Mid-July - We set about making a clearing approximately 12 yards x 8 yards in a spot that had seven or eight Alders all about 20 yrs old. It is on a slight slope and adjacent to the woodland entrance so vehicular access was good and it was fairly central to most of the wood so moving cut wood from the coppicing coups will be fairly straight forward and so we set about moving in some of the larger pieces cut Hazel that we had coppiced back in March as the raw materials for the outdoor workshop toys.
The plan was to use the Alder trees as the supports for the various devices we were going to build, in this way, I hoped to minimise the risk of theft and/or vandalism.
I wouldn’t put any nails, screws or fixings into the trees but use “U” shaped clamps, rope lashings and wooden clamps to secure the structures to the Alder.
During August, September & October I installed a couple of chopping blocks made from a fallen Larch and built a large cleaving break with integrated saw horse and built a heavy duty drilling board/jig. I created a second ‘rustic’ shave horse between two Alders which sort of evolved and ended up as quite a unique design that I hadn’t seen anywhere else so I might even have actually invented it without realising …!.
The basic construction of this shave horse is two horizontal Hazel logs around 3” diameter that sit adjacent to each other and form the bed with a semi-circular cross cut at each end on each one that forms a joint by cupping around the verticals of two upside down “Y” branches of Hazel which are about 2 1/2 “ diameter.
A threaded rod goes through each end of the bed and the vertical uprights and when tightened, the whole structure locks together very tight. This is completely self-supporting and works equally well as a stand-alone shave horse that is ridiculously stable as it stands on two ‘legs’ at the front and back formed by the upside down “Y” branches. It’s fixed between two trees in my wood just for security to stop it ‘walking’.
And wait for it, I got to build my Pole Lathe as well, it’s fixed between two Alders with a spring pole made from Rowen and a single hardwood beam bed. The bed, treadle and pole are fixed (or padlocked) and stay in the wood but the poppets and tool rest I take in and out. So that was another of my tick boxes ticked.
Here’s a video tour of the Outdoor woodland workshop….
Building the outdoor workshop, like making the willow and hazel panels and the sheep hurdle etc gave me valuable experience and this would be very easily transferable to temporary shelter building out in the field. When the SHTF I’ll be ready brothers
Whilst all of this was going on I was also quietly working out how to make Sussex Style Trug Baskets using traditional materials and I recently finished my first prototype which, out of all my projects to date was probably the most challenging and the most satisfying. It has a steam bent riven Ash handle and Rim, White Willow slats, Hazel feet and copper & brass fixings.
Here’s the first Trug Basket I made….Like my other projects, it’s far from perfect but by making it I learnt how to do it better for next time.
It’s now the first week of November 2012 and we are getting ready to start our 2nd season of Hazel coppicing and under-story thinning in a couple of weeks.
My personal journey has now caught up with real time but hopefully it’s still far from over.
My daughter continues to learn quickly from her ol’ dad and from others and has now set up her own natural wood craft business and has developed some great products both from green wood and seasoned wood which she markets through craft fairs and on the web through Etsy and Facebook.
I continue to learn stuff myself on a daily basis and remain in awe of the amazing work that other people are producing. There are so many talented people on this forum making, spoons, knives, sculptures, coracles, stoves, forges, tools, hammocks, tarps and all manner of things.
Looking back over the last 12 months or so I can’t actually believe the journey I’ve been on and I do pinch myself frequently as I know that I am privileged to have been able to embark on it in the first place.
I may even look at the possibly of starting a small green wood business of my own in 2013 who knows, we shall see.
If you have been following my journey then thank you for giving up your time, I hope you have enjoyed it and if any aspect of it has inspired you to do something yourself then that would be an added bonus for me.
Paul.
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Originally Posted by Geebe
