Mareeba artist Vickie Mylrea is breathing new life into farming relics.
The mother of two and project officer with Gulf Savannah NRM was a keen artist through childhood but life took her on another path.
"Growing up in Broken Hill, we were exposed to wonderful outback artists like Pro Hart, Eric Minchin and Jack Absalom and I spent time visiting their galleries and listening to them talk about their artwork," Ms Mylrea said.
"Painting and the outback style was there throughout my early years."
On graduating, Ms Mylrea went bush where she worked as a governess for many years in Queensland's Channel Country, Mt Isa and the Northern Territory, dabbling in art along the way.
Having met husband Steve and starting a family, art was put to the side as family commitments took over.
A chance encounter with a visiting artist during a rural women's event in Mt Surprise reignited her love of painting.
But it was the admiration of a friend's hand painted crosscut saw that started the Bush Blades journey.
"I had a crosscut saw that lied around at home for about a year and I really wanted to paint it, so I painted a couple of hand saws as a practice and then did the crosscut saw," Ms Mylrea explained.
"With my husband's support and encouragement from a good friend, it has snowballed from there.
"The end goal was to get that crosscut saw painted for my wall; there was never an intent to sell pieces."
The whirlwind journey has taken Bush Blades to every state in Australia except ACT.
Ms Mylrea still remembers her first sale - a handsaw depicting the image of a reflection of a windmill in a trough - which is now residing in Cloncurry.
In the two and a half years since, there has been more than 80 commissioned saws produced.
"A blade will last forever - it will last a family's lifetime," she said.
"People often give me their family's crosscut saws and photos from the family's past. I tell them the painting has to have meaning for them; every saw has to tell a story."
One of the more unusual pieces was a plough disc that Vickie painted for a local family at Edmonton, depicting the family's farming and mining legacy at Mt Peter near Cairns.
Ms Mylrea has a national network of family members on the lookout for saws - a cousin who is an Australian antique collector in Victoria and her brother in Adelaide.
It takes her around six weeks to paint a crosscut saw - once it's been restored.
"There is a lot more preparation because a lot of these saws are in horrendous condition when they arrive - I've only found two that I haven't been able to restore," she said.
"We take them back to bare because they are so rusted and pitted; sometimes they have been sitting in a shed for over 100 years."
Bush Blades is a supporter of the Far North's campdraft circuit, through sponsorship and stalls, where possible, it has a retail space at Emerald Creek Ice Creamery, a soon-to-be-opened gallery at home and just launched its first trophy catalogue.
At last count, Ms Mylrea had close to 100 handsaws, nearly 50 rounds of various sizes, seven crosscuts of different sizes and five singleman saws along with some other unusual canvas like rabbit traps, gold pans, cane knives and a couple of bee smokers all waiting for a story to be told.
The growth has forced Vickie to scale back her hours at the NRM group.
"I love my job," she added.
"It provides me with the inspiration. You have to get out and talk to people and keep your toes in the bush environment so you are relatable."
But Ms Mylrea remains humble.
"It still surprises me because painting is so personal," she said.