As some of you know I make strops. These are made either from kiln dried oak or ash, sawn on the bandsaw and feed through a planer thicknesser. The video shows how I turn them on the pole lathe. Do not be frightened of turning seasoned wood or even square stock on a human powered lathe, it is possible, and we have been doing it for centuries. Okay there are a few drawbacks, tools go blunter sooner and as the wood is dry and therefore harder, it will take longer.
I often skip from modern electric tools to traditional ones, I have a small electric lathe but do not like it. I learned on a pole lathe and I am comfortable with the tools and techniques. to be honest I can probably turn stuff quicker on a pole lathe rather than an electric one. These handles are turned in under 3 minutes.
If you have a pole lathe give it a go, it will help improve you turning techniques, and your round dowels or components will stay round!
Dragon headed serving spoon.
Shows and workshops 2013
I teach a fair amount of people and have been doing so for 15 years or so. I do not have many workshops this year as I have committed myself to teaching at the Husbandry School. Carol and Jonty are good friends of mine and are committed to growing food and teaching Husbandry as well as various earth based crafts. To find out more about the ancient art of Husbandry click here.
Anyway I have one definite date for a fan bird carving workshop
I may schedule in some more but I am also busy with other teaching, demonstrations and shows.
My wife is doing an exciting project and I hope to travel to India in the autumn with her, which cuts out a couple more dates for workshops.
If you want to learn various skills I teach then do book up to do a 1 to 1 with me, it is a bit cheaper if you bring a friend, or book up for more days. This tuition is tailored to what you want to learn and we map out the time in advance to make sure we can cover the skills you want to learn.
People also book me for private workshops at my or their venues, email me to talk through ideas and prices.
I will be teaching at The Husbandry School click here for the workshop dates
5-6th April you will see me demonstrate at Yandles Woodworking show in Martock
10- 12th May Bodgers Ball
29-30th I will be demonstrating at the Staffordshire in the woodland area with likes of Doug Joiner, Gudrun Leitz, Owen Jones and Jeremy Atkinson
5-6th July Exeter Cathedral Green craft Fair, I will be demonstrating and selling
2nd- 4th Aug teaching at Spoonfest
14th of Aug more or less Teaching at the Sussex and Surrey Coppice week. Fan birds and balancing dragonflies
17th Aug Fan bird workshop
24-26th Aug Westonbirt Treefest not confirmed yet
20th – 22nd Sept Bentley Woodfair with the Sussex and surrey coppice group
5-6th Oct Cranbourne Chase woodfair
In amongst this I have a couple of talks with various wood clubs.
So if you are at any of these events please drop by and say hi.
Plant sticks
Great fun to do, and you can just let your imagination run wild. These are painted with milk paint and gold leaf. I thought I would make some for my Mums birthday after seeing them on various Swedish web sites.
Click on the images to make bigger.
The Commons
I want to share something that I find inspiring and resonates deeply with me. I know a lot of regular readers of this blog will agree with these ideas. So onward into 2013, a year of positive change.
http://onthecommons.org/sites/default/files/celebrating-the-commons.pdf
Why we do not leave an axe in the axe block
One thing that I always teach my students is that you never leave an axe on or in your axe block.
An axe can easily be knocked out and fall. A potential source of injury and a damaged axe. The axe belongs on the floor under the block or in its mask or holder, or may be on a large surface.
Have a look at these photos and you will see that bits of wood have stuck to the axe. If there is any moisture in the wood this can start rusting as well. These bits of wood are really stuck and do take effort to remove. The other problem with this, is that the could stop the edge biting into the wood. The skipping axe is another potential injury, very small, but lets keep the odds in our favour.
You will see that the axe in the above picture has its whole edge in the wood. I have been told by many different people about injuries caused by the tip only being in the block. The hand or a digit can get caught between the block and the inclined axe edge. Go on set your axe in a block and see what happens if you reach, for say, a knife on the block, not looking properly. The digit will get trapped and badly cut. Really not nice. Now who would set an axe in a tree trunk at 6 foot above ground? You know, to keep it safe. Do you want this falling on your head or shoulder? Again I heard of someone doing this and then stringing up a hammock on the same branch, caught his hand between axe edge and tree.
What stories do you have about your axes? How do you keep them safe? Finally what are the most stupid things you have seen or heard? Do let me know, and post a comment. When I first started teaching at camps and festivals once or twice people would chop the axe into the ground “to keep it safe”. The horror, the speechlessness, the time then spent grinding out the damage.
Personally I prefer cross grain blocks rather than end grain block. The axe does not get stuck in a cross grain block. More importantly it is harder to chop your axe into, so you are not able to store your axe this way.
On another note my friend barn and talented spoon carver has posted a video on axe blocks, well worth a watch.
My Axe Blocks from barn carder on Vimeo.
Seasons Greetings
Festive greetings to you all – and whatever you celebrate – let it be merry !
and
all the very best for the New Year, may it bring you new learnings, techniques, people and fun into your life.
My friend Jon Mac
Jon works only with 3 types of tool. Axe, knife and hook knife.
He now owns a set which he has helped design (apart from the hook knife) which are made by skilled craftsmen in this country.
Today Milo and I had the pleasure of spending most of the day with him and a visiting friend Haily. With new tools for me to have a play with, spoons had to be made. Milo got much love from Haily which meant she did not get much carving done.
I think this is the first time I have used an axe made in this country that is not older than 60 plus years. Eye candy it may be, but it also performs. Well done Nic Westermann a lovely tool indeed. A mild steel body with a silver steel edge. I like the rounded edges on the poll so that it can fit in comfortably in the hand, great for shaving cuts.
The other tool was made by Chris Grant, the MiniMaC, little brother to the MaChris a bushcrafter/carver. Lovely knife made from ball bearing steel, I am actually getting to like the handle on it. Some of you may know that I like thinner handles.
The hook is a Nic Westermann, called the finishing knife, and is throughly recommeded if you do not mind putting your own handle on knives. The way that Jon uses this knife is outstanding. I can match Jon’s technical level but not his power.
This is no small kuksa and it only seamed minutes later that he had roughed it out. It helps that Jon is a big man with big hands. There is no way that I would do this myself, I do not like hurting hands. I would get the adze out, and even vice it up and use 2 handed tools to do this with.
The nearly finished item ready for final shaping.
Axe mask
If you do not work leather then making an axe mask may be a bit of a challenge. Why not make one from wood instead and practise you morticing skills as well.
They work really well and most of my axes have wooden masks. The band is inner tube from car or lorry wheels. and these can be easily picked up free from anywhere that changes tyres. Maybe not the most beautiful of items, and I am sure that some of you will come up with more elegant solutions.
Morticing by hand is easy and it does not need to take very long.
So send examples to me that you have made and I will post them up here.
Spoonfest part 2. Two spoons by great makers
I bought 2 spoons at Spoonfest. There are design aspects of these spoons that I love, both are great spoons and fulfil their function perfectly, and they look good too. I often find that if something performs its function well, it often looks good.
It was great to meet and spend time with both these craftsmen. The first is Jarrod from the USA and his is a small, in fact very small eating spoon, made quickly with a milk paint handle.
The knife work can be easily seen, there is no messing around here. Facets or large knife cuts left on spoons can work really well, but you need to have confidence in your carving and more importunely experience. I have seen so many spoons where large cuts do not work and a spoon just looks unfinished.
One of the things I love about Jarrods spoon is the handle crank. Turn a spoon over and lay it on a flat surface you can see it clearly. Try it with your spoons. I carved a number of spoons copying this shape and I was really surprised about just how deep I had to carve.
Look at how the spoon tapers towards the end of the bowl. It gets thin, really thin and this fits into the mouth just right, a real pleasure to eat off.
So this is one I made, it is a bit more solid than Jarrods, and with a longer handle.
I do notice that I tend to spend more time finishing my spoons, I cannot help it, I enjoy it too much.
The other spoon I bought was made by a Swedish craftsman Fritiof Runhall who makes some of the most beautiful and creative spoons I have ever seen.
Made from a crooked branch, a finely knife finished spoon with a handle with a forward curve in that is just so sweet. The way it fits in the hand is perfect.
Fritiof has a trade mark which is clearly seen on the inside of the bowl, this is not easy to achieve. He often carves finials on the ends of the spoons.
Again have a look at the bowl shape especially at the tip.
I have been carving hearts at the end of mine. What I love about spoons is their infinite 3 dimensional shapes, they are hand held sculptural forms and you can go on forever with all the possible variations.
To finish off this post, a couple more Fritiof spoons, photos taken in the Spoonfest gallery.
Next post I hope to add the photos I took at the gallery which include Stuart Kings spoon collection.