The Woodworker & Woodturner – September 2019

100

40

8 thick

365

52

Fig 1 Drawing in millimetres

TURNING

http://www.getwoodworking.com September 2019 The Woodworker & Good Woodworking 67

The Engineer’s Workshop – all that JAZ!

Dave Roberts has a hard time with JAZ, a wood-

substitute that’s made from recycled paper

W

hen Louis Armstrong was

asked, “What is jazz?” he replied,

“If you have to ask, you’ll never

know.” Well, this is JAZ, and

if you haven’t already heard of it, then I hope

IT’S NOT EASY

BEING GREEN

TOOLS YOU’LL NEED

• 6mm scraper


• Parting tool


• 12mm bowl gouge


• Electric drill for power sanding

I have more success explaining this innovative

material than Louis did with his music!

The story starts when Barbara White, who

developed JAZ, visited an antiques fair and was

surprised to find a chair made from papiér maché.

This wasn’t a decorative novelty, though: in the

early 19th century, papiér maché was made from

sheets of high quality, starched paper that were

laid and pressed together, a process that gave

the sort of structural properties that enabled it to

The variations that occur during

the manufacturing process

make each JAZ piece unique

Fig.1 Dave’s JAZ composition