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salt and wood

“Re use it or lose it”

Tag Archives: recycling

July 27, 2013 Boat 35: TACK

Starboard swing sale
Water keel
Hi tech tack
Tacking
Reaching

This was the second boat on the Cooks River on this day and was even more satisfying than the first. By setting the rudder to about 1130 and adding an extended sail from the starboard I was able to get this quickly produced vessel of scrounged rubbish to actually tack across the wind. The extended sail kept swinging the bow out away from shore with a burst of inertia sustained by the weight of the keel that pushed out across the wind each time. I launched a Styrofoam boat from the shore into an onshore wind and got it to tack its way down the coast even gaining against the wind as it went until further along it was well of the shore.

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June 11, 2012 ITEM 24: Hang Ten

This three-legged marvel of odd engineering was the composite result of a variety of curved timber off cuts and finds. All the timber was street or beach recovered and the yellow rope was donated by a friend from their shed clean up. The little front to back cross-timber is something like Rosewood that was washed up north of Sydney near Fishermen’s Bay. I cut the mortise in adjoining timber to take the existing tenon. The two rear legs are from and old timber chair that was previously restored from the street but finally gave in! You can see the combination load bearing system of the rope and timbers from the side view. The rope end knots are waxed into existing holes that were drilled into the old chair legs. I am not sure what the deck timber is but it came up beautifully.  

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March 4, 2012 Item 21: Crest

I don’t know what sort of timber this is or where it came from. But it looks like it is just a by-product of some chain saw clearing somewhere in the world. It looks like it had been in the sea for some time. I set it to dry on our front porch and with each week a few more little bits of shells fell out of the cracks as it dried and shrank. I finally drilled the side of it and fitted a piece of street found dowel as a ring holder on what was to become a soap bottle stand for the bathroom. I fitted a small dowel foot to the base to both level the top and minimize the amount of base in contact with wet bench. I left all the sides as they were found and intensely sanded and varnished the top to create a great contrast. My wife questions the practicality of this item but I am quietly pleased with its sculptural nature and the mystery of the origins of this piece of tree.  

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