One Day in Uppsala Cathedral

   Last Thursday we went to see the Uppsala Domkyrka, whether a person is religious or not, you can't help but me moved by the beauty of this historic building.  Even though a cathedral's shell is stone it's heart is wood.

   This portable organ has one manual(keyboard) and four stops as well a foot pedals.  There is one rank of wooden pipes.

  Unhappily I wasn't able to hear the organ played this time.  

 The cathedral's grand entrance is a double set of vast wooden doors.  The dark wooden doors are strapped with iron and are the outside doors that protect the second set of doors from the elements. (and the hordes?)

  There are of course about a hundred wooden pews. The ancient carpenter was not neglected when the church was giving out work.

  Sweden is a country with a long history of lumbering, wood working and making fine edge tools. 

    A typical Swedish carving is the Dalarna Horse or wooden spoon. Swedish carving is often done with very few tools.  In fact this horse can be carved using a new blade in a utility knife.  A utility knife is a good starting place for a carver because you don't need to learn how to sharpen you knife, you can concentrate on your carving technique. 

  Friday was a travelling day, as we rode the train north and the landscape looked like Muskoka Ontario, rocks trees and water. I love it.

 cheers, Ian W.

Hello from Sweden.

  For the next two weeks I will be blogging from Sweden. This week Eva and I are staying in Uppsala, Sweden's fourth largest city and oldest University town.  Today's blog features a video I picked up this evening as we are relaxing from a busy day visiting the cathedral and a couple of museums.  I'll have some photos of neat wooden doors and floors for a later blog.

  Today's video is Matthias Wandel building tool holders for the wall in front of the his bench.

Making wall tool holders.

   Check out the system he uses for sizing the holders, I love it when the best method is the simplest.

  If you are planning to build a wall holder you should use that as a chance review your screwdrivers and maybe get some quality replacements, that set you got as a prize for buying gas each week probably should be demoted to paint can openers. Just saying, I am old enough to remember when service stations gave out gifts to encourage your business.

  Uppsala is nice, clean, pleasant and civilized. I am a big fan.

Uppsala Cathedral seem from the River Fryis