This Site

This is a site for Craftyjohn, ( a name I got stuck with when choosing my email address ), where I hope to tell you a little about myself and show you some of what I do.....

I live in a wee town in Scotland near Edinburgh, ( the Capital city - famous for the Castle and the Festival ), where I work for the University of Edinburgh press here for an image of what I do for a living.
I am woodworker in my spare time and I enjoy woodturning especially. I hope that you will follow some of the links here to see my work. I am known as the Stoolmaker because that remains my prime interest, started when I decided to make my first chair and developed in the years since then. I have an eclectic range of interests and enjoy the freedom of being able to decide what I want to make without having to produce a living wage from it. I use in the main Scottish timber harvested and dried locally and small amounts of exotic woods imported by a company which only purchases from sustainable forestry sources and not slash and burn merchants. This site is under construction at the moment and is always likely to be so ......:-)
I now have details of the stools I make, ( and sell ), here and also details of the wooden weapons I make for re-enactment and training purposes. These are fairly popular with exponents of the European martial art forms, ( yes there are such martial arts - try this site for one dealing with the Scottish smallsword and for another general site ), who are interested in being able to duel with one another in a realistic manner without obviously killing each other.I have placed a page here with prices.

THE PHOTOS ARE HERE AT LAST !!!!.

Here is a photo of yours truly enjoying the sunshine last year while taking a break from the workshop. A scene of true contentment - a man with his beer, ( St. Andrews ale from the Belhaven brewery ), in his chair, ( made by myself ), at peace with the world

Craftyjohn June 2000