paul standley
31-10-2012, 07:14 PM
Did I mention Hazel propagation by layering ? – OK, I’ll bring it in now because it has relevance to other stuff…
Basically in a nutshell (Hazel nuts of course), It’s a method by which Hazel can be propagated into gaps within a coppice area in such a way as to preserve the genetic local provenance of the existing stock and of course it’s cheap as you don’t have to buy new saplings.
When cutting down the branches (rods) on a clump/stump (stool) during coppicing, a couple of rods are selected for layering which basically means laying a branch down to the ground and pegging down so that it will take root and grows a new tree. To get the branch to bend without snapping, it is cut a certain way close to it’s base.
There are regional variations on names but basically, the layering process is known as Pleaching, the bent over branch is a Pleacher and the style of the special cut is called a Pleach.
So what I hear you say, well here’s the hook – During the time I was coppicing my wood for the first time I also took a one day introduction course in hedge laying and blow me if the main process of laying a hedge involved the exact same process of cutting out unwanted branches and pleaching the branches as a means of getting them to bend over at an angle to form the stock proof hedge.
Since I’d already learnt to pleach on my coppicing course and had just used the technique in my wood during coppicing, I was in my element and got branded as a ‘know-all’ on the hedge laying course…!
The point of all this preamble is to demonstrate what I’d said previously about pieces of a jigsaw puzzle coming together to make the bigger picture. There is a tremendous synergy between many aspects of rural crafts, bush craft and green wood working.
So, back to the plot… There I was, I’d got the green wood cut and ready in the wood, I’d joined the Association of Pole Lathe Turners, I’d got my coppicing tools, my trusty bushcraft Laplander folding saw and my Mora knife and I’d now gathered together some traditional green wood working tools in the form of a couple of spoke shaves(one old and one modern), a very nice and very old draw knife, a Froe, a mallet and I’d made a couple of my own thumping tools (Beetles) out of some 4” diameter hazel using a saw and my side axe to cut and carve hand grips on one end.
My little Spar Billhook by the way is just THE most superb all-round bushcraft tool, it’s a big knife, small axe, scraper, kindling splitter all rolled into one and it lives in a sheath on my belt.
What to make first, the world of green wood was my oyster. I’d read all of the books. In my head I’d made a chair with Mike Abbot, I’d built my round wood home in the woods with Ben Law and I’d made no end of stuff for the home with Ray Tabor, boy was I hot to trot…
As part of my training funding with the Welsh ReAct scheme I was booked onto a 2 day green wood working course at the end of March back in Ironbridge at the Green Wood Centre which was to focus on two products, Willow woven panels and Hazel woven panels.
I’d booked into the swanky pig hut on the side of the hill again for the one night and I’d got my little tool bag with me with all of my goodies in so I could look the part when I got there.
First day – Woven Willow panels and garden obelisks – Well woven fence panels is just about bending some sticks around a few poles isn’t it, how hard could it be for goodness sake. I’d once sat cross legged in a Yurt in Abergavenny for an afternoon doing an introductory workshop in basket weaving so this was probably going to be the same right, just a bit bigger and more on the flat.
Wrong - How my back, hands, wrists and armed ached that night, I could hardly move…!
The main technique involved weaving the willow sticks (weavers) in and out of the posts (Zails) in a form of alternating pattern which was OK but the bit where you had to return around the end post and weave it back in was tricky and pretty hard on the hands as willow, like hazel, needs to be twisted in the hand to split & separate the fibres to make it pliable and able to bend around very tight turns without breaking.
This my bushcrafty friends you will recognise as the same general technique used for preparing thin hazel branches and ivy to make cordage in the field. (back to the bigger picture again)
From a distance, the fence panel I made didn’t look half bad actually to the untrained eye but up close it was a bu88ers muddle and needed some firm remedial work and some judicious poking & prodding by the tutor…!
The round garden obelisk I made didn’t pass muster and was consigned to the roof rack that evening to be re-engineered at home at some future point, oh how we laughed.
Second Day – Woven Hazel Panels – I had expected to be making a traditional hazel woven sheep hurdle fence panel but due to a mix up at the centre, it was going to be a workshop in making a different type of hazel panel called a hybrid “Westmoreland panel”. Larry Jones was running day 2 and he actually made this type of panel commercially in his woodland very successfully so was the perfect person to demonstrate it.
As it turned out, this was a blessing in disguise because the traditional sheep hurdles use similar twisting, fibre separating and turning technique as for the willow, only hazel weaving rods are a lot thicker and a lot tougher and it’s a skill not easily learned and certainly not in five minutes.
Westmoreland panels are a hybrid style of more modern design but I really like them and they are more straightforward to make and they do look good because they have a woven section set within a ‘frame’. The weavers are half split hazel and the half splitting process known a Riving (sounds like driving) looks simple bit isn't and actually to do properly is a green wood skill just on it's own...!
I’ve attached pictures of my early efforts for your amusement.
This 2 day course was great, a chance to really get to grips with making something vaguely recognisable but it wasn’t long enough and I was hungry for more.
I had just enough training funding left to do one more course and so I booked onto a 5 day green wood working course at the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) in mid/north Wales to be run at the end of April. This was going to prove to be the tipping point for me, in more ways than one, so watch out for the 4th instalment…
Paul.
Westmoreland Hazel Panel (finished)
5750
Willow woven panel (photo was during work in progress)
5751
Basically in a nutshell (Hazel nuts of course), It’s a method by which Hazel can be propagated into gaps within a coppice area in such a way as to preserve the genetic local provenance of the existing stock and of course it’s cheap as you don’t have to buy new saplings.
When cutting down the branches (rods) on a clump/stump (stool) during coppicing, a couple of rods are selected for layering which basically means laying a branch down to the ground and pegging down so that it will take root and grows a new tree. To get the branch to bend without snapping, it is cut a certain way close to it’s base.
There are regional variations on names but basically, the layering process is known as Pleaching, the bent over branch is a Pleacher and the style of the special cut is called a Pleach.
So what I hear you say, well here’s the hook – During the time I was coppicing my wood for the first time I also took a one day introduction course in hedge laying and blow me if the main process of laying a hedge involved the exact same process of cutting out unwanted branches and pleaching the branches as a means of getting them to bend over at an angle to form the stock proof hedge.
Since I’d already learnt to pleach on my coppicing course and had just used the technique in my wood during coppicing, I was in my element and got branded as a ‘know-all’ on the hedge laying course…!
The point of all this preamble is to demonstrate what I’d said previously about pieces of a jigsaw puzzle coming together to make the bigger picture. There is a tremendous synergy between many aspects of rural crafts, bush craft and green wood working.
So, back to the plot… There I was, I’d got the green wood cut and ready in the wood, I’d joined the Association of Pole Lathe Turners, I’d got my coppicing tools, my trusty bushcraft Laplander folding saw and my Mora knife and I’d now gathered together some traditional green wood working tools in the form of a couple of spoke shaves(one old and one modern), a very nice and very old draw knife, a Froe, a mallet and I’d made a couple of my own thumping tools (Beetles) out of some 4” diameter hazel using a saw and my side axe to cut and carve hand grips on one end.
My little Spar Billhook by the way is just THE most superb all-round bushcraft tool, it’s a big knife, small axe, scraper, kindling splitter all rolled into one and it lives in a sheath on my belt.
What to make first, the world of green wood was my oyster. I’d read all of the books. In my head I’d made a chair with Mike Abbot, I’d built my round wood home in the woods with Ben Law and I’d made no end of stuff for the home with Ray Tabor, boy was I hot to trot…
As part of my training funding with the Welsh ReAct scheme I was booked onto a 2 day green wood working course at the end of March back in Ironbridge at the Green Wood Centre which was to focus on two products, Willow woven panels and Hazel woven panels.
I’d booked into the swanky pig hut on the side of the hill again for the one night and I’d got my little tool bag with me with all of my goodies in so I could look the part when I got there.
First day – Woven Willow panels and garden obelisks – Well woven fence panels is just about bending some sticks around a few poles isn’t it, how hard could it be for goodness sake. I’d once sat cross legged in a Yurt in Abergavenny for an afternoon doing an introductory workshop in basket weaving so this was probably going to be the same right, just a bit bigger and more on the flat.
Wrong - How my back, hands, wrists and armed ached that night, I could hardly move…!
The main technique involved weaving the willow sticks (weavers) in and out of the posts (Zails) in a form of alternating pattern which was OK but the bit where you had to return around the end post and weave it back in was tricky and pretty hard on the hands as willow, like hazel, needs to be twisted in the hand to split & separate the fibres to make it pliable and able to bend around very tight turns without breaking.
This my bushcrafty friends you will recognise as the same general technique used for preparing thin hazel branches and ivy to make cordage in the field. (back to the bigger picture again)
From a distance, the fence panel I made didn’t look half bad actually to the untrained eye but up close it was a bu88ers muddle and needed some firm remedial work and some judicious poking & prodding by the tutor…!
The round garden obelisk I made didn’t pass muster and was consigned to the roof rack that evening to be re-engineered at home at some future point, oh how we laughed.
Second Day – Woven Hazel Panels – I had expected to be making a traditional hazel woven sheep hurdle fence panel but due to a mix up at the centre, it was going to be a workshop in making a different type of hazel panel called a hybrid “Westmoreland panel”. Larry Jones was running day 2 and he actually made this type of panel commercially in his woodland very successfully so was the perfect person to demonstrate it.
As it turned out, this was a blessing in disguise because the traditional sheep hurdles use similar twisting, fibre separating and turning technique as for the willow, only hazel weaving rods are a lot thicker and a lot tougher and it’s a skill not easily learned and certainly not in five minutes.
Westmoreland panels are a hybrid style of more modern design but I really like them and they are more straightforward to make and they do look good because they have a woven section set within a ‘frame’. The weavers are half split hazel and the half splitting process known a Riving (sounds like driving) looks simple bit isn't and actually to do properly is a green wood skill just on it's own...!
I’ve attached pictures of my early efforts for your amusement.
This 2 day course was great, a chance to really get to grips with making something vaguely recognisable but it wasn’t long enough and I was hungry for more.
I had just enough training funding left to do one more course and so I booked onto a 5 day green wood working course at the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) in mid/north Wales to be run at the end of April. This was going to prove to be the tipping point for me, in more ways than one, so watch out for the 4th instalment…
Paul.
Westmoreland Hazel Panel (finished)
5750
Willow woven panel (photo was during work in progress)
5751