Last Pix of the Desk

I measure the pressure and press more to revive the old work of another man, a working man, and gold ripples of texture speak to me of where he levelled his plane to level the unlevelled and the unsmoothed and I stroked the more where it seemed to me something turned to a twist. Revival begins first with a glance at a flea market and then a thought of the wood and the man maker and then with a single pass of the plane and a chisel’s pristine edge to sever the waste from the wanted and the past from the present. Ribbons of golden oak fall away and at first I look more to the waste I create that spilled away, but then I look back to a day past and a man like me shaving the same piece of wood. I listen hard as my heart pumps and I hear his heart beat in a slow, rhythmic thud, thudding and the sweat of his brow and the surge of blood pulsing through his veins as in mine now and I smile in thoughts that work past and present is still being revived in recycling. I turned the knobs and added the shelf beneath for a spare laptop or some books. Everything fits well now and it looks nice.

In this piece I calculate my work in making one from scratch to be 12 days if I were to repeat every step and make all the lapped and half lapped dovetails and the secret dovetails to the two top corners. Quarter sawn oak here would cost me about £300. £35 is a small amount to pay and a few hours work was well worth the outcome.