West Australian Woodshow 2017
Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)
It's that time of the year again. The West Australian Woodshow was this past weekend. Chris Vesper, toolmaker extraordinaire came to stay, as he usually does, and I spent the weekend on his stand. Usually we get up to some form of mischief, but this year Chris brought along a few boxes of NOS saw files ... which were the very best I have ever seen ... 5" Nicholsons needle files made in Australia and sold last in 1998 ...
And so I spent a couple of days demoing filing saws. It's amazing how many people will stop to watch and ask questions. Got through a few ...
I was also there for the furniture competition. I had entered the Sofa Table (with hidden drawer) ...
This year I won first prize.
Second prize went to this hall table. It was really nicely done with some of the most amazingly fiddleback Sheoak ...
Third prize went to the winner of the past three years in a row. Ian specialises in veneer. This piece had a waterfall edge, the product of a recent workshop run by Michael Fortune ...
He also did this chest, below, which was one of my favourite pieces. The drawers let it down (not dovetailed) ...
Another good piece was this bombe (let down with some poor finishing) ...
There were interesting boxes, although I did not find that these were up to the standard of last year. First prize went to this unusual piece ...
This piece was the second place ...
The winner of the past few years, who has built some amazing boxes, came in third. He actually entered a trio of boxes, and this may have been his undoing. Here are two ...
There were some fantastic embellished turned pieces. This was first place ...
First in collaboration ...
There was also a category called "small treasures". I didn't really get the first place ...
And a last picture, from the carving section ...
Until next year ..
Regards from Perth
Derek
