Let me introduce myself – my name is Geoff Thomas and I’m a retired metallurgical engineer and business consultant who is now able to indulge my interest in all things related to woodwork. I had a wonderful marriage to my wife Cathryn who I unfortunately lost (after a long fight with cancer) in July 2024. Together we indulged our love of travel – especially getting away in our caravan either by ourselves or travelling with friends. I am continuing to travel with a new tow vehicle and a smaller caravan and mid-2025 will have my first go at solo travelling (but have already done a number of trips with friends).
A Bit of History
I grew up with a father who was a Fitter & Turner but who would have been a carpenter if he had a choice. (He started his apprenticeship with Victorian Railways during the Great Depression). Instead he was a woodworker in his spare time. He made major changes (internal & external) to every house he owned. Then when he retired from the railways after over 40 years of service, he set himself up with a large workshop. With all the tools he needed to indulge his interest. He provided many of his creations (wood turned bowls, candleholders, plant stands; toys; pen and document holders; planters; whirly gigs and much more) for sale at his Church’s markets and also to family. He also repaired toys and jigsaws for a local toy library. Also he was also a collector of wood planes and books on them. I inherited his tools and wood plane collection from him. They are the basis of what I now have at my disposal.
The Here and Now
My woodwork before retirement was mainly focused on maintenance activities. Or producing something to meet a specific need, but now I’m expanding my activities. To me the interest is the full creative cycle, from identifying a need, through design and then finally into the production. I love problem solving. So working out a way to repair or make good a defective item, or coming up with a way to meet a specific need is what gets my interest.
I also love to take something and repurpose or upcycle it – regular visits to the council recycle centres and old wares shops provide much of the input for these projects.
My Workshop
Much to my wife’s disgust, my workshop is our garage. I’m blessed to have an area of almost 60m2 triple garage to use as my workshop. But I do have to share it with my car, so when I’m making lots of dust or working on big projects, her car get’s backed out to give me room. I’m a bit of a tool hoarder so this means I also have lots of equipment with most of it not being able to stay in the most useful position, so nearly everything is mobile, either racked in a custom made unit or on custom made trolleys and can be moved to wherever I want them. My portable power tools are pigeon holed or in drawers for easy access and my hand tools are mainly on 3 shadow boards.
I also hate to throw away something that may be of use, so I have lots of storage boxes (all labelled) and timber offcuts.
In my working life, I focused on process improvement an in particular the Lean methodology – it is this Lean approach that I try to take in my workshop, with everything having a defined place and minimising unnecessary non-productive activity.
Caravanning
Growing up I was exposed to caravanning as a toddler by means of a hired plywood van pulled behind my parents FJ Holden. Then in my pre-teens & teens it was a 2nd hand Franklin caravan pulled behind a HR Holden Station Wagon (my bedroom was the back of the wagon). Once married and with 3 young sons we bought a 2nd hand pop-top caravan from my sister and did a half lap & full lap of our wonderful country. Caravanning then went on hold until my retirement in 2017. The ‘Our Caravan’ page tells you a little bit about our van and what I have done to it since we bought it and the ‘Our Travels’ page covers where we have been. I’ll also try to blog about both the things I have done to the van and some of the places we have been to.
My Other Interests
Finally, I mentioned that my father collected wood planes. Well I have trebled his collection and have upward of 600 examples. I am an eclectic collector and always on the lookout for something new and different – especially user made variants. Over the last couple of years I have been able to pick up collections of wooden planes held by the one owner (but even then with the age of these planes, they have been through multiple users before they come to me).
When travelling (which is fairly frequently), I am always going through 2nd Hand/Antique/Old Wares stores and community markets looking for something new.
I’m also passionate about recycling and reusing wooden items. And being creative in using something that many others would (or have) discarded.
My Blog covers all aspects of my interests, so please read and feel free to send your comments or ask questions.