I have always wanted to be a woodworker. As a small child I often said was going to be a carpenter when I grew up. I always had a desire to work with wood, be it turning, repairing, designing or building. I don’t recall when I first began delving into woodcraft, but I was 13 when my mum’s father gave me his lathe and I tried turning – and that was when I truly found my love of woodworking.
Woodwork has been in my family going back to the mid-1800s – my paternal great grandfather was a carpenter and I use some of his tools to this day. I have two wood infill planes that I use in a lot of my work, one of which I use as a finishing plane and which I believe dates from the 1870s. I try to finish a lot of my work straight off the tool and avoid using sandpaper whenever I can.
I started my apprenticeship in 2004 in antique restoration and custom furniture north of Brisbane. After finishing my apprenticeship in 2008 I began working for Barnes Construction and Joinery.
