When we first bought the house many moons ago, it was full of ‘treasures from the past’. In other words, it was loaded with junk. There was all manner of wood, old tiles, broken furniture, a sit-down bath, a war-time gas mask, piles of old clothes, moonshine-making equipment and several old pairs of skis.

I’ve always tried to find a use for materials that were already there, rather than buying new. Finally, after seventeen years of them sitting in the woodshed (and probably thirty-plus years since they last shot down a slope) I turned a pair of vintage Elan ‘Jet’ skis into a firewood rack.

They’ve seen some use; they have plenty of cracks, scratches and scars, and their days of being useable skis are long gone. But the fact that Elan are a Slovenian success story, they have ‘Made in Yugoslavia’ printed on the top sheet, and that these particular skis have a beautifully retro look, makes them ideal.

I was slightly reluctant to cut them up at first, but I’d rather give them a new life then have them sitting in the woodshed for another thirty years doing nothing.

Previously. I had a log basket sat next to my Piazzetta e905 wood stove. It did a perfectly good job but my new Elan ski log rack can store more wood than the basket, and in my opinion, looks better too.

It was a simple project. I used a piece of old pine board I had kicking around which I cleaned up and sanded, some shelf brackets, and a few screws. I went through the skis’ metal edges with a hacksaw, then used a wood saw to go through the wood core and plastic base.

Anyone interested in Elan’s story should check out the Elan museum in Slovenia which is well worth a look.