As always, the attention to detail is outstanding. You mentioned in the last post the wood was swedish pine - do you know the species name?
Also, how does your work come to you? Advertising? Word of mouth? or do people just keep giving you money or delivering bags of gold until you say yes?
The wood's our Scandiwegian version of 'Pinus sylvestris'. I get it from my local timber merchant (Oslo Finérfabrikk = Oslo Veneer Factory) who imports it from a small, Swedish sawmill that specializes in high-quality pine -- they deliver such nice lumber, and well dried -- little cracking. You should see some of the forests we have on this peninsula, down on the 'flatlands' between the mountains and the coast, mostly on the Swedish side: sandy soil, not too nourishing so the pines grow too fast, we want tight growth rings! and flat forest floors so the trees stand straight and yield harmonious lengths. Walking in mature forests like this is being surrounded by towering masts of resinous giants. I get wood.
From up in the mountains you can get pines grown so starved on a marginal habitat that they haven't had the resources to make resin to protect themselves, so their heartwood is reddish but dry / lean. Fantastically tight-grained and fun to carve and turn, useful for detail-work.
As for work, I mostly work for a handful of 'tømrer-mestere' = timber masters = master carpenters who mostly do restoration work on old, listed buildings. Their budgets are VAST compared to what most private citizens are willing to spend on woodwork. And unlike private customers they know full well what the going rate is for the various trades. So you might say I outsource the customer-facing part of the job -- which is a good thing, because my patience with people is distinctly limited; not my strong suit :-) Or: I'm a specialist, niche subcontractor.
I only very occasionally work for private clients; They'll have you round to look at a job, taking photos, discussing solutions, making notes and measuring up, wanting an estimate (fair enough!) but seldom bothering to even reply to your carefully calculated offer. Fuck'em!
I've never advertised, so it's just been word of mouth. Oslo is a small (but wealthy - God knows that helps!) town and it's a small trade, so word gets around. It helps that I'm traditionally trained and started out in one of the old, reputable shops. Have a look at this for some 'backstory': https://walteregon.substack.com/p/finding-work
As always, the attention to detail is outstanding. You mentioned in the last post the wood was swedish pine - do you know the species name?
Also, how does your work come to you? Advertising? Word of mouth? or do people just keep giving you money or delivering bags of gold until you say yes?
Thanks!
The wood's our Scandiwegian version of 'Pinus sylvestris'. I get it from my local timber merchant (Oslo Finérfabrikk = Oslo Veneer Factory) who imports it from a small, Swedish sawmill that specializes in high-quality pine -- they deliver such nice lumber, and well dried -- little cracking. You should see some of the forests we have on this peninsula, down on the 'flatlands' between the mountains and the coast, mostly on the Swedish side: sandy soil, not too nourishing so the pines grow too fast, we want tight growth rings! and flat forest floors so the trees stand straight and yield harmonious lengths. Walking in mature forests like this is being surrounded by towering masts of resinous giants. I get wood.
From up in the mountains you can get pines grown so starved on a marginal habitat that they haven't had the resources to make resin to protect themselves, so their heartwood is reddish but dry / lean. Fantastically tight-grained and fun to carve and turn, useful for detail-work.
As for work, I mostly work for a handful of 'tømrer-mestere' = timber masters = master carpenters who mostly do restoration work on old, listed buildings. Their budgets are VAST compared to what most private citizens are willing to spend on woodwork. And unlike private customers they know full well what the going rate is for the various trades. So you might say I outsource the customer-facing part of the job -- which is a good thing, because my patience with people is distinctly limited; not my strong suit :-) Or: I'm a specialist, niche subcontractor.
I only very occasionally work for private clients; They'll have you round to look at a job, taking photos, discussing solutions, making notes and measuring up, wanting an estimate (fair enough!) but seldom bothering to even reply to your carefully calculated offer. Fuck'em!
I've never advertised, so it's just been word of mouth. Oslo is a small (but wealthy - God knows that helps!) town and it's a small trade, so word gets around. It helps that I'm traditionally trained and started out in one of the old, reputable shops. Have a look at this for some 'backstory': https://walteregon.substack.com/p/finding-work
I do ramble on ...