Timber Talks – Daniel Scholz

MEET DANIEL

Whether you’re looking to replicate heritage designs or create brand new pieces, our team specialises in a bespoke timber service where we can reproduce skirting boards, architraves and decorative mouldings to a tee.

Our expert craftsmen can also craft any custom timber item you desire, based on either a simple drawing or a physical sample. This makes it just as easy for local customers to pop in or for interstate customers to send in a sample to replicate. 

Bone Timber Mill Foreman Daniel Scholz gives us a look behind the scenes where the magic happens.

How do you help Bone Timber customers?

I took on the role of Mill Foreman two years ago, so I oversee the mill and work with my three team members to do all the basic plaining and timber profiles.

Customers regularly bring in a profile for us to have a look … it may be rotted or damaged, or they may be doing an extension and want a match. If it’s stock, we can usually do it within a week. A new profile takes roughly a three-week turnaround. We can virtually do everything as a retrofit (within reason).

We’ve got lots of long-term customers —they know we’ve got the quality and they come back for the details that we can do. You get what you pay for.

What types of timbers do you use?

At the moment, clear pine has taken off. We’re using a product called Finger Jointed, so it’s staying straight. We’re doing all our profiles on Finger Jointed pine and it’s a third of the price of a solid piece of timber. Everything breaks down over time, but this doesn’t rot. Most people would use MDF for a house, but if it gets any moisture on it, it can tend to swell up — the timber won’t swell up as much as MDF.

What do you love about it?

Every job is different — they look the same, but they’re different. I’ve got that many cutters down there, into the thousands. And then we keep these cutters for stock, and then if the customer comes back, we might still have that same profile — and if not, we can recreate a new profile.

The old-style heritage you see in North Adelaide or places like that, where there’s lots of heritage is beautiful. That work is fidgety, so there’s a bit of work that’s involved in some of the profiles. It’s amazing they did that 100 years ago.

And I’m fussy about all my jobs, so everything goes out perfectly. If I do something wrong, I can’t sleep — nothing is done half-hearted. You can spend hours on a profile for one piece, you know, or you can spend five minutes on a pretty slimline product. Because I don’t like doing jobs twice, I aim to make it perfect the first time around.

What’s trending?

Slimline, so you probably notice a lot more square profiles. And people putting LED lighting strips in the handrails. We’ve noticed a lot of that so we cut the hole so that an electrician can put the strip lighting through.

How has machinery changed your work?

Machinery is just going up and up and up. Some of the profiles that get brought in, you can tell what’s been done by hand because they’re not the same, but machines make our profiles the same all the way through.

And the developments in machinery are all about time. We just got a new machine down the back, called a Cube that does the buzzing and plaining and finishing size, all in one hit. It’s now a one-person job, rather than three people.

What do you do in your free time?

I’m a fanatical Carlton supporter! My whole family are. I’ve been a member for 27 years now, and we get over to the games all the time.

If you have to go for an Adelaide team. Who are you going for?

Probably the Crows — because a lot of Carlton players have come from the Crows. A lot of them come from Glenelg, South Adelaide. In fact, I was close friends with Mark Naley, who’s passed away now. He was a Carlton premiership player in 1987, and he used to come into Bone — he was a timber man too. Great to meet people like him.