Due to our decision to move to the United States to be closer to our grandchildren we have decided to put our corner of paradise up for sale.
The land consists of two camps measuring a total of 7.3 Hectares and split by the road from Martindale to Peddie. Buildings consist of a huge 425m
² house which is tiled throughout, across the road is a 75m
² cottage with water, a geyser and electricity but that needs a little paint and some work on the kitchen. Behind the main house is a 150m
² workshop built of steel and with a smaller lockable interior workshop attached. The workshop is fitted out with single phase electricity. This workshop is ideal for someone wanting to start a small industry or even a retirement hobby.
Security is good - not a single problem in the nearly four years we have been in residence. Pineapples are free (when you know the local farmers) and there is often a Friday night get-together. We have a 24/7 Internet connection - I write for the Internet so this is vital.
This is a life style home with historic connections located 30 minutes from Port Alfred and 30 minutes from Grahamstown and guess what - on a clear day you can see the sea.
Martindale Woodcrafts is a small woodcrafts company operating from the elite farming community of Martindale in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. The company operates from Martindale Farm, and we specialise in lathe turned wooden products and hand built wooden furniture. A range of our products may be seen by clicking on the link at the left.
Each of our products is made by hand and so no two items are identical. The lamps and candleholders are all lathe turned. The glass used in our candle holders is all recycled and is sourced in KwaZulu-Natal. Our products are mostly made up of kiln dried pine, and the final finished product is stained and treated to suit the customer's wishes. We do not normally carry a great deal of stock, and our products are all made to order. We carry a small stock of Yellowwood, American Sycamore and Oregon Pine, which we occasionally use for special orders. If you have a supply of a specific timber that you wish to be used for a special "once off" order, we will be happy to consider it. We will not accept any orders for products made from Supawood, particle board or veneer.
We are continually working on this website so we urge visitors to please be patient until we have it finished. Please take a look at our products in the gallery in the meantime
Our catalogues in .xls format are currently being revamped, but the catalogue in Powerpoint presentation format can be downloaded on the left. The file is a little over 3Mbs..
If you would like to contact Martindale Woodcrafts please e-mail us by clicking link at the foot of this page.
You can find out a little more about us at our personal website at www.themasons.co.za
Wood is a solid material derived from woody plants, notably trees but also shrubs. Wood from the latter is only produced in small sizes, reducing the diversity of uses.
In its most common meaning, "wood" is the secondary xylem of a woody plant, but this is an approximation only: in the wider sense, wood may refer to other materials and tissues with comparable properties. Wood is a heterogeneous, hygroscopic, cellular and anisotropic material. Wood is composed of fibers of cellulose (40%–50%) and hemicellulose (15%–25%) held together by lignin (15%–30%)
Wood has been used for millennia for many purposes. One of its primary uses is as fuel. It is also used as for making artworks, furniture, tools, and weapons, and as a construction material.
Wood has been an important construction material since humans began building shelters, houses, boats. It remains in common use today for wooden boats and wooden houses. In buildings made of other materials, wood will still be found as a supporting material (notably in roof construction) or exterior decoration. Wood to be used for construction work is commonly known as lumber in North America. Elsewhere, lumber will usually refer to felled trees, and the word for sawn planks (etc) ready for use will be timber.
Wood which in its native form is unsuitable for construction may broken down mechanically (into fibres or chips) or chemically (into cellulose) and used as a raw material for other building materials such as chipboard, engineered wood, hardboard, medium-density fibreboard (MDF), oriented strand board (OSB). Also, wood fibres are an important component of most paper, and cellulose is used as a component of some synthetic materials.
There is a strong relationship between the properties of wood and the properties of the particular tree that yielded it. For every trees species there is a range of density for the wood it yields. There is a rough correlation between density of a wood and its strength (mechanical properties). For example, while mahogany is a medium-dense hardwood which is excellent for fine furniture crafting, balsa is light, making it useful for model building. The densest wood may be black ironwood.
Wood is commonly classified as either softwood or hardwood. The wood from conifers (e.g. pine) is called softwood, and the wood from broad-leaved trees (e.g. oak) is called hardwood. These names are a bit misleading, as hardwoods are not necessarily hard, and softwoods are not necessarily soft. The well-known balsa (a hardwood) is actually softer than any commercial softwood. Conversely, some softwoods (e.g. yew) are harder than most hardwoods.
Along with stone, mud, and animal parts, wood was certainly one of the first materials worked by primitive human beings. Microwear analysis of the Mousterian stone tools used by the Neanderthals show that many were used to work wood. Indeed, the development of civilization was closely tied to the development of increasingly greater degrees of skill in working these materials.
Among early finds of wooden tools are the worked sticks from Kalambo Falls, Clacton-on-Sea and Lehringen. The spears from Schöningen (Germany) provide some of the first examples of wooden hunting gear. Flint tools were used for carving. Since Neolithic times, carved wooden vessels are known, for example from the Linear Pottery culture wells at Kückhofen and Eythra. Examples of Bronze Age wood-carving include trees worked into coffins from northern Germany and Denmark, and wooden folding-chairs. The site of Fellbach-Schmieden in Germany has provided fine examples of wooden animal statues from the Iron Age. Wooden idols from the La Tène period are known from a sanctuary at the source of the Seine in France.
Two ancient civilizations that used woodworking were the Egyptians and the Chinese. Woodworking is depicted in many ancient Egyptian drawings, and a considerable amount of ancient Egyptian furniture (such as stools, chairs, tables, beds, chests) has been preserved in tombs. As well, the inner coffins found in the tombs were also made of wood. The metal used by the Egyptians for woodworking tools was originally copper and eventually, after 2000 BC bronze as ironworking was unknown until much later. Commonly used woodworking tools included axes, adzes, chisels, pull saws, and bow drills. Mortise and tenon joints are attested from the earliest Presynastic period. These joints were strengthened using pegs, dowels and leather or cord lashings. Animal glue came to be used only in the New Kingdom period. Ancient Egyptians invented the art of veneering and used varnishes whose composition is not known as finishes. Although different native acacias were used, as was the wood from the local sycomore and tamarisk trees, deforestation in the Nile valley resulted in the need for importation of wood, notably cedar, but also Aleppo pine, boxwood and oak, starting from the Second Dynasty.
The progenitors of Chinese woodworking are considered to be Lu Ban and his wife Lady Yun, from the Spring and Autumn Period. Lu Ban is said to have brought the plane, chalkline, and other tools to China. His teachings are supposedly left behind in the book Lu Ban Jing ("Manuscript of Lu Ban"), although it was written some 1500 years after his death. This book is filled largely with descriptions of dimensions for use in building various items—such as flower pots, tables, altars, etc.—and also contains extensive instructions concerning Feng Shui, the ancient Chinese practice of geomancy. It mentions almost nothing of the intricate glueless and nailless joinery for which Chinese furniture was so famous.
