but not through lack of trying!!

2 minutes ago, Poppy said:

Any old doughnuts knocking about.....? Probably not, I suppose.

My body is a temple!!

[ExUserGone]

30 minutes ago, Wildfuzz said:

My body is a temple!!

You mean an ancient ruin???

[Essexgirl]

The rocking horse is superb! Well done!