Amusing Carpentry Capers

[Jake Middleton-Metcalfe]

An interesting thing happened to me recently:

 

I went to a local auction house for fun (with no actual intention of buying anything) and ended up buying a hideous mahogany bureau. No one else was bidding on it and it was going for £15 "hey that is solid mahogany!" I thought. Despite the nice mahogany the bureau was so hideous that purchased it and I plundered it for wood. You can see in these image how one drawer front was divided up to make blanks for many anglo concertina hand rests. Though I do not finish my concertinas in mahogany these blanks are going to be used for ebonised hand rests. Reuse and recycle!

 

The concertina pictured has some hand rests made from this drawer. It is a Jeffries which had solid metal hand rests (also pictured). The owner of the instrument found them to be uncomfortable so requested some new ones to be made - a completely reversible procedure which caused the original parts no damage. Less can be said for the bureau.

 

Jake

Edited March 29, 2018 by Jake Middleton-Metcalfe

[OLDNICKILBY]

I am at a loss as to how you would use a Donkey to repair a Tina The Burro hide would be far too thick and the bone not suitable for buttons. Only Joking but watch the spelling The Hand rests look good

[Jake Middleton-Metcalfe]

no buro is a correct english spelling, I think bureau is the original french spelling though, which is a nicer spelling. I did not know a Burro was a donkey until now though, if I had one of those the fun would really begin.

[OLDNICKILBY]

It is not in the O E D

[The Crimson Avenger]

It is not in the O E D

 

I luv it wen the speling polise get gowing. Larf, I neerly dyed...

Edited March 28, 2018 by The Crimson Avenger

[Jake Middleton-Metcalfe]

I think its a more obscure spelling though either is correct apparently, I did look it up, it's a bit of an odd word. Anyway I will post some pictures of the other things made from the buro or bureau.

[Anglo-Irishman]

FWIW, Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary doesn't know "buro" either - though it does know "burro"!

It gives "bureau" as (among other things) a form of writing table, with the comment "chiefly Brit."

 

As to contempt for the "speling polise," there's a general consensus that you can spell anything any way you like, as long as you accept the fact that not everyone will always understand you correctly.

 

Cheers,

John

[David Barnert]

dictionary.com doesn’t like it either.

Did you mean Buri?

More suggestions:

burro bro burp buto bur baro burr buru bury bubo burb burd burg burk burl burn burt duro euro furo uro- baro- boro- euro-

[wayman]

Merriam-Webster online gives

Buro

plural -s

: bureau 3b

Curiously, Merriam-Webster online gives only two definitions for "bureau"; there is no 3b!

Well, I suspect that's because the online version of M-W is the abridged edition, so the unabridged edition (which is a paid service) has 3b and more.

More curiously, M-W online gives the etymology of "buro" as being

French "bureau" -> Russian "byuro" -> English "buro"

You never know where you'll find Russians these days...

Finally, I'll note that M-W gives broad statistics about word popularity. "buro" is in the bottom 30% of words (looked up on M-W, I think).

Unfortunately for us, "concertina" is also in the bottom 30%!

Life could be worse: "melodeon" is in the bottom 20%!

Edited March 28, 2018 by wayman

[Roger Hare]

...French "bureau" -> Russian "byuro" -> English "buro"...

 

And as I thought at the time, also German - Büro, though it has the rider 'unusual translation' attached. I would have thought a direct

German-English route would be likely? But then I'm not an etymologist.

 

...As to contempt for the "speling polise," there's a general consensus that you can spell anything any way you like, as long as you accept the fact that not everyone will always understand you correctly. ..

 

Presiceli! I assumed that this was an ironic poke, not so much at the spelling police, but at the spelling police when they

apparently get it wrong?

 

Roger

Edited March 29, 2018 by lachenal74693

[Jake Middleton-Metcalfe]

At the risk of going too far off topic I have edited the original post. Here are some of the hand rests which were made from the wood, these will be ebonised. Its quite a nice wood to work with actually, the grain is not too deep.

 

[alex_holden]

What process do you use to ebonise them, Jake?

[Jake Middleton-Metcalfe]

Its a commercially available lacquer simply called "ebonising lacquer" I apply it by spray.

[alex_holden]

Thanks Jake!

[nicx66]

This is an excellent idea! I may have to steal it (the idea) for sourcing wooden fipples for my tin whistles! Nice work

[Dana Johnson]

Colin Dipper managed to get an excellent piece of mahogany furniture via the British museum at one time that found it’s way into concertinas. It is a fairly stable wood that has a history of use in action pans of larger instruments. For instruments of a local nature, you should definitely consider a higher use than hand rests. Sadly, it is not CITES friendly.

Dana

[alex_holden]

Colin Dipper managed to get an excellent piece of mahogany furniture via the British museum at one time that found it’s way into concertinas. It is a fairly stable wood that has a history of use in action pans of larger instruments. For instruments of a local nature, you should definitely consider a higher use than hand rests. Sadly, it is not CITES friendly.

Dana

Depends which species it is (the wood from lots of different trees has been sold as 'mahogany'). For example Meranti isn't Cites listed and is sometimes described as Phillipine Mahogany. The trouble with reclaimed wood is you probably won't be able to positively identify it if it comes to an disagreement with a customs inspector.

[Jake Middleton-Metcalfe]

I have no idea about the exact breed. I did wonder if "vintage wood" was exempt - I know there is a similar thing relating to ivory over a certain age being legal. Though I will read into it.

 

Dana - that is what gave me the idea, my friend chris has a concertina supposedly made from that old cabinet. Some of the pannels I have would be suitable in size and cut for action boards or even reed pans perhaps.

Edited April 10, 2018 by Jake Middleton-Metcalfe