STEPPING BACK IN TIME


AN INDEPENDENT REMEMBERS PART 48


This month our resident retailer thinks back to a time when hobby woodworkers were spoilt for choice when it came to material and tool suppliers, many of which has since disappeared and are sadly missed today…


T his time of year


always makes me feel that I should be in my workshop, making items from wood.


It’s been like this since the mid- 80s when I set about making toys, courtesy of Richard Blizzard and his Wonderful Wooden Toys TV series and books. Fast-forward 10 years and I was turning pens from blanks of exotic hardwoods, and the motor


engineer’s daughter


turned blocks of hardwood to make bowls and cheese plates, tea pot stands, and a host of other stuff that we began to sell in the shop as hand-made craft items. There was a kind of traditional seasonality to it that seemed to compensate – both spiritually and financially – for the cold, dark evenings. Does anyone know whatever happened to Mr Blizzard? A large part of the fun was in


buying the materials. For many years it drove me crackers when customers


hardwood, when we could have done with a supplier for our own use. Anyhow, thanks to Practical Woodworking magazine, we found John Boddy’s Fine Wood and Tool Store in Boroughbridge, North Yorkshire. Okay, so it was a hell of a trip getting there, not helped by the access road being suitable only for heavy trucks and farm vehicles, but it was worth it.


Paradise Basically, it was a timber yard, originally set up for boat building, and by the early-80s it had established itself as a veritable Aladdin’s


hundreds of small pieces of exotic species, including some unusual ones such as raspberry jam wood


asked if we sold


first and then defrosting whilst we browsed the fantastic range of fittings and bits of hardware, such as the tiles, clock-making bits and pieces, Queen Anne legs (that were sold singly, would you believe?) and so on. Each year they published a catalogue so comprehensive that even to this day it forms an essential source of reference – well, to those of us who’ve hung on to them. They also did a large range of power tools, such as from Record in Sheffield, and in particular their amazing lathes.


It was said you cave with literally


(so named because this is how it smelled when freshly cut). People who made guitars could go there and get the appropriate materials, there were parts for clockmakers (and even for the clocks they made – sorry, just joking), and it was a woodturner’s paradise. The company managed to turn its timber offcuts (did you see what I did there?) into a subsidiary business by arranging all of the wood onto racking, each piece labelled and priced, in a massive, freezing cold warehouse. When the wind was blowing, it almost took a layer of skin off you. Did I say the P-word? Hmm. Each piece or stick of wood, no matter how small, appeared to be priced according to the cubic foot listing, though calculated by the cubic inch, so not exactly off-cut pricing. Perhaps I shouldn’t be so scathing – after all, the other woodworkers and I accepted it because everything was neatly laid out and we were bloody glad to be able to get this stuff in the


“So with our fingertips about to fall off with frostbite, quite often we would go back into the shop to try and ease some heat back into our bones.”


22 DIY WEEK NOVEMBER 2020


could balance a £1 coin on a Record lathe motor whilst running and it wouldn’t topple over. I can believe it. I bought my Record bench grinder from there, during an open craft weekend – the only time they ever opening on Sundays, which, let’s face it, was short-sighted even in those days. These special days showcased woodturning celebrities such as Ted Heathcote-Walker. And, of course, our favourite Liberon rep, Rebecca, who demonstrated the various waxes and coatings. She didn’t mind getting her hands filthy, even though she was the smartest-dressed female rep ever to set foot in our shop. I wonder where she is now.


first place. I think Boddy’s missed out, though, in not providing a café, which would have increased visitor numbers, encouraging them to stay longer and spend more.


Finger joints So with our fingertips about to fall off with frostbite, quite often we would go back into the shop to try and ease some heat back into our bones, so we soon cottoned on to the practice of choosing the wood


The final cut Times change and pastimes fade in and out of fashion. Four years ago, again bitten by the ghost of the woodworking bug, I suggested that we should take a trip to John Boddy’s, only to find the company had sold out to a flooring firm that wanted to cross-fertilise the product ranges. Hmm, more like cross-contamination and the new firm went into administration, taking John Boddy’s with it and Riverside Sawmills is no more: it is now a housing estate. I’m sure I’m not the only person who’d be willing to risk his car’s exhaust along that track just to get a sense of that place and breathe in the heady aroma of the hardwoods cocktail. Happy times. Bliss!


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