Gave up Teaching

Hello to you all.

Around this time last year, I decided I'd had enough of teaching and decided that after Fifteen-years as a Tutor running an evening class for Adults.  
(Teaching French polishing)

Despite my learners being keen to learn and being very nice people, I had enough of the seemingly endless paperwork involved whilst running my class.  Together with the ceaseless ongoing training, the last course I was expected to take part in was mental health awareness, and I was to feel that my time was being taken up as a surrogate Parent to my Adults.

My learners, never wanted or asked for all the paperwork that was put before them such as Individual Lesson plans, Scheme of works, and Record of achievement's to mention a few however, I do understand that some of the paperwork was necessary to be able to evaluate the learner's achievements.

I really loved to teach and pass on my knowledge of French polishing, and Wood-finishing, and have enjoyed my time running my classes.
Unfortunately, together with the disappointment as and when my course would or could be cancelled at the last minute through lack of learners didn't help.

It's my opinion that the teaching profession is tied up in overzealous bureaucracy and too much red tape that hinders learners progress.

The Management team, despite their best efforts to run and encourage the courses, are under too much pressure from the authorities to produce positive figures and outcomes for the various Government bodies.

I hope that throughout my time spent teaching, I have inspired many Adults to go on to produce some fine quality Wood-finishing.

Thank you, for taking the time to read my posts, I very much appreciate it.

  

Oak Cabinet restoration

How about this one, it came to me in bits, and as you can see needs lot's of work to put it back to its former glory. 
Had to be stripped off, and then I sanded it smooth but tried to keep some of the age as much as possible, then stained the cabinet and spent time to re-finish as required. 

I think that it was made around the 1930s but it's not always easy to tell.

Another happy customer!

Out with the big clamps

This is my recent project, once again not an easy one, as you can see that this is badly broken and made me wonder how this could have happened? Over 25 mm thick and made of solid Oak, how was this possible?  Guess I'll never know. 

It looks like a clean break however, this is deceptive as the surfaces have to be flush when glued together otherwise it involves lots of sanding down to bring them in line with each other. 

Also, I found out that some of my clamps were not tightening up properly as they were worn out due to overuse. Not good when you most need them.

After leaving overnight for the glue to dry, the next morning it was time to remove the clamps, I was left with only a very small raised surface that was easy to smooth down and re-finish. The customer was very pleased with the result.

I used PVA Glue, as it gave me time to work with whilst clamping up.

Thank you for visiting my Blogsite.

Happy Christmas & New Year

Wishing you all a very happy Christmas and New Year!

Thank you for visiting my Blog, I very much appreciate it.

May 2017 be a good year for you all

If you can Polish you can paint

Hello,
Today, I will share with you yet another job, I decided to take on however, it was a little different from my usual work.

I was asked by a Client to paint her side Gate and Garage Doors, at first I thought is this in my remit? Then I thought I need to earn a living so, of course, I said yes.

The Doors had been started around Two years earlier but sadly the person passed away and they were never completed.

They had been undercoated with grey paint and then just left, I decided to take the Gate Door off its hinges and lay it flat for easy access, then I sanded off the loose and flaky surface. 

Luckily, for me, the weather was extremely hot which makes a change for the UK. I undercoated the Door with good quality paint, and when dried the next day, I painted it over with a quality external paint of the Client's choice, I put two coats of paint for a really great and long-lasting finish.
Needless to say, the Client was very pleased with the end result, and then gave me more painting work to my delight. 

A nice clean job, as it should be! Thanks for stopping by.

Door Finishing

Sorry for the long delay in updating this site.

Today, I want to show you a Front Door that I recently re-finished.

I found it was best to remove the door from the hinges and lay onto trestles, as I had to work on both sides.

Firstly, I scraped off the worst of the old finish, then sanded the surface back using my electric sander.

Once it was smooth and the Client had chosen the stain colour, then I preceded to stain over, when the stain was dry, I then coated it over with eventually Three coats of outside finish.

I think you can agree it looks so much better now, I know that the Client was very pleased and that's what counts.

Polishers and their secrets;

Whilst an apprentice in 1968 and working for one of the World's most prestigious Department Stores in Knightsbridge, London, I found it extremely difficult to learn the art of French polishing, why? Because of the secrecy amongst the experienced French polishers, I had to work really hard to squeeze out as much information from each and everyone there.

It was like getting blood out of a stone, they were so afraid that one day I would / could perhaps take their place and therefore, would only choose to teach the worst aspects of French polishing jobs like stripping off the old finishes a very unpleasant job, emptying dust bins and sometimes going out to pick up their winnings at the Betting Shop etc.

As an apprentice you are expected to sweep the floors and do some tasks when asked however, I remember going around the Streets of Chelsea looking for wine bottles left out by the various wine bars and restaurants etc, why did I do that I hear you say, well the bottles were used for the French polish, Methylated spirits and various other liquids, I remember the tops of the French polish bottles after a few fill-ups became thickly coated with polish and it seemed the more polish, that was coated around each bottle, and the more it appeared that the polisher had worked the hardest, this was obviously not true as I used to scrape the polish off with a sharp knife.

The best way I found to learn from the polishers was to try to get to know their individual personalities and then they would open up and build up respect for me, and eventually, I would progress from mundane jobs and start to be able to do staining and sealing and then eventually French polishing after I had mastered making a rubber.

After I completed my apprenticeship, I left my job as was common to do so in order that I could find employment with another company and build and increase my skills and learn the way other companies worked.  I did not always agree with their methods however, sometimes it pays to keep quiet and as I did it my way and if the company didn't like it they would soon tell me, that very rarely happened.

Years later I returned to where I did my apprenticeship and now I was employed as an experienced French polisher and was expected to be able to work on any item that came to hand, the first job I was given was as always a test to see if your skills are good enough and I did a really good job that had the other polishers in aghast, my job was safe.

I gained lots of knowledge when offered overtime, I used to have to go to the client's homes to touch up and make good any damage caused by the delivery drivers etc.  I had to think quickly and deal with the task at hand, time was limited and the job had to be up to a very high standard demanded by the customers.  It taught me to be very careful whilst working on carpets as on my first job in a client home, a container with black powder burst whilst putting the lid on. things could not have been any worse there was black powder all on the brown carpet and my brand new jeans, it was about as bad as it could get, I went to a Chemist to buy some clothes to try and clean up the mess to no avail, I had to just give up, the lady client was really for my sake understanding and said: "That her Father had a cleaning company and that she would ask him to have a go at cleaning up my mess".

When I returned back to base I told my boss what had happened and he too was understanding and said" That I would just have to fill up a form as to what happened and how could this kind of accident be prevented".  I never heard any more about it, perhaps the carpet department replaced or cut out the damaged part and hand sewed a new section.

Now back in my position as a French polisher, I was treated as an Adult and that was not the case when I was an apprentice I was always the Boy.

I was very fortunate to have been able to work with some very highly skilled craftsmen and this has been fantastic for me, as for many years now, I have been self-employed and touch wood I have coped with everything from large Church Doors, to Bank Doors, Tables Chairs and just about everything in between.

If you are going through this or a similar experience, I would advise you to stick it out and learn as much as you can because, in the long run, you will have a skill that no one can take from you.

Thank you for coming to my Blog site and reading my posts.
Regards,
Andrew.