Woodrat's journey

[woodrat]

Well a few of you knew that I slipped out of the country for a little while. I have been in the UK visiting friends and doing some other guitar related stuff....those who know me know that means looking for wood

Well I have managed to sniff out a few gems in some antique shops here in the South West. My friends live in Exeter which is a beautiful city that was a Roman town about 1800 years ago....yes thats right 1800 years! In those days it was known as Isca. I have walked the wall of the old city which was built on top of the old Roman wall...you can still see some of the old Roman wall in places but what you see today is essentially the medieval wall that was built over the Roman foundations. I think most of the Roman wall was pilfered for building stone after they left around AD400.
Anyway...I thought that I would show some pics of what I have found. I found the best find first in an antique shop in a nearby town called Honiton. It is a solid Brazilian rosewood drop side table with two leaves that are 17mm thick old growth BRW. I then found a late Georgian breakfast table with what I think is Cuban mahogany about 25mm thick. After that I found a solid Brazilian Mahogany bed head that is very well quartered and about 25mm thick too. Yesterday I went to an Auction house in Torquay and bought a solid Brazilian Mahogany table with a top that is one piece of mahogany that is about 1500 by 1100. The rails on the table are perfectly quarter sawn and will make lovely necks. It was passed in at the previous auction and I asked how much I could buy it for and the Auctioneer said that the owner would take £30 for it....you can imagine how long it took me to think that one over! It was a hand made table about 120 years old, late Victorian. The maker had done his working out for materials and what the final cost would be on the unerneath of the top. The whole top cost 16 shillings and the rails 12s. The polishing cost £1-3-0 for a total of £3-2-6 but in the other workings the total came to £4-2-6 so I am guessing that he made the table for the difference....£1 exactly!
Today I broke the furniture down to what I wanted to send home. I did it in
my friends back garden which as you can see is hardly big enough to swing a cat but I managed Tomorrow I am going to make a crate up at my friends fathers workshop to sea freight it home.

John AKA WoodRat

[charangohabsburg]

Congrats Woodrat. These are some very nice guitars!

[Nick]

Australian Herald headlines....
"Aussie buys up British Heritage"
John the Woodrat, a member of our fine colonial population, has today single handedly eliminated much of Britain's fine and proud heritage by buying, at bargain basement prices, all of it's historical wooden furnishings.
John is said to be ecstatic at his purchases but Harry Bludgenal, head of the British Heritage Society, is quoted as saying "It's criminal that these colonials are allowed to come over here and purchase such rare and valuable items that are so integral to our history. The last time such rape and pillage was seen on such a scale in these fair isles, the culprits were wearing pointy metal hats with horns on them but weren't carrying passports."
To add further insult to injury, Mr Bludgenal is said to be recovering comfortably in hospital after suffering a major heart attack last week, it is believed it was partially triggered by being told that John was seen to have had taken to the priceless furniture with a rip saw and screwdriver in order to make his purchases small enough to ship back home to Australia, what's more, pictures were proudly posted on a local Australian Guitar forum for all to see of his plunders. The final straw however, was when John was to have reportedly said "What I can't convert into guitars should burn well in the Pizza oven." Harry was apoplectic which pushed him fully into the near fatal attack.
As a proud Aussie, this reporter says..........."Onya John!"

Nice purchases John

[P Bill]

I can only hope, in the timber scarce future, no one finds a use for old guitars.

[Kim]

Very noice!!!

So what's ur mate's gate that's behind you in the first image made of Woodrat??

Probably get a few tenors outa that sign to.

Cheers

Kim

[peter.coombe]

Hello John

Nice finds. So how are you going to import all that CITES listed stuff into Australia? The mahogany should be ok, but the Rosewood will need paperwork.

Peter

[Tod Gilding]

Good to see you found your way home John. And with good finds, well done

[DarwinStrings]

40 Shilllings for not shutting the gate, wish I could charge my kids that for not shutting the flyscreen door. If the Red Coats come looking for you John we will defend you and your stash till the bitter end.

Jim

[liam_fnq]

There's lots of great timber out there for building guitars but that beautiful furniture is gone for ever..............

[ozwood]

John,



Like the little girl says on the natural confectionary company tv ad ............. Chop it........ boring old english furniture .


catch you when you get back.

cheers,

[kiwigeo]

Should be an interesting episode of "Border Patrol" coming up..

[P Bill]

This could start a new trend. Now every furniture maker will need guitar templates in his kit and thru inlay to thwart future resawing. The tops, gables, rails, draw fronts will be guitar pattern traced and an inlay design worked out. It could work.

[Nick]

Hey John, just had a thought, there must be a few empty IKEA boxes laying around in Britain. Shove your plunders, I mean purchases in those and bring them back in to OZ as "Flat pack furniture". Wouldn't be too far from the truth (so you couldn't be had for a false declaration) and wouldn't raise too many alarm bells at the border .

[Shane Woonton]

That is awesome.

I'll never watch the Antiques Roadshow the same way again!

Shane

[Gazm]

Be SCARED ye old Motherland !! Wiley Aussie Wood fox is on the prowl & NOTHING is sacred to a Brazilian starved lad from downunder...sic em Rex!!!
[ dibs on concert uke side scraps ]



Gaz

[kiwigeo]

There's lots of great timber out there for building guitars but that beautiful furniture is gone for ever..............

I'm sure John (or others) will turn the wood into guitars that look much more exciting than that furniture....

[P Bill]

The people that are going to harvest our guitars to make lampshades haven't been born yet.

[charangohabsburg]

I hope you are right Bill, at least when talking of "our" guitars. I am saying "at least" because I know that it has been done to guitars we generally refer to as factory guitars. I could not retrieve the picture on the www, I hope the reason is that the "furniture maker" felt ashamed of what he had done and hence had withdrawn the picture.

[P Bill]

Ai Weiwei is well known for transforming the works of others. I have seen his furniture works, shocking at first ( to a lover of Chinese domestic furniture ) but in the end very satisfying. He has imposed his will on the work of others but the original work can still speak.

None of my comments are meant to be taken very seriously, I just find this a very interesting topic.



http://www.galerieursmeile.com/artists/ ... ai-weiwei/

[kiwigeo]

Ai Weiwei is well known for transforming the works of others. I have seen his furniture works, shocking at first ( to a lover of Chinese domestic furniture ) but in the end very satisfying. He has imposed his will on the work of others but the original work can still speak.

None of my comments are meant to be taken very seriously, I just find this a very interesting topic.



http://www.galerieursmeile.com/artists/ ... ai-weiwei/

Hes a furniture daubist?

[P Bill]

Ai Weiwei is well known for transforming the works of others. I have seen his furniture works, shocking at first ( to a lover of Chinese domestic furniture ) but in the end very satisfying. He has imposed his will on the work of others but the original work can still speak.

None of my comments are meant to be taken very seriously, I just find this a very interesting topic.



http://www.galerieursmeile.com/artists/ ... ai-weiwei/

Hes a furniture daubist?

He is hard to pigeonhole. I very much doubt he did the work. The new work is as good or better than the originals.

[charangohabsburg]

He has imposed his will on the work of others but the original work can still speak.

You couldn't have said it better...

An other example is his (although non-furniture) project called "Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn". (Instead of dropping it he could have converted it into a musical instrument - only that nobody would have noticed.)

[woodrat]

Hi Again Brethren! , I thought that I would just post some pics of the crate that I made and how all of that beautiful furniture has been "condensed" to a more cubic form....

[kiwigeo]

Cubism...I like it!!

[woodrat]

...more pics....to be continued...