The organizing committee for my 55th Navy Reunion in October in Devonport Tasmania, needed a prizes for the trivia night. I butterflied a piece of Blackheart Sassafras I was gifted by a friend Richard in Tasmania to make a charcuterie board. I biscuit jointed & glued the two halves together with Titebond 3, and sanded it to 400 grit. I then polished it with 50000 grit food grade polishing paste followed by 100,000 grit food grade polishing paste from Kustom Creations ! Plus I made a shield to add the divisions crest out of my own Iron Bark I felled a few years back. It too has been polished with Kustom Grit. I've also made a chesseboard as a THANK YOU gift for the owner of a very large private car collect which the mob has been granted to visit. It was made from a piece of old Red Gum & Laburnum also biscuited, glued with Titebond 3 and polished 100,000 grit food grade polishing paste from Kustom Creations The owner with also receive a shield, also Red Gum for over entertaining his bar in his man cave, vehicle collection, as part of the THANK YOU. Cheers Peter
Nice job on all the gifts. Amazing that you guys stayed in touch all these years. I remember finding this company years ago because of their name. I had a little business when I graduated high school, and I named it Custom Creations. When the Internet came to be is when I found they had the same name, but it was spelled differently. I kept it until I started woodworking, and then I changed to just using my initials.
Forgot to mention that one of the shields will be gifted to the Latrobe RSL Club, the home of the Royal Australian Navy’s only Victoria Cross recipient Teddy Sheean.
Someone has been very busy. 55 years there will be a few trails told at that gathering. I know exactly where Leeuwin is as Perth was home till 1983. They will love your skilful contribution Peter. Great job.
Kerry - Working with wood, the smell the feel, is such a joy, its a meditation of sorts.
HMAS Leeuwin was the Junior Recruit Training Establishment, my first port of call for my 7yrs in the Royal Australian Navy, though the initial signup was for 12yrs. My mob were the 37th intake and our stint at Leeuwin was for 12 mths except I was selected for apprentice training 9mths in and posted to HMAS Nirimba for what was supposed to be 36mths of training in Fitting & Machining, General Engineering. It was shorted to 29mths with structural changes within the Navy.
I've done some digging, and now I know how things stand.
Wikipedia: Leeuwin ("Lioness"), also spelt Leeuwine in some Dutch East India Company (VOC) documents, was a Dutch galleon that discovered and mapped some of the southwest corner of Australia in March 1622. It was captained by Jan Fransz[1] and was the seventh European ship to sight the continent.
