More than twenty years ago I was at a bubblecar rally in my Messerschmitt kr200, at the time I had no serious longings to own a narrowboat.
We went for a wander on the Hatton flight and visited the craft centre where I bought four small pieces of different hardwoods that I could carve into traditional Welsh lovespoons.
These bits of wood have been moved from pillar to post over the years and I have never got around to making anything from them. Recently I found them when we were moving out of my garage in Cardiff.
I decided it was time to make my lovely lady a lovespoon that would reflect my love for her and our love for our pair of boats and in doing so, re-unite the piece of rosewood with it's canal based origins.
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| Pencil drawing the design on the piece of rosewood |
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| I rigged the fretsaw attachment to my treadle lathe |
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| USB LEDs, bought from a pound shop, help me see what I'm cutting |
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| It was about this time that my chisel slipped and chopped the top off my little finger! I struggled to find the piece in the woodchips and to open the first aid kit with one hand. Once I found the lost bit of finger, complete with fingernail, I went around my neighbour's boats asking for superglue to stick it back on, Rita insisted that she clean my wound and patch me up minus the bit! "Too many germs", she said. | |
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| So now the lovespoon was rosewood with a splash or two of my blood! Love or what? LOL! |
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| Freyja takes shape |
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| Freyja and Christina roughed out |
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| Starting to take shape |
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| Busy working on the real boats at the moment, hopefully get a chance to carve the finer details when I'm back out on tour. |
