Australian Wood Review – June 2019

46 Australian Wood Review

PROFILE

he has the wherewithal to ‘have this

workshop, have machines, and say

no to jobs that don’t interest me’.

Besides furniture making, Byron

takes on some custom architectural

joinery jobs and unique projects like

the recent wood fired hot tub.

Moving the workshop made all that

possible. In large commercial setups

the trade-off between technology,

machinery and efficiency is a loss of

flexibility because small runs are not

economical. However for Byron the

workshop is ‘a huge step...a balance

between efficiency and productivity

(with) the efficiency to repeat, but the

flexibility to do different things’.

There’s no desire to churn things

out, but nutting out production

efficiencies is Byron’s happy place.

‘The joy for me is the discovery of

the processes and solving it all. Doing

the same thing over and over again,

it becomes not interesting.’

It’s as though the forces of attraction

between man and machine can

also repel. ‘Manufacturing now has

become more and more specialised.

Companies often make one thing

over and over again. But for me,

for someone who loves machinery,

the question is have we given up

too much in the quest for efficiency

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3. Drift bed in salvaged
   Otway Ranges blackwood.
   Photo: Fred Kroh


4. Cantilevered bed in
   ‘shearing shed’ messmate.
   Photo: Armelle Habib


5. Byron also takes on some
   custom joinery work.
   Photo: Armelle Habib


6. Making this wood-fired
   hot tub from salvaged
   materials was an
   interesting and challenging
   diversion from the world
   of fine furniture.
   Photo: Byron Raleigh