From the tree to the table . . .
That’s likely how I would characterize what 82Maple is all about.
I’ll explain.
As you may have experienced in various of my YouTube videos, the Norwood HD 36 Bandmill and Woodmizer Edger have brought me a ton of enjoyment starting by providing the raw lumber for Coral’s and my first greenhouse, a new and better chicken coop, a garden shed for a son and a playhouse for grandchildren – as well as the experience of doing a timed 28-minute build of a table and benches for when the grandchildren come for Fun Friday at the Farm.
But – the journey to a desktop for a grandson starts much further back – way back in fact to a big Douglas Tree that had to be removed from a son’s acreage for safety reasons and everything involved from the chain saw to the loader, trailer and transport to the mill and it’s truly a tree to table top journey.
But that’s only part of the story. There’s the tools required to transform the sawn lumber to a product with the required look and feel for a greenhouse or a finished tabletop ‘slab’ – as well as the myriad of common and specialized tools to maintain the woodworking tools.
At 82Maple you’re invited to share all or part of the journey – which is not only about the successes and obvious enjoyment, but also the gap between expectation and reality that is a very real part of the journey – like when vital components of the sawmill or the edger are short-shipped or just outright devoid of accurate assembly instructions. And then there are all of those things that fall into the category of ‘operator error’ – which are being chronicled on an ever-expanding 82 Maple Wall of Shame (5 broken saw blades will provide a wonderful centrepiece for the collage).
82 Maple – it’s about a Canadian Woodworker intent on keeping the 8 fingers and 2 thumbs that I was born with. As the son of a sawmill millwright who rose to head of maintenance at Jacobson Bros. Forest Products in BC’s interior, I entertained myself washing parts for weekend sawmill repair projects involving my dad, going on to piling lumber as soon as I qualified for Worker’s Compensation, obtaining my permanent BC lumber grading ticket, building contract homes on the side – at another time, building my own spec home. A stint selling Snap-on Tools, another selling heavy equipment. Another owning and operating logging equipment. All this before retiring to the relative comforts of a career building a national insurance brokerage operation in which I’m still involved.
40 years later the call of noise, sawdust, and things that need fixing, refining and creating could not be suppressed and here we are.
I hope that in some fashion you find the content helpful, instructional, motivational and perhaps even mildly amusing.
– Howard Kettner