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All saws go blunt, That little Lidls cheapy powerfix lasted 3 years at school before i swapped the blade for the spare one. Best £6.99 i ever spent.

Talk of bench hooks & saws etc, One thing i learnt in my time as a D&T technician, Tenon saws in schools are often battered & exceedingly blunt. When i started the job about the first practical thing i did in the first few days was regrind & sharpen all thechisels, plane blades & order new tenon...

Before i retired three years ago I was a D&T technician, In our school every pupil did D&T up until end of year 9 then either took it or dropped out. We had a surprising number of kids who were obviously gifted in the practical skills department. I with the teacher i worked with did our best to...

Other options, Lyme Regis Boatbuilding academy is worth a look. Quite a few women getting into boatbuilding today. They do furniture making & short courses too.

I did a pile of teak T&G floorboards last winter much of the 2 tons was covered on the underside with pitch, Didnt appear to have any fibrous material in it at all. I did wear a good respirator anyway as it was a filthy job. I tried scrapers, old chisels the lot. Do not even think of solvents or...

Iroko.

I too thought it doesnt look like boxwood, However what it does look like is Buddleia, we cut a large one down recently & the bark is very very similar to what you have, timber is similar colour too.

Polyester resin does not like air as the styrene content will gas off & harden on its own, So a big tin with a little splash of filler in the bottom wont last as long as if it was full up. All part of the buisiness model to get mugs to buy more!

In New Zealand settlers acually used Cordyline as chimneys for stoves, it is said that it burns like wet asbestos ie it doesnt! Re Black palm, i was given a few offcuts of thick veneer a few years ago, very dark chocolately brown, with lighter flecks in it, very hard & silky to the touch.

I would never dream of buying diy body filler like isopon. Ridiculously over priced for the tiny amount you get. I just go to our local Car paint specialist & buy a gallon can of the same stuff for little more.

Older ones are worth seeking out at boot fairs etc. New Stanley or record tools & machines are cheap tat trading on their name of old. Saying that i have two cheap ones i leave in the building shed down the boatyard If they got nicked i wouldnt cry!

Funny you should say that, the bloke concerned started exporting tools & general stuff to west africa, he got sucked into believing in the ju ju thing & always carried a little leather bag to ward off evil spirits etc that he had bought from a witch doctor. At that time he sold a container full...

I ran my own boatbuilding business for 20 years, in that time i had two non payers. The first subbed a plank repair job to me & then knocked me for the money, it was only a couple of hundred quid but was a pain. The second was for a grp mould tool. I had known the guy for years & bought a lot of...

Size bought in error, Three blades Starrett Duratec 70.5 inch or 1790mm long, 1/2" (12mm) wide, 6TPI As new & Sharp. £20 posted or you can pick up if you are in South Essex.

Good choice & a nice pile of timber. To be honest Iroko isnt that durable if left unprotected, people think its as durable as Teak, but it isnt anywhere near it & will rot if unprotected & water gets in. I have pulled plenty of rotten iroko out of old boats!

Scotchbrite pads red/gray, Parafin & a gallon of WD40 equivalent from the motor factors lots of elbow grease & rags. Parts that are removeable & really rusty might get chucked in a bucket of citric acid overnight, this is cheap, gentle & works really well. I would not hit machined parts with...

I had a Dankaert saw that was very similar, 5hp 3 phase motor, It was a great machine & i had it for 15 years. Weird thing was when i was closing my workshop I had a guy lined up to buy it, The very last time i used it to rip some timber a week before i gave the keys back to the farmer the motor...

I like to fix stuff whenever possible. But i failed recently with a Sealey ER150 random orbital sander, i had two of them one 35 years old one 30 years old, Best random orbital sander ever made & built like the proverbial brick outhouse. One had an intermittent fault & had been retired then the...

Re laminations sliding about, I always pin laminations together with fine brass panel pins, at the ends & every two ft or so, nail it on then spread the glue, next one on nail it on spread glue & so on. In practice fine pins dont affect the bending or finished result , but they make the stack...

The bark does not look like Sycamore, that is usually far smoother. It does look like yew bark. It could be field maple which has much rougher bark.