The Amazing Wooden Cat Obstacle Course

I've had my cat since May last year. When we got him he was only a few weeks old, so that means he’s yet to have his first birthday. A combination of him being so young and the fact we've yet to get him neutered means that we haven’t let him outside yet. He’s been out in the back yard with us a few times, but only under supervision. Cars scare him too, so he’s stopped trying bolt out of the front door whenever we open it.

During the day he’s left on his own, where he has the run of the house aside from the living room (he has a habit of pulling the carpet up to such a degree that it blocks us from getting in the room). I do often wonder if he’s bored, but the little play cat house we bought him, his scratching post and the majority of his toys lie untouched. Yet put a box down and he can’t help but climb inside. He also has a fondness for going behind the TV, until he’s shouted at and runs off with a wail. So, what do you do to please a bored cat? I've been thinking about building some sort of project for him, which is when I came across this.

Designer Stefan Hofmann clearly doesn't have bored cats, because they've got the most impressive cat obstacle course I've ever seen to play around in. His creations have resulted in a line of cat climbing furniture that’s sold by German company Goldtatze, which translates to gold paw. I can see why they’d call it that, as I’d probably have to be earning quite a bit more to be buying such an elaborate play area for my cat. I'm not sure the landlord would appreciate it either, but let’s not ruin an impressive design by moaning.

Your cat can traverse walkways over molten pits of lava; dive across wall mounted perches situated hundreds of feet above a terrifying drop to into a dry canyon. Before long they’ll reach the birds nest, where they’ll disturb the birds and randomly chase them around the room for hours on end.

Ok, so not all of that is true but the obstacles are still pretty amazing. Each piece is custom built to your specifications, although if you don’t live in Germany then you’re probably going to have to fork out quite a bit for shipping. Or you could get into the DIY spirit and try building some of your own creations. At least your cat would thank you.

Well, when I say your cat will thank you it will probably just jump on to its new territory and promptly continue to ignore you until its feeding time or they want to use your lap as conveniently warm bed.

Here's a video of the cats enjoying their new roaming grounds.

Pictures via Haunspanther.com

Weird and Wonderful Tools: Japanese Wood Planing Competition

I love reading about Japan, it’s such a fascinating country and it seems like every day something new and fairly odd is coming out of the Land of the Rising Sun. Usually I'm writing about Japanese toilets, which is always an interesting topic as you’d be amazed at just how far they can go with a toilet. This time though we’re obviously going to delve into something with a DIY swing to it; specifically woodwork. How good are your wood planning skills? Because the skilled Japanese people in this video are about to smash them to tiny little wooden pieces.

The video shows the annual Kezuroukai exhibition in Japan, where participants try to shave off the thinnest strip of wood that you could possibly imagine. We’re not just talking wood like a toothpick here, we’re talking wood that’s only around 9 microns thick. To put that in perspective a micro is one-thousandth of a millimetre, and if you reach up and pluck out one of the hairs from your head that will be about 100 microns across. In other words, this is really thin wood! In fact it’s so thin that it looks more like transparent paper rather than wood, and you probably won’t be making a table out of it any time soon.

Each participant gets three attempts to shave off the thinnest piece of wood they can with a plane, and each time it’s assessed by a judge who measures the thickness with a special device. The impressive thing is that the world record currently stands at just 3 microns, and while this ‘competitive sport’ might not sound like the most exciting thing in the world to watch it’s still something to be applauded.

You’re welcome to try this out yourself with your very own planer, but it might take a lot of patience and a steady hand to get to the level of these guys. If you do try it feel free to send us the results and we’ll post them on the blog.

(Via Oddity Central)

Hammer and Chisel: Tree Surgeon Turns Leylandii Tree Into Beautiful Sculptures

Being a tree surgeon is a tougher job than many people initially realise. It’s not enough to just look at a tree and decide which branch to cut down, if you don't know what you're doing you could easily end up killing or at least seriously hurting yourself. That’s why being a tree surgeon is a highly paid job, both for their expertise and the level of danger involved. For former tree surgeon Rob Heard though, he’s hit upon an idea that looks just as tough with his hand-carved wooden models.

A car accident left Rob with an injured wrist and an inability to do his job for six months, so he understandably became bored. He took a look at the Leylandii tree, a tree that is pretty useless once it has been felled, and hit on the idea of creating art out of it. The results are ‘bough houses’, intricate models of structures that look like something straight out of a fantasy world. You can almost imagine Elves living in them, with sparkling fireflies flittering around.

Rob takes about 400 to 500 hours to build each ‘bough house’ with each one being completely unique. He hand cuts and carves them, fixing parts together using pins and glue. Even each individual roof tile is carved independently, and the detail he puts into the stairs and windows is just as impressive. You can even follow each walkway or staircase to a specific room or landing, with every turret and tower reachable.

This isn’t just art though; Rob wants children to play with them and initially made them for his daughters. It’s a great way to use a tree that isn’t much use, and one that is becoming quite hated. Leylandii trees can grow so tall that there have been numerous complaints to local councils due to neighbours letting them grow out of control and blocking out light and views. Since 2005 local authorities have been able to fine people up to £1,000 if they fail to cut them down when ordered to. So if you have one or know of one that needs cutting down just request it be sent to Rob as at least he can create some pretty impressive art out of them.

You have to have a pretty creative imagination to come up with designs on the scale of Rob’s, but apart from that what else would you need? Well, you'd need a qualified tree surgeon or logger to get hold of the wood in the first place, but if you're trained in all that then obviously a chainsaw would do nicely. You could also check your local area to see if anyone is getting rid of a tree and would either let you have the wood or offer it for a fee (check out this guide to getting free wood, although you'd probably one some pretty big logs to follow Rob's example).

We’re suspecting Rob used tools like a hammer and chisel when it came to the creation phase. There are a number of different chisels; including carving chisels and bevel edge chisels, although it would be worth your while getting hold of a full chisel set if you're going to commit to this. Finally you also need plenty of spare time and patience, but as DIYer's we're probably used to that anyway!