Tool and Tree

The trouble with using exotic woods for the pop-a-bobbin shuttles is that it is difficult to match the plug for the middle of them.   Him in the garage tried to make them with the tools he has available but it took a lot of time and effort.  So he looked on e.bay for a dowelling machine, these are now obsolete,  in other words they are not made anymore and are really collectors items.  Of course there are big machines that now do the job quicker and efficiently in factories and the wood is cut to shape in bulk.  A machine was found, in the USA, an offer was made for it and accepted and was duly purchased, it cost nearly £400, but this did include a cutter and the customs charges.   But he is so happy with his new toy, it is vintage probably made in the 1960/70s.  If you look closely you will see that it says Stanley USA on it. It works on the same principle as a pencil sharpener.

The plugs after coming out of the new tool but they still need to go into a grader and then sanded

The Vicar phoned a few days ago to say that a branch had fallen from a tree in one of the churchyards in the high winds, he asked if we wanted it?  Well of course we did but have only had a chance today to go and get it, armed with a saw.  It came from a  tree called  Sequoiadendron – Wellingtonia

The so called Mammoth Tree or Wellingtonia, the 'Big Tree' of California.

The light was failing when I took the photograph but it is a extremely tall tree

Now I know for many people in the world these trees are very common, but it is not often the tree itself but where it is actually growing.  This one stands opposite the cedar tree from which other shuttles have been made from and is growing in the churchyard where the father of the Revd Awdry (author of Thomas the Tank Engines stories) was once Vicar when Mr. Awdry was a boy.