58 The Woodworker & Good Woodworking September 2019 http://www.getwoodworking.com
THE LOST WORLD
2005, Victory gave up 10 tons of copper sheet,
rivets and rods, and 34 tons of timber, the greater
part of it oak.
In 1999, these arisings were sold to a private
consortium, Victory Ltd., which (to cut a long story
short) created the 1805 Collection – a series of
limited-edition pieces made from Victory oak
and copper; a proportion of Victory Ltd’s proceeds
was then donated to the ship’s restoration fund in
the lead-up to the Trafalgar bicentennial in 2005.
Among the 65 or so cabinet and box-makers,
turners and carvers who contributed to the
collection, David came to be regarded as the
‘default maker’, mainly because he was the only
one willing to produce items in relatively large
numbers incorporating materials that were,
frankly, difficult to work: the sizes and shapes of
the pieces of salvaged timber were, for the most
part, unsuited to being sawn into boards. So while
the greater part of the collection was made up
from smaller keepsakes – wine stoppers, spoons,
and boxes; paperknife handles, pepper mills, and
pen barrels, all crafted to provide enthusiasts with
a little piece of history – David devised a way to
make ‘composite’ Victory timber (See ‘composite
timber’), and in the course of working it he
encountered a surprising manifestation of its
link to the past. The salvaged timbers dated from
various stages in HMS Victory’s life, but among
those sections that were part of the ship when“E
very woodworker,” said
David Burton in 2013, “has
a special piece of wood put
aside – a lovely bit of burr
or beautiful timber that they’ve saved for the
day when they find the right way to use it.”
Back then, David’s own collection of special
pieces included around 12 tons from the heart
of the world’s oldest commissioned warship,
HMS Victory, which, as Admiral Nelson’s flagship
at the battle of Trafalgar, became one of the most
powerful symbols of British nationhood. Large
as it was, however, David’s cache (now sold) was
really only the rump of the mountain of materials
salvaged by the Royal Navy during the ship’s
80-year long restoration: between 1922 andA long time in the making, Dave Roberts hopes this
turned applewood sphere will be even longer lasting
Heart monitor: the seasons traced by the growth rings in this oak belonged to a different century