Can anyone identify this tree
- Thread starter leaky5
- Start date
Yep hazel and great for staff making with the scouts, also good for building dead hedging after a coppicing spree.
Hazel. Amazing Tree. Now you know what it is as you walk about out there they'll start to catch your eye every where you go. Build a mental map of where there is a decent gathering of them... and then you can go back in September/October time and collect some tasty Hazel Nuts too.... a Win Win situation with Hazel.
People still get hazelnuts? Around here greys take them ALL off before they're even ripe. Gits. They don't know of the cobnuts, mind!
Hazel is a bit of a wonder wood in my opinion, it makes fine firewood but good to work with. Unseasoned it is highly flexible with a fairly high moisture content, so is ideal for hedgelaying, and if you have a bonfire, a hazel fork will last you the whole day, if not longer, as a way to push sticky-outy bits back on top. Seasoned, it has, in my opinion, a nice creamy colour and cuts finely, like cutting modelling foam. Its papery bark doesn't resist burning so even unseasoned can be used early on in a fire. There is a region why thousands of acres of British woodland is hazel coppice, albeit neglected these days.
Hazel is a bit of a wonder wood in my opinion, it makes fine firewood but good to work with. Unseasoned it is highly flexible with a fairly high moisture content, so is ideal for hedgelaying, and if you have a bonfire, a hazel fork will last you the whole day, if not longer, as a way to push sticky-outy bits back on top. Seasoned, it has, in my opinion, a nice creamy colour and cuts finely, like cutting modelling foam. Its papery bark doesn't resist burning so even unseasoned can be used early on in a fire. There is a region why thousands of acres of British woodland is hazel coppice, albeit neglected these days.
Got a few of bits to try for size and weight. The shorter one is probably to heavy for a short stick and the longer one to heavy for a longer staff. So I will probably cut the
longer one down to be a short stick and use the middle one as more of a staff.
longer one down to be a short stick and use the middle one as more of a staff.
They lose quite a bit of weight as they dry.. Don't cut them any more until they're seasoned and you feel their weight then.
As stated below Hazel (corylus avellana), you can tell by the bark colour and texture smooth grey-brown when young, as it ages the bark begins to peel slightly. If coppiced correctly the shrub could last years. Let us know how you get on with your staff making.
1st looks like horse chestnut but hard to tell, a picture of the buds would help identification.
2nd is ash
2nd is ash
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