Rivers Joinery

A feature on the front page of the Heritage Crafts Association, for all of our hand tool work shown there.

A Voice for Craft - Heritage Crafts |

A direct link to the page.

Jon Bayes, Maker at Heritage Crafts |

Also, this week a date has been set for the exhibition at Birdwood House, Totnes for the same stuff; put the date in your diary and come along and show support; 11-18th July 2026. All the furniture and woodworking demonstrations, obviously!

And in other exciting news, my welcome pack from the Guild of Master Craftsmen arrived, replete with stickers for the van.

I bought these two at a sale. The blades cleaned up, and are useable.

There was some worm in the bodies, a sole repair on one and a broken wedge. I soaked the bodies in turpentine for several weeks, but this summer fresh worm holes appeared.

I have lots of beech, and was intending to make some new jointers with it. These two are more pressing, so they have jumped the queue.

I really enjoyed making the first one, and looking forward to making the second.

And of course, using them.

As of today. a member of the Guild of Master Craftsmen.

Using the Hackett Sub-Sea 3.2ton hoist to raise the new(old) timber racks. The Hackett winch is British engineering at it's best, it works, it has to; designed for undersea work on oil rigs etc. Old faithfull, timber trolley, plays a crucial role also. 

Fine adjustment with a larch beam and oak block fulcrum, on the trolley, to get the bolt holes to line up.

Manual handling with safety and confidence in your tools. Love them; they deliver again and again.

Of course, some timber will not rive. This yew log is one example. It's just too gnarly. The wedges need help from an Alaskan chainsaw mill. Interestingly, the chainsaw also needs help from the wedges, to stop the chain binding. A perfect marriage of the old and the new, the hand and the machine. Rivers Joinery, old and new, mobile workshop, comes to you.

The log has been sitting around for 4-5 years in the dry, so it's fairly well dry itself.

It's been a while since I've used the Alaskan, and a dormouse, or similar, has tried very hard to stash it's hazelnut inside my chainsaw side case. 10 out of 10 for determination, but you never came back for it!

 Time to make a start on these big logs.

Look at all that lovely, fresh oak flesh.

Should get some wide panels out of these.

It can take a while to get the split started on these big logs....and then pop, the sound of it giving up....music to my ears.

There's a bit of twist along the 7ft length, but I'm mainly interested in wide, short panels from this, the fattest part, so I can live with the twist.

 Out in the autumn sun, to trim the pegs, and tie in the rails carving to the stiles carving.

I don't need a reason, but happy to have one (to survey a property/job a stone's throw away), to drive down Five Mile Lane to Slapton Ley.

Slapton Ley is a freshwater lake, separated from the sea by a shingle bank. It is a haven for birds in Start Bay, here in Devon. 

The house itself was Grade 2 listed and I always warm to a property with lion head gutters.

It needs the usual box sash repairs and repair work to the porch.

After examining the building I had a look in at Stokenham Church. There were a few nice carving details.

And lots of painted panels. 

This one of a wolf caught my attention.

Then a drive back along the Ley (oh what a pity), to Slapton, to travel back up Five Mile Lane, and onwards to home. 

With all the holes pierced for the pegs, it's finally time for assembly. The rain is holding off, so I'm going to do it outside.

Even with all the pre-fitting, it can still be a struggle to get all the pieces together. The idea is that the offset of the holes will pull all the joints together. I am going to give it a trial squeeze with sash clamps, before I put any pegs in. That way I can see if there needs to be any final adjustment of the shoulders.

All of these parts are from gnarly English oak, and even though they were straight and true when I first planed them, some have moved and twisted. This kind of construction allows for that and as long as you can get the tenons part way into the mortices, once they all tap home, the whole of it miraculously transforms into a straight thing. Sure enough, the shoulders of the top rail/stile joint needed squaring up.

Time to gather the pegs. One final check to makes sure all the holes are in the right place.

And then bang them in. It's a very satisfying process, as the pegs squirm through the offset holes, pulling it all tight.

Then back inside, as the sky is darkening with potential rain.

This chest will be taller than most at 35.5"/900mm, for two reasons. It's going to be a combined tool chest and workbench, with space underneath to slide my other toolbox (which is a WW1 British soldier's kit box, I believe). That height is ideal for me to work at.

Another oddity with this chest, is the brackets; because it's going to be a workbench/toolbox, I've upped the amount of pegs by a factor of 4. Period brackets often had only one peg, these have 4 each. It's going to take a lot of punishment, so I want it to be as strong as possible.

Where the rail carvings run onto the stiles, I have left this unfinished, so I can take those final cuts now the front is joined. I have to trim off those pegs first.