The Woodlands book from the BTCV is excellent (not just for starting out in hurdles but a load of other things as well) and you can get it direct from them. Click this link and in the search box put in woodlands and the book you’re looking for is Woodlands - Practical handbook priced at £13.95.
Jack does sell them but as part of the hurdle making kit.
Good luck....and am sure if you send Jack an email asking for hurdling help he will be more than happy to oblige....although you may regret it as you will inevitably be convinced as to the superiority of the billhook over the axe!
Dear Eds.
Jamie is right on all of the above and he has never been more correct is saying that the Billhook is far more superior than some old moth eaten axe! .............give me three things that an axe can do that a hook can’t............I rest my case..........well for five minutes anyway!
Short Rotation Coppice or SRC as it is known, is a million miles from woodland coppice. SRC is planted and ‘farmed’ as an agricultural crop and is grown for biomass a renewable and environmentally friendly fuel for power stations – so we are told. To learn hurdle making ( the supreme woodland skill by the way) you will need hazel coppice if you are intending to make wattle hurdles ( cleft hazel, woven into a panel). You may get away with using the willow, depending on what variety it is, but willow by it’s very nature is a soft hard wood, apart from Cricket Bat willow which is like Oak and believe it or not, its what is used for making.............cricket bats!
The best book I recommend to our students is the Woodlands book by the BTCV. You can not learn Hurdle making from a book ( you need to do the hands on stuff at the same time) but it is the only book that comes close and the Hurdle Making section is written by a good friend of mine, George Darwall and he has made a great job of it and it takes you through the stages. I would also recommend this book because it takes you through charcoal burning as well and its a great book for the beginner as it will take the reader right through the whole off woodland management, history and it gives you some wonderful tips. It also has a very comprehensive contacts list in the back and this is so very important when you start off in the woodland world as it can seem to hold a very low profile. I like this book for what it is and not for who it is written by ( BTCV, not a great fan of Trust’s or Charities).
Billhooks.
Well, if you are a master of the supreme woodland skill of Hurdle Making then obviously you will be using a supreme tool – a Billhook. I don’t say this lightly, but you will know as well as me, if you are working with you hands all day you will need a well made, comfortable tool as you life in the woodland will be hard enough and by using a inferior and ill made tool, you have just made you life ten times harder!
I get dismayed when you walk into a hardware shop or an agricultural merchants and all you see on display is the Bulldog range hooks. These tools should be banned. They are dangerous. They will quickly absorb all the strength of the user. This just makes the man swinging the bloody thing disillusioned with what ever he is doing, this in my eyes, is what we don’t need, we want to get people to stay and learn our heritage skills, not destroy their enthusiasm from the start!
We must remember and realise that when we lose one of our rural skills ( and we have lost many ) we not any lose the tools, we also lose the associated knowledge of their use that goes with them. This I feel, is what has happened to the billhook. A tool that was once the back bone of the rural community and was a tool that everyone owned, is now only really understood by the people who still depend upon them for their living. These people are keeping this knowledge alive. This is why you will never see any Woodsman, Hedgelayer or Spar Maker holding anything like a Bulldog or Spear & Jackson hook. It just doesn’t happen.
In the woodland industry, it is subtle way of sorting the Men from the Boys. If you are seen using one, you are look upon as am amateur.................in the woodland world, its not the size of your chopper and its not what you do with it either................its who its made by, that counts!!
What was the original question again?
Oh yeah I remember.
The best all round hooks are the Beckett or Newton. The Beckett is a hook designed by us for the general use. ( book early, avoid disappointment). This Beckett is a hook that I use everyday in the woodlands as it gets used for felling, trimming and splitting hazel and it is light in the hand. The Newton is heavier hook and has a shorter nose. This hook will perform all the task above but isn’t so gentle as the Beckett when it comes to splitting slender hazel rods but it is an animal with anything bigger. This would be the hook I would use to replace the axe, its that versatile.
Best wishes.
Jack.
))they were used as stretchers in the evacuation at Dunkirk.
