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Sawing with shush

If you haven’t heard these Tusk Silent Timber blades in operation you can’t fully appreciate what a difference they make. They are not silent but they are significantly quieter, and probably never squeal. These ultra-thin, deep-cutting, premium-quality saw blades are made especially for use on electric or cordless circular saws. They feature a patented sound

If you haven’t heard these Tusk Silent Timber blades in operation you can’t fully appreciate what a difference they make. They are not silent but they are significantly quieter, and probably never squeal. These ultra-thin, deep-cutting, premium-quality saw blades are made especially for use on electric or cordless circular saws. They feature a patented sound and vibration cushioning design with a silver fluoride coating and tungsten carbide welded tips. They are especially useful in noise restricted environments, but they are better at any time. The dense solid steel core design results in smooth, precise cuts, and the ultra-thin kerf reduces load for longer blade and battery life.
Pricing for 165/185 x 1.6 x 52T x 20/16 blades starts from $70. See tusktools.co.nz to find Tusk stockists.



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A butterfly takes wing

6 August 2026

This simple butterfly pendant or brooch (depending on the back fittings) is a very good exercise in several basic goldsmithing techniques. It also can be decorated in several different ways to produce strikingly different finished pieces of jewellery.
I drew this design more than 25 years ago for a company that then made paua-shell jewellery. They stamped out their products, so I often made the master patterns in copper and from these patterns they spark-eroded the dies.
If this design was being made in an art school, it would be stuck to a sheet of silver and the basic shapes cut from there. If a design was made this way in, say, 18-carat gold and the wing outlines (as here) made from 2.5 mm thick metal, the outlay and waste material would be considerable from a 2.5 mm-thick sheet of 18-carat gold plate. But we will make it like a professional craftsman who has to live in the real world where costs matter.

Making a clean sweep – how to make a magnetic sweeper

31 July 2026

After mumblings of discontent about the potential punctures and those “messy engineers”, I decided to make a simple magnetic sweeper. The concept is not new. Magnets have been used for picking up road debris for a long time, and they are very effective.
The challenge, though, is where to find magnets that are strong enough, and how to effectively remove collected steel waste from the magnets. In an ideal world, it would be great to be able to turn the magnetism off and on.
This can be done, of course, by shifting the magnetic poles in the same way that magnetic chucks do on a surface grinder.
Very effective, but I couldn’t see our tool makers in the shed being happy to see the magnetic chuck from the surface grinder being “borrowed” to pick up nails.

The Shed magazine August/September 2026 issue 128 on sale now

19 July 2026

Sentimental Journey
Jack Ryder had a unique ability to hypnotise sports stars, politicians, and celebrities into donating items for his museum and sports memorabilia collection. Now, his grandson Clint manages this West Auckland landmark, but the property development vultures are circling.
It is hard to imagine a less likely location for a living museum than the back blocks of suburban West Auckland in Avondale.
Yet here, towards the end of a lengthy no-through road, the Ryder family hold tight to a self-built vestige of Auckland’s yesteryear. While the surrounding streets are turned into homogeneous multi-unit town housing, the Ryders’ two-acre slice of Pavlova Paradise remains, less a multi-generational home ground and more a celebration of the character of the city’s past.
Slipping through the tall white gates past the twin concrete lion sentinels at the street end of Ryder’s long hedge-lined driveway, the modern world slips away. Ahead, in the shade of a 100-year-old Pecan tree, an enclave of antique edifices opens out along the back-fence line like a set from a period movie. This corner of vintage Kiwiana is the handiwork of the late and industrious Jack Ryder, a coach-builder and wharfie, who began constructing it from a group of sheds spread across the property.