Hello, I’m David.

I was born and grew up in an Essex village called Hatfield Peverel and so had a fairly rural upbringing. My father served as an RAF aircraft engineer in India and Burma and worked as a motor mechanic on his return. He then became a toolmaker in a factory making spectacle frames when I was born. So I was always around people who worked with their hands in one way or another. From the age of ten I was helping dad maintaining our little Ford Prefect car, if you couldn’t fix it yourself you weren’t able to afford one. At that age I learnt to drive small tractors and an old Bedford pickup truck, converted from an old cut down delivery van, on some family land next to the houses on which we grew veggies and stuff. At eleven I was out shooting a twelve bore around the local farms, not sport but vermin control and every thing but the rats got eaten, (no Health and Safety in the early sixties)

At secondary school I was no good at French as I had missed out on the first term and after discussions with the headmaster, I was allowed to do extra Metal work Lessons instead, learning forge work, welding, turning and milling and I made tools for the school gardening classes.

Unsurprisingly, on leaving school with a few bits of paper that said I was at least good at something, I took up an engineering apprenticeship with the Marconi company in Chelmsford. Seven years in total ending with a City and Guilds and a distinction pass in Toolmaking and Design, more bits of paper. I was always making or mending something; Scooters, Motor bikes a rally car and still fixing the little old tractors for the family veggie plot.

I moved out of factory life when speed became the driving force rather than accuracy and quality. I did a few years in shoe retail management for Lilley and Skinner and K shoes. I liked the selling rather than the management so became a rep for engineering components company.

I don’t know quite how but I was taken on by a medical company supplying intravenous fluids to hospitals. I was a bit of an experiment to teach a salesman the required medical knowledge rather than teach a failed med student to sell. Seemed to work as I spent many years selling and gaining acclaim in the field. I moved to work for a Harley St orthopaedic surgeon assisting to design and promote new types of hip and knee joints. I spent many hours in operating theatres advising on how to fit the new joints. It is sort of a mix of engineering and carpentry but much messier. The black humour that goes on behind closed theatre doors has stayed with me, much to the upset of some.

I took a role of product manager for a medical electronics company. My area was patient monitors, ECG, defibrillators and portable monitors for the early Air Ambulance use. I worked with the design engineers and the manufacturing teams. I had the chance to both work on the shop floor and out in the field to carry out trials of new machines. Sadly, after several years the stress of being responsible for a business sector turning over more than £12 million a year took its toll, high blood pressure and all the associated gremlins meant that I decided to slow down. I took a sales job in the disabled access industry selling wheelchair lifts and access systems to both private and commercial clients. Less stress but ended up traveling 1,400 miles a week. Enough was enough so I retired early, to the delight of both my wife and my doctor. My father had worked, out of choice, until he was 71 and died two weeks after he retired so I took the hint.

On retiring I was determined not to vegetate but to try and keep physically and mentally active, but how? I carried on my existing hobbies of wildlife and motor sport photography. These gave me plenty of exercise walking miles over the countryside and around race circuits. I gave my results to the wildlife trusts, RSPB, race drivers and their sponsors. They were gratefully received but I don’t know if that was because they were good or that they were free.

Yes, Lawnmower Racing

So, what else, I wanted a project or another practical hobby of some kind. Car restoration, Model making? One took too much room and money and I don’t think I have the patience for the other. Then I visited a craft fair and saw a demonstration of woodturning and I thought that I could use my expertise in metal turning - Wrong! Once I had attended a two-day course with Mr Child at Yeldham, I realised that with metal the machine holds the tool; you just turn the controls. With wood, you hold the tool, you feel the wood move and respond to your actions, you are more in control. I also realised that when you screw up you can’t weld a bit back on. I next attended a hands-on day at the club and was made so welcome especially by Roy Sergeant. I decided that this was for me.

I only have a very small workshop, (shed) so I made my workbenches to take an Axminster Hobby lathe and started churning out the obligatory bowls and tealight holders etc which I gave to family and friends. Joining the club helped me to progress by watching the demonstrators then going home to try the technique myself. I don’t profess to be a good turner, especially by club standards. I just enjoy making new and different things and they are praised by the laymen in my circle of friends. My wife says that my most successful output is sawdust!

Just some simple bits from my early efforts.

The lack of inspiration from the lack of club nights due to covid19 has put a strain on my hobby as I have to come up with my own ideas. As you will have realised, I am much more mechanically minded than artistic. The extra time given by being confined to barracks has made me venture into different areas of woodwork, a simple pine four door cabinet, (just to keep my real ales in), several different flower planters for family and friends and some simple pyrography as inspired by Marion Sergeant. 

I have been lucky as through my wildlife contacts I have been able to go and collect wood that has been felled or fallen to take home and, after time, use for some of my work. It’s very satisfying to create something that you have made from the raw. Milling the logs with a chainsaw, trimming on the bandsaw then the hard part deciding what to make from it that does it justice. I’m playing at showing as much of the raw character of the wood as possible, the hard part is getting the balance between rustic charm and just a log.

I have made a small foray into wood carving; the arty bit is proving a hard slog but then the things I have most of at the moment are wood and time, so I’ll just keep trying.

Keep well and keep enjoying whatever you do.  David