I've redecorated a room and thrown out an old electric fire that was
against the wall. The base of the fire was thick wood and the skirting
board had been removed so the fire could press flush to the wall. So I'm
left with about a metre of missing skirting board with a zig-zag cutout
at each end where the fire used to be.

I walked around B&Q and had a look at their skirting but none were the
same. I've had a look on the web and I think what I have is "Chamfered
Bullnosed Skirting" according to
http://www.haymanlimited.co.uk/joine...ducts.cfm?id=2

It is 15-17mm thick (hard to tell exactly because of the paint) 95mm
high. The chamfer starts 70mm from the bottom, and the horizontal bit at
the top is 5-6mm.

Looking around the house I see there are other places where there are
bits of missing skirting board and I'm considering whether it's worth
the time and effort doing the job myself. Especially if it's going to
involve fiddly sizes and if the skirting is not available off the shelf.

However woodwork is not something I've done much off and I'm not sure
where to start. Leafing through my DIY books I see mentions of mitres
and tenon saws and such. Although my books mention skirting boards, they
only mention it from the point of view of replacement, whereas I'm
wondering how I'd cut a bit of wood to create the replacement in the
first place. Is that what a router does? Since there are no complicated
curvy bits to the chamfer (I even thought of using my jigsaw at an angle
and putting a block of wood in the workbench) I'm thinking I might give
it a go.

On the other hand, if I could find a local timber merchant (just moved
into the area so still finding the local outlets) and told them the
dimensions would they be likely to cut a piece to size?

Still not sure how I'm going to proceed with this. Any thoughts/advice
welcome.

Dougie