He was a missionary first in Borneo before coming to Tanzania. In about 1950 he left Borneo with this crate in the picture below, maybe a year later he came to Tanzania and stayed about 40 years. (This is my beautiful wife Bernice).
When Stan left for retirement he cleared out all his junk and brought a pickup load to me. There were many treasures in there, like a box of odd bolts and nuts, hinges, morticed wood boxes that hoes came in, etc, and this crate. It weighs allot. It is the heaviest wood I have touched, including our own loliondo wood.
While farming it became the chemical cabinet, then it was a box to store scrap metal. In Dec 2009 I took it apart and tried to remove all the nails. It was too heavy to move around. Even the nails were interesting. Then I planned one board and realized it was beautiful wood. I looked at it in a different light.
It was on my list to make into furniture, and when daughter Nashesha came back from grade 9 as exchange student she needed another clothes cabinet. So this was made. I can barely lift it up. Planning the wood on the shaper took 4 times as long as African teak. It has some imperfections but it will last forever and I will think of Stan Benson when I see it.
Thank you Stan for the memories.
No comments:
Post a Comment