I spent some time in France last year searching around, trying to look into traditional French woodland crafts. I thought I'd share some photos of one aspect.
By way of introduction, the SW region of Limousin is full of sweet chestnut - le châtaignier - which grows well on its generally acidic soil. It is not the only area - the Ardèche has a lot as well - but it is arguably the area where the most amount of 'old' French woodland tradition still lives. Most of the sweet chestnuts are there for the chestnut fruit harvest, but in this region at least, coppicing is still alive. Not very well from what I saw
but alive at least
Amongst the usual coppice products you'd find in UK as well, sweet chestnut is used to make 'le feuillard', perhaps the quintessential product of sweet chestnut coppicing in France. 'Le feuillard' is basically young sweet chestnut rods split and formed into circular shapes on a jig, and bound with wire, to make hoops that are the traditional fastenings around wine barrels. They are also used in some areas to make lobster pots. I've seen some reference to hazel being used in UK for barrel hoops, but no evidence that this still happens?
The person who makes 'le feuillard' is called, not surprisingly, 'la feuillardière', and there are really very few of these craftsmen left. This is a photo essay of one of them.
If you know more about this craft, or can clarify anything you think I've got wrong, I'd love to have your comments here
Anyway, here are the photos...
Rods are sorted and trimmed
Then a bunch are selected and first they are cleaned up with a billhook
And also sometimes with an old file (I think) converted into a sort of billhook (he really loved this tool)
Then split - this was the only part of the process that was short cut using modern machinery. In the old days these were of course split by hand, but he explained to me that using a saw allowed him to discard fewer rods that didn't split well by hand, and saved him a good deal of money as a result. We're talking small margins here!
You can see the 'clean' machine split in this photo
Then soaked
Then they are trimmed so they will fit together properly. Note the shaving falling off
A close up of the very specific tools used. Note the hooks on the chest pad to support the long end of the rod
A close up of the rod fixing arrangement on the horse
Then the trimmed rods are bent
Then multiple trimmed and bent rods are loaded onto a jig and fixed together with wire. Note pliers in centre for wire twisting and trimming
A stack of finished product showing wire fixings
The draw knife was sharpened by shaving a special limestone block onto a piece of wood secured to the horse
And then sharpened using the abrasion of the limestone dust
He has some decent contracts with winemakers who still insist on using these traditional barrel hoops instead of iron, which it has to be said is far cheaper and more durable. Good for them! He makes these things pretty much full time and as a result has contracts with a range of local woodsmen to buy whole coupes. He had a massive store of rods and seasons them for ages before use.
Any notion of health and safety (and PC police) was refreshingly absent. Pastis was much in evidence, though only after the job was done The speed and skill shown here was beguiling as it so often is with quality craftsmen, and very safe. Minimal tools well used and worn, doing the right job; and great order in a workshop that appears on first viewing to be chaotic.
BTW, this is what I was staying in most of the time. Very wet summer but tent was happily dry
Chris
By way of introduction, the SW region of Limousin is full of sweet chestnut - le châtaignier - which grows well on its generally acidic soil. It is not the only area - the Ardèche has a lot as well - but it is arguably the area where the most amount of 'old' French woodland tradition still lives. Most of the sweet chestnuts are there for the chestnut fruit harvest, but in this region at least, coppicing is still alive. Not very well from what I saw
but alive at least Amongst the usual coppice products you'd find in UK as well, sweet chestnut is used to make 'le feuillard', perhaps the quintessential product of sweet chestnut coppicing in France. 'Le feuillard' is basically young sweet chestnut rods split and formed into circular shapes on a jig, and bound with wire, to make hoops that are the traditional fastenings around wine barrels. They are also used in some areas to make lobster pots. I've seen some reference to hazel being used in UK for barrel hoops, but no evidence that this still happens?
The person who makes 'le feuillard' is called, not surprisingly, 'la feuillardière', and there are really very few of these craftsmen left. This is a photo essay of one of them.
If you know more about this craft, or can clarify anything you think I've got wrong, I'd love to have your comments here
Anyway, here are the photos...
Rods are sorted and trimmed
Then a bunch are selected and first they are cleaned up with a billhook
And also sometimes with an old file (I think) converted into a sort of billhook (he really loved this tool)
Then split - this was the only part of the process that was short cut using modern machinery. In the old days these were of course split by hand, but he explained to me that using a saw allowed him to discard fewer rods that didn't split well by hand, and saved him a good deal of money as a result. We're talking small margins here!
You can see the 'clean' machine split in this photo
Then soaked
Then they are trimmed so they will fit together properly. Note the shaving falling off
A close up of the very specific tools used. Note the hooks on the chest pad to support the long end of the rod
A close up of the rod fixing arrangement on the horse
Then the trimmed rods are bent
Then multiple trimmed and bent rods are loaded onto a jig and fixed together with wire. Note pliers in centre for wire twisting and trimming
A stack of finished product showing wire fixings
The draw knife was sharpened by shaving a special limestone block onto a piece of wood secured to the horse
And then sharpened using the abrasion of the limestone dust
He has some decent contracts with winemakers who still insist on using these traditional barrel hoops instead of iron, which it has to be said is far cheaper and more durable. Good for them! He makes these things pretty much full time and as a result has contracts with a range of local woodsmen to buy whole coupes. He had a massive store of rods and seasons them for ages before use.
Any notion of health and safety (and PC police) was refreshingly absent. Pastis was much in evidence, though only after the job was done
The speed and skill shown here was beguiling as it so often is with quality craftsmen, and very safe. Minimal tools well used and worn, doing the right job; and great order in a workshop that appears on first viewing to be chaotic.BTW, this is what I was staying in most of the time. Very wet summer but tent was happily dry
Chris
