Winter Wonderland – but with a few less trees

Well it rained for what seemed just about forever. The wettest English year on record – not bad considering that is started with a dry spell which continued until the day that the government declared a drought. But the wind and rain eventually gave way to the cold and cue -  The winter wonderland – but with a few less trees than we started the week – aka the extreme chainsaw training course!

Just occasionally I teach basic chainsaw and tree felling for a local land management college. I did wonder why I was asked to run a chainsaw and tree felling course in January at relatively short notice. All became clear once I saw the weather forecast for the week. We started off with the basic quagmire, moved onwards to the big freeze and then finished off with extreme chainsaw training in heavy snowfall. (Thanks to Peter Underwood for the photo)

I started the week with a full complement of six students but by the heavy snow fall on Friday I’d managed to whittle it down to the hardcore of Ian, Peter and Jules who were game enough to come out with me for some final felling practice in the snow.

Working in the woods was fine – it can be quite surreal working during snowfall as you tend to be in your own little universe – the trees block the wind and everything looks and sounds quite peaceful. It’s something of a shock to emerge back into the world and to discover that as usual the traffic in Southern England can’t cope and has ground to a halt.  Luckily we’d prepared for that and with a couple of 4×4′a were soon back at the college – only to discover that whilst we’d been out in the woods felling trees those in the warm heated classrooms had been sent home! It’s a strange world out there isn’t it? Good luck with the assessments guys!

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Needles and Spoons

There is a limit to how many photos of turning items on my pole lathe I can post and I try to stop well before I reach saturation point. But sometimes I do end up agreeing to turn some strange items, and to be honest, the chance to try different things is something I find really motivating so it’s not hard to talk me into it – as was the case when I was asked to make some knitting needles recently.

These are not any old knitting needles mind you, they are extreme knitting needles – just what they will be knitting I’m not quite sure but I think it will be large.  These needles are over 12 inches long and one inch in diameter. It was great fun and I think they turned out well.

In a similar vein of experimentation Dave and Julian came around and we spent an evening in the chaos that is my open fronted shed spooning.  We had a good evening trying out lots of home made things, including spoons, spatulas,  the cider and beer which may, or may not, go well with the making of spoons.

I did tell you it was chaos in the Shed! But at the end of the day with more shavings on the floor and more firewood rescued and turned into useful items, what more could you want? Show us your spoons lads!

 

 

 

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A Dandy Day at the Coppice Group Open Weekend 2012

Over recent years we’ve become accustomed to blistering heat and endless sunshine at the Sussex and Surrey Coppice Group open weekend, our annual get together where members and guests have a chance to try different skills and swap ideas for new products and generally chat, not to mention buy something you really didn’t know you needed at the Tool Auction.

As for the last 3  years the event was held in Fernhurst at the site of the old Fernhurst Iron Furnace and hosted by Robin Barnes. The weather forecast for this year predicted it would be different this time so we turned up prepared for bad weather – and we weren’t disappointed! I was reminded of Dwayne, one of the cutters on the TV show Ax-men, who in an Oregon downpour in which he just about disappeared he pronounced it ‘A DandyDay!’ and got on with felling the trees. I tend to use the phrase to describe drenched days working in the woods.

To start off the going on the field was fairly firm, but as the downpours continued  eventually there was as much water on the surface as grass, walking on water definitely an advantage and we did give up on the open campfire  – but did that put us off?

Not much, though it was a more select gathering than usually attends and thats not a huge surprise under the circumstances. The rubbish in the foreground is not flood debris it’s the annual attempt to pass off unwanted items to other members loosely known as an auction.

The point of the day is not just for members to demonstrate their skills – we do that at shows throughout the season – but for members to join in and try out some new crafts. Ian Swain was putting new handles on old tools – something that lots of us do on occasion but it’s good to watch a master at work and there is always more to learn and I was keen to have a go but unfortunately too busy setting up for the auction. Next time Ian!

Tony Lucas was a welcome new face at the gathering this year coming over from near Lewes with his fine Landrover 110 – oh and some fine chairs as well. The steam chamber on the table was powered by a small boiler over an open fire, a neat little setup for demonstrating steam bending in the middle of a wet field.

As you’d expect with the Coppice Group there were a fair few old landrovers around and John Sinclair demonstrates a surprisingly deft touch with his Series III. Will he convert Stuart’s Golf to a rear engine model, or gently assist him to leave the field?

Piping hot food (and more than a little local beer and cider) always helps to keep out the rain and The Men in Hats aka Dave and Ritchie did a great job in cooking up the venison – I’ve left out the photos of the butchery you’ll be pleased to hear – and the rest of the local meat feast.

Fresh from his success with his magic goblet machine Roger’s been working on a setup for shaping spoons and utensils on a repeatable basis. It’s based upon a small stock knife (similar to a drawknife in size) which is anchored at one end on a modified bench with a series of steps in it to assist the cuts with the knife on the blank.

Unlike a normal spoon making process the bowl is carved first using a large gouge and then the form is cut swiftly and accurately around it with the stocknife.

Very interesting approach to making utensils. As you can see it knocks out butter knives/letter openers very easily just using the stocknife. Roger’s aim was to investigate a simple and consistent approach to making utensils which increases speed whilst retaining acceptable quality, allowing a lower cost item made from sustainable products. I think he’s got something here and I’m tempted to try something similar for making spatulas.

Though I was busy around the site the polelathe proved popular with people trying it out through the day. Here Rick gives it a go for the first time and as he’s soon to be on his way back to New Zealand – perhaps there’ll be an NZ branch of the APT before too long.

The auction was big hit and with a massive 70 lots to get through Peter Jameson excelled himself and just about managed to keep his voice. The porters were the stars of the show and Roger prooved to be quite a performer as he gave us the background to each of the chainsaw sculptures he’d entered into the auction. I think both buyers and sellers seemed happy with the event and by something approaching a miracle the rain just about held off for the time it took to flog the lot.

I fully intended to buy nothing and one again I failed miserably and returned home with the usual assortment of odds and sods, but more sods than odds I suspect. I was tempted by this intriguing tool, but as Dave seemed keen on it I thought it would have a fine home and resisted the temptation to bid it up. Can you see what it is yet? And why does it have two hooks on it?

Ritchie’s roundhouse become the centre of activities and allowed us to keep the fire on once we’d abandoned the campfire outside. But even inside  it turned in a sea of mud but at least we stayed afloat in the roundhouse just.

As I’ve had a few complaints about the lack of Landrover content recently, here is a gratuitous photo from the weekend where Landrovers outnumbered other vehicles to the extent that you could be forgiven for thinking it was actually a Landrover rally!

The water pouring through the grate and into the spillway of the old furnace in the woods below the fields gives you some idea of the amount of water trying to leave the site. Never mind – I think a good time was had by all.  Back to the usual heatwave for next year?

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Blowing the cobwebs away

I’ve had a quiet few days. I find walking along the coast helps to blow away the cobwebs in my mind and recharge my batteries ready for the coming season of polelathe turning, greenwood working and these days also plenty of mowing with a scythe. The Gower Peninsula just beyond Swansea in South Wales has plenty of good walking  and nowhere more spectacular than the section between Port Eynon and Rhossili where the folds in the rock beds have produced amazing shapes in the cliffs interspersed with long sandy beaches.

As well as the cliff top walks for the more adventurous there are also tracks around the bottom of the cliffs which on a good day are stunning. This series of rocky headlands stretches towards the cave at Paviland, known for the discovery of the remains of the  ‘Red Lady’ but which turned out to be a 33,000 year old fossilised skeleton of young man. Not red and not a lady, but the name has stuck fast and it’s still one of the oldest skeletons to be found in western europe which does show just how long people have been walking on these cliffs to blow away the cobwebs.

Some of the less tracks do go right to the edge and in places right off the edge as erosion gradually changes the shape of the coastline.

It’s all limestone cliffs here.

and even on the edge of the cliffs, sometime over the edge of the cliffs there are the remains of old industries, here lime kilns used to bake the limestone and produce quicklime.

These days the industry has all gone and aside from farm works picking cauliflowers in the fields and the ever present seabirds the sheep are likely to be your only companions on a quiet weekday.

Well refreshed from my walking it’s time to get busy with plenty of greenwood working and the odd landrover to repair as usual.

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Turning the base – part 2

Turn a base for an altar cross. It’s not often you get asked to do a job like this so I’ve got to give it a go. What could possibly go wrong? I’m so engrossed in turning the base that I’ve not entirely thought through how the cross will be mounted. A short discussion with West Dean College who have made the cross results it arriving for me to do the mounting.

It turns out that the cross has a 4 inch long rectangular tang on its base. I’m not much good at drilling rectangular holes and my normal approach to this (in the case of a tool handle) would be to drill a round hole,  heat the tang and burn it into the base. I am a bodger at heart but I think a more subtle approach is definitely needed here.

The eventual plan, thanks to Alison for suggesting it, is to carefully saw off the top of the base so I can drill some pilot holes and chisel out the rectangular profile to fit the cross, then drill though the base to allow the tang and a threaded bar to be inserted and pull the assembly tight. As the cross is to be delivered the next day, I decided to test this on a practice piece which went well. Unfortunately the real top didn’t behave as well and split before I’d finished the first hole. This was always going to be a danger and  though superglue is tempting luckily the practice piece is just about (it will have to be) good enough to do the job,

The result is not too shabby. Nobody would know, except of course now I’ve told everyone! But at least it’s on straight.

Next day the cross is due to be installed on the altar in St Margaret’s a ‘tin tabernacle’ from South Wonston near Winchester  and recently re-erected at the Weald & Downland Open Air Museum. Cue gratuitous picture of the museum in it’s February light covering of snow.

The building is fascinating in both it’s concept and it’s history. Tin tabernacles were supplied as flat packed kits and shipped all over the world – and not an Allen key in sight. Ikea eat your heart out!  The concept is that a light wooden ‘shed’ frame is pulled together by the corrugated iron skin sheets acting as a form of exoskeleton. This one is a really remarkably original example anf was first erected at South Wonston in 1909 where it served as a church for over 90 years.

That it lasted so well says a lot about how well the congregation cared for it and rather than see it dismembered they donated it to the museum. Many of them turned up for a small ceremony to mark it’s re-opening together with most of the team of craftsmen who worked on the re-erection.

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Rowanberry Vodkin

Now my Rowan berries have been frosted, I think the term might be ‘bletted’, is that right? As the fruit are unusually early and the autumn starting very mild the fruit have been in the freezer for a while rather than waiting on the trees for the first frosts.  It’s time to turn to the next stage in the recipe.  I’m impressed at how soft and juicy the fruit have become, and the flavour is still very tart but no longer inedible.

Not complicated here. Just put the rowan berries (you can do this with just about any fruit) into a bottle, I fill the bottle to somewhere between a 1/3rd and a 1/2 with fruit and then fill up with cheap vodka or gin or both. I tend to forget which one I’ve used and hence the term ‘vodkin’. In my view the only difference is that the gin is already flavoured with juniper berries so in some cases vodka might be better and it’s often a little cheaper.

I got the idea for using Rowan berries from Patrick Ropers excellent Rowan, Whitebeam and Wild Service Tree blog. No idea how it will turn out. Wait a few years and ask me then!

 

The important thing to do now is forget all about them. Preferably for some years. Unlike many recipes we don’t add sugar at the start and we leave the fruit in until we want to sample the product – even then we may just draw the liquid off and leave the fruit. When we bottle it we add sugar to taste, and it’s often a lot less than some of the ‘granny recipes’ I see.

I’ve taken to using light brown soft sugar as it gives a warmer flavour and softens the edge of the fruit bite but without being too syrupy- or even light brown muscovado for a slighty more spicy and treacly tang to the flavour.  As a guide, last night I used about 8 heaped teaspoons of light brown soft sugar for a bottle of sloe vodkin.

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Full Steam Ahead and the Big Elm Boy

My visits to the bodgery last week were squeezed in between bookings for demonstrating and teaching polelathe turning at the Weald & Downland Open Air Museum (of which more later) but I am very grateful to Derrick for getting full steam up and pushing me to make the missing part, namely the comb,  for my comb-back windsor side chair.

The steam chambers are simple plastic drainpipes heavily lagged by old carpet and braced with battens. The steam source is a wallpaper stripper or kettle heating element in a plastic water reservoir.

Having steamed the beech comb for just over an hour we placed it in the jig and applied the pressure using a simple pipe bending vice.

Once bent the comb stays in the jig until it’s cooled right down.

Now I have the comb and the back sticks all I need is the time to finish the assembly!

My chair was only one of many on the production line during the week and I counted parts of at least a dozen chairs and stools in progress and perhaps equally enjoyable was the sheer diversity of style and design.

Derrick and Veronica are working with Este on her Elm seat base. My side chair is unconventional in that the comb and seat base are made from beech rather than elm. My choice, and entirely because I have access to beech that I planked up a couple of years ago from fallen trees on the commons. Elm rarely comes my way, let alone in chair seat diameters.

Derrick is something of an Big Elm connoisseur. For example the new workbench in the workshop is one huge slab of elm.

Somewhere in a store not far away there is a stash of monster Elm planks, but as this is valuable stuff I shan’t reveal it’s exact location nor it’s owner. At least not until I’ve had a chance to save up and raid my piggy bank!

Thanks to Derek, Veronica, Sue and all at the Stratfield Saye Bodgery for the help and encouragement!

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The BenchMark and It’s all gone green again

 

It’s that time of year when all my outdoor photographs tend to go green all over. The scene looks great but somehow once captured in an image everything is a shade of green. The spiderswebs on the common this morning were an exception which proves the rule, glinting silver in the sunlight between rain showers.

And here is one of those green photos. The bracken cutting season is in full swing literally as we’ve been using scythes to mow this corridor on Stanley common for a few years with very good results. The bracken is very much smaller and sparser which allows the heathers and bilberry to come through.

Something I’ve been working to get finished recently is a bench for the local churchyard. Finally today it all came together as the seat planks are pinned and the backrest clamped in place. I’ve christened it the BenchMark.

I had intended to pin the backrest with wooden dowels  as well but tension in the oak made it a more cautious choice to use coachbolts. The bench is all made with oak or chestnut from the local commons. As always it’s a struggle to find exactly the right pieces to give the effect I’m looking for but in the end I’m quite pleased with the result – though I should wait until it’s installed before I speak too soon. I quite like it clamped to the back of the landrover – a bit different from your average rear seats?

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Grass cutting therapy

My last article on scything caused plenty of interest so I’ll post some more. Whilst at the Weald and Downland Museum over the weekend I took the opportunity to demonstrate scything – partly because I was allowed to cut some nice grass and partly because I’ve always found cutting the grass is very therapeutic and relaxing. With a scythe – even more so!

Yes, working barefoot is also a great experience, but of course you need grass that allows it – most of the areas I cut are thistle or nettle beds, so not such a great experience. Visitors are always amazed and assume it’s very dangerous to scythe barefoot. Most amusing. They inevitably shuffle further away once it dawns on them that actually they are more at risk from my blade than I am!

Just for once the weather broke and it was very windy. The grass was not long but quite tufty/tussocky and varied in nature. More used to being grazed by sheep than being cut with a blade, which made it quite challenging to cut well – for me anyway.

Hidden in the grass was the occasional South Downs flint – thrown no doubt by bored children in a rather ironic inversion of the centuries of clearing these fields by removing them. Just one stone caught by the blade will rub down it and dull almost the whole length, so frequent honing required to keep the blade performing well.

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The Good Weather Keeps Me Quiet

My show season has started with a bang, or more precisely a Heat Wave. The weather has been glorious for days and there has been no rain for weeks (you won’t need me to tell you this if you live in the south of England). With the light warm evenings there is plenty to get on and do and keep me away from the computer. I’m demonstrating at the Weald and Downland Museum over the Easter break and it’s been a lot more hospitable than last year when my shelter blew away and my only visitor on one day was a duck! Cue gratuitous Landrover picture.

I was also at the Museum during the week as a part of the Easter activity programme with my old lathe which is a good height for everyone to use, big kids and small.

Got to run now as I need to get plenty of turning done in preparation for the day. Rolling Pins and Honey drizzlers are selling well, so that will keep me hard at it on the lathe today.

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