WEDNESDAY, 5 SEPTEMBER 2012
Westonbirt National Arboretum...
Well.
There you go.
This is what happens when two fellas take a biggish tent and some axes and stumps into a wet field at Treefest, national arboretum Westonbirt, and carve things.
Sean Hellman and I win best in show.
Best what in show ?
I'll leave that to your own imagination.
Whilst at Treefest I met up with my mate Darren from Morgans wood.
He is a clever old stick who can make all manor of wooden objects and furniture for both house and garden.
Both Sean and Darren use all manor of tooling for there work.
And I am always struck when watching craftsmen process wood using tools that I personally have no skill with, as you know, I limit myself to three edge tools for my Kuksa and Spoon carving.
Imagine my excitement when I watched a demonstration from Steve Woodley.
He, like me, uses an axe as a prime tool for his work.
But way up at the other end of the scale...
Here he is cleaning of bark from a selected timber length with a Swedish draw knife.
And toshing in the log dogs that will keep the log firmly attached to the horses.
Steve spends his time travelling the world teaching and demonstrating his skills, I bet some of my friends in the United States would love to hire him for demonstrations and classes.
Steve marks out a top line with a chalked line.
And then chops 'V' cuts along the log.
Here you can see him using a two lugged bearded broad axe.
A design that hails from the seventh century.
Most of Steve's historic axes are made by Gransfors .
Once he has finished chopping out with the bearded axe he swaps axes and starts in with a Swedish broad axe.
From memory the axe he uses is double bevelled with a canted handle that allows plenty of room for his hands between the helve and the work.
It's hard work and I needed a sit down...
Well, that's two faces finished.
Steve finishes the faces with a axe from Transylvania.
This is one of his favourite axes, unfortunately it has a small crack appearing at the tight right angle of the beard.
I will give him Chris Grants contact details and see if they can get it sorted.
As you can see, it's a big old broad side axe.
Job done...
Who needs a mill....
Or a plane, when you can have a Steve ?
Steve regularly travels abroad to pass on his skills at many organised country fairs and shows, why not give him a shout ?
Steve Woodley can be contacted via his web site at... Hand Crafted Timber
His work is included in a reconstructed Anglo-Saxon building at Weststow
Enjoy...
J.
Westonbirt National Arboretum...
Well.
There you go.
This is what happens when two fellas take a biggish tent and some axes and stumps into a wet field at Treefest, national arboretum Westonbirt, and carve things.
Sean Hellman and I win best in show.
Best what in show ?
I'll leave that to your own imagination.
Whilst at Treefest I met up with my mate Darren from Morgans wood.
He is a clever old stick who can make all manor of wooden objects and furniture for both house and garden.
Both Sean and Darren use all manor of tooling for there work.
And I am always struck when watching craftsmen process wood using tools that I personally have no skill with, as you know, I limit myself to three edge tools for my Kuksa and Spoon carving.
Imagine my excitement when I watched a demonstration from Steve Woodley.
He, like me, uses an axe as a prime tool for his work.
But way up at the other end of the scale...
Here he is cleaning of bark from a selected timber length with a Swedish draw knife.
And toshing in the log dogs that will keep the log firmly attached to the horses.
Steve spends his time travelling the world teaching and demonstrating his skills, I bet some of my friends in the United States would love to hire him for demonstrations and classes.
Steve marks out a top line with a chalked line.
And then chops 'V' cuts along the log.
Here you can see him using a two lugged bearded broad axe.
A design that hails from the seventh century.
Most of Steve's historic axes are made by Gransfors .
Once he has finished chopping out with the bearded axe he swaps axes and starts in with a Swedish broad axe.
From memory the axe he uses is double bevelled with a canted handle that allows plenty of room for his hands between the helve and the work.
It's hard work and I needed a sit down...
Well, that's two faces finished.
Steve finishes the faces with a axe from Transylvania.
This is one of his favourite axes, unfortunately it has a small crack appearing at the tight right angle of the beard.
I will give him Chris Grants contact details and see if they can get it sorted.
As you can see, it's a big old broad side axe.
Job done...
Who needs a mill....
Or a plane, when you can have a Steve ?
Steve regularly travels abroad to pass on his skills at many organised country fairs and shows, why not give him a shout ?
Steve Woodley can be contacted via his web site at... Hand Crafted Timber
His work is included in a reconstructed Anglo-Saxon building at Weststow
Enjoy...
J.
