Shaun got started in 2014 and woodwork was what he
thought he would be getting into. Gaining much of his inspi-
ration and knowledge from watching YouTube videos, he
bought a lot of frightening, high-speed and noisy machinery
and taught himself to use it before he actually made anything.
He had done woodwork at school with blunt tools and a
teacher who did not inspire him or teach him properly. He
had written it off as something that wasn’t for him. Later he
started to understand what could be done with tools. “Watch-
ing someone who knew what they were doing made me realise
what was possible.”
TCFF: What were the first items
you made?
SF: I made an awful framed chalk-
board that still hangs in the kitchen.
Best you don’t look at it. And then I
made this workbench on the floor of
the garage. It’s pretty ugly, but it does
the job.
The workbench in question is strewn
with tools and an assortment of items
that all have a specific and sometimes
difficult-to-fathom purpose. It is Sun-
day afternoon and the two of us are in
Shaun’s garage (his and Tarryn’s cars
live outside now). His three rottweilers
are in and out. They have beds in the
garage, so they can keep him company.
Our wives are next door, chatting, and
I am later told that Tarryn says, “He is
completely over the top.” She is refer-
ring to his perfectionism, something
that is evident all around us.
TCFF: Tell me about the hinges for the small boxes.
I know you make those out of wood and that it’s a
unique feature. Why was it necessary to do that?
SF: Wooden hinges are not unique to me; there are lots of
people who do them but maybe not in this size, and I don’t use
a jig to build mine. The hinge needed to be smaller than the
brass ones I used in the larger boxes because those would have
been out of proportion. They needed too much wall thickness
to set them. They were too bulky. The small boxes needed their
own hinge, so I decided to go for something unique.22 | AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2019 | TCFF