Yesterday I had the honour of working with Small Woods Heritage Craft Officer, Neill Mapes. Neill was running the fantastic Build A Bench workshop with a group of local people. The group were already well ahead of me with their welsh stick chairs so I decided to make a start on a milking stool instead. This will be my first chair and I’m very excited about it.
The first job was to cleave some ash into leg sized pieces. Next an axe was used to pare down the legs into a leggy shape, and prepare the end to be more or less the same size as a 1 inch tenon cutter. The legs were shaped further on the shaving horse with a draw knife.
To attach the legs to the chair I will be using green wood working. This means that I will dry the legs by a radiator for a few days then attach them to a ‘green’ seat. As the unseasoned green seat drys it will shrink around the legs, meaning that, apart from a few wedges, there will be no need for screws or nails. Ingenious!
I cut the seat out on a bandsaw and its ready to go once the legs have dried.
Not everybody would be excited to talk about coppicing for a whole weekend but I certainly was. So it was a delight to attend the National Coppice Federation on their annual gathering in Hampshire. Each year one of the regional groups takes the baton and hosts the get-together which, although relatively small, is one of the only chances that members of the coppicing community have to meet up.
Some people arrived on the Friday and met old faces and new. Then, on the Saturday, we had a chance to see some of the local craftsmen practicing their skills alongside two demonstrations of retort charcoal makers.
A retort charcoal maker, as opposed to a ring kiln or an earth mound kiln, uses the volatile gases that the wood itself gives off when its burnt and redirects it back towards the fire. This means that once the retort has heated up enough it will keep itself alight until all the gases burn off. And because that gas is used up it no longer gets pumped out into the atmosphere.
James Hookway showing us how it works
I took a particular interest in the smaller retort that was basically a giant rocket stove. The designer was a gentleman called James Hookway and this was his own unique design that, although small, was portable and very easy to use. This retort was just the right size for someone just starting out in the charcoal making business or looking to just use the unproductive wood that is no good for products or leaving as insect hotels.
During the gathering we also took a trip to a local sweet chestnut coppice at Stansted Park Estate and was kindly shown around by the head forester Michael Prior. Michael had been working at the estate for 38 years and although they had an extensive sweet chestnut coppice he was also keen on biodiversity and you could tell he enjoyed his job very much.
The NcFed gathering was also a chance to network and meet other people who you could connect with and either share skills, news or work. For me it was just nice to be around people who knew what coppicing is! Most of the time a get a very blank stare when I tell people I’m doing a coppicing apprenticeship. Hopefully groups such as the NcFed will change all that in times to come.
This September I was very excited to attend my first APF. Every two years all things forestry related come together on the Ragley Estate to share their latest technology, or in the coppicers case, their oldest technology.
Along with a plethora of mechanical beasts that are ready to devour a tree in 30 seconds, there were other interesting things such as chainsaw carvings, pole climbing and horse logging.
The greenwood section was small in comparison to the rest of the exhibition but still had some lovely stalls showing how to make traditional cart wheels, willow baskets and all other coppicy things. It also had a couple of old tool stalls and I am happy to report that I am now a proud owner of my first ever billhook. I also bought a draw knife and a tiny billhook shaped knife.
Oh yes, and I also bought my first chainsaw! A husky 550. I’m looking forward to taking her out for a spin as soon as I get me chainsaw license.
“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity… and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.”
– William Blake
“A sure cure for seasickness is to sit under a tree.”
– Spike Milligan
Hello! My name is Suz and I am a coppicer. Well… not quite yet. But I was lucky enough to be chosen to be part of the National Coppice Apprenticeship Scheme, which is a partnership between Small Woods and the Bill Hogarth MBE Memorial Apprenticeship Trust and funded by The Ernest Cook Trust – you can read more about that here.
This blog is a diary of my journey from London based care worker to fully fledged woman of the woods. It will document the lifestyle of a modern day coppicer and all the techniques and tools that are involved. This is such a great sustainable industry so it’s an honour to be part of the resurgence of the coppicing community. I hope you enjoy this journey with me!
Suz x
P.S. Please feel free to correct me on any errors I’ve made in the comment sections below the offending post. This is a learning diary and any corrections will be greatly appreciated and will hopefully help others as well.
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