Transference, the sequel

Some say the 'call of the wild' is one of those monumental moments when we throw off all domestic constraints and retreat to the great outdoors, complete only with a pair of decent boots on your feet and whatever can be carried on your back.

Ha!..fat chance here...it's more like the 'call of the bloody paint pot.' If you haven't guessed, I've been wielding the dreaded brush again over the last couple of days, but this time it's the 'smallest room' in the house, so with any luck, it's not going to take up much time.

However, I've decided to renew all the fittings that go inside...new loo-roll holder, small unit for the loo-paper and a wooden window sill. Interestingly, I've made this from some timber given to me years ago by my old granddad and it's the most amazing stuff to work with that I've ever come across. It looks like a mahogany of some sort, but it's not...the only really distinctive feature is that it smells faintly 'musty' when it's planed . It's the sort of smell you'd expect if you walked into a room that hadn't been occupied for ages...very peculiar.

I digress (as usual) The timber for the first two little projects was an oddment of Brazilian Mahogany that I'd had knocking around, dovetailed where necessary at the corners, so it was a good opportunity to give the Transference Jig it's first serious outing.

I approached the task with a little bit of trepidation...after all, it might not work and have been a waste of effort and time to make, but I'm happy to say that once I'd worked out the best way to use it (by cramping the pin board to the maple as well) it worked extremely well and made what has always been a slightly awkward job (jack plane on it's side, wood on top, pin board in the vice, square up, hold firm with the left hand, strike the lines etc etc) much simpler.

Back to the paint brush for further adventures in the wild...