This bridge was built using oak and chestnut chainsaw milled and cut on site, at a conservation site near Buckfastleigh. It was made alongside Tom of Devon Habitat Services and Adam of Adam Maher Countryside and will be a feature of that waterway long after we are no longer. It features metal girders for belt and braces strength and stone steps at the far end.
I was asked to make a bed to fit a child’s bedroom with the remit that it should be ‘chunky’. The wood is ash, chainsaw milled a few years ago, and resawn and planed for this project. I went for oversize dovetails on the corners with an internal post tenon gusseting the joint. Simple blocks form the ladder, and hopefully the bed will be a feature of the child’s life for years to come.
This is a picture of Tom of Devon Habitat Services installing one of two barn owl boxes for a client near Denbury. We also installed a box in a ruined barn and 2 weeks later it was occupied! It feels great to be providing positive habitat for these beautiful creatures and to be working with good people like Tom. What better way to spend an afternoon? Have a look at the barn owl trust to order boxes.
This is a design by Mike Abbott published in his book ‘living wood’ which I have made a few times now. I use split ash for the poles, treated with Osmo UV protection oil. I buy the tarpaulin from a company called Atwools. Because the back of the shelter goes right to the ground there is good wind protection, as long as this side faces into the wind. It was originally designed to be used with a pole lathe so there is plenty of headroom in it. I use additional ropes to tie all the edges down in order to make it a little more permanant, but this shelter definitely works best as a temporary structure. This particular shelter is at the Apricot centre https://www.apricotcentre.co.uk and there is another one in the pipeline, this time to be made with a group of young people as an educational project so watch this space.
This is a bespoke three panel birchwood ply folding play kitchen for my godson. The panels have cut outs for the lightswitch and are hinged so to be easily folded away after use. Small shelves and hooks make this an ideal first kitchen. These mini rooms are important for a toddler’s sense of their own space as they grow in independence.
I spent some time making split chestnut gates, then drove them to Matt’s place where the split chestnut fencing materials had been delivered the week before. The corner and gate posts are dug in 36 inches and the intermediates 30 inches. The method here was to install the rails into the mortises before tamping the posts in firmly with iron bars. We are really pleased with the outcome, with the gates being a nice finishing touch.
Tom Pinches of Devonhabitatservices and I made this set of three oak and larch compost bays. The situation is an old quarry, so the ground was excessively hard to dig holes for the posts. The larch boards are captured by oak battens between the sets of posts and so are easily replaceable. Great to use local timber sourced from Hembury woods and Zav’s sawmill near Totnes. The bays are wide enough for a digger to drive the compost in and out.
First step is select the wood and the shape for the top of the stool, then jigsaw it out. Or use a frame saw as the handtool option
Next step is smoothing, using a beltsander, grinder and drill sanding attachment, or as shown here a spokeshave as the handtool option
use 6 coins to mark the stool into equal thirds, and measure in about 3” on each line from the edge of the top to mark out the positions for the three legs
Next use an adjustable bevel to help you to drill 1” diameter holes at the same angle. The picture shows the holes being drilled from the underside of the stool top, angled so that the stool legs splay outwards
This step involves splitting and smoothing 3 legs, then drying the legs unless one uses already dry wood for the legs. The wood must be dry because once the 1” tennons are cut on the end of them using the electric drill and tenon cutter (a tool like a giant pencil sharpener) there must be no shrinkage which would affect their jointing into the stool top.
Insert the legs into the holes you drilled into the stool top. Mark a line accross the top of the tenon crossways to the grain of the stool top. Now cut down this line the depth of the stool top depth.
Now as if by magic the stool will appear perfect and finished! What I didnt show was fitting stretchers and wedging the legs into the stool top. This is quite an involved process and I got so caught up in it I didnt take any photos. Next time!
I bought a folding'Origami Shavehorse' design from Masashi Kutsuwa, and made 4 of them to boost my group work spoon making logistics
It's Folded....
It's Up!
Ive been working on some more cleft chestnut gates, here is one to my Dad's garden
made a drawer for the workshop for the first time today...
not sure if its gonna fit...
in it goes...
happy happy happy!
I made this spoon during Jesiah's coming of age ceremony at Bowden House Community where I live. I love to carve a gift during a ceremony, it feels like the gift then contains the day as a memory in itself.
Lawrie hitting the leg wedges home with the back of an axe. Yes its 2am!
Dan Slee shaping a stool leg on the shave horse while the sun was still up
Lawrie hitting it hard on the shave horse
The finished products living it up back in London
Today I guided conservation volunteers Ellie and Bryony to make 3 gates from split sweet chestnut. It was a great fun day and we are thrilled with the results!
Ive recently been in touch with the Ambios and ROC crew at Lower Sharpham farm, and they invited me along to do a spoon making day there. We had a fire, made spoons and even got one of the rather battered pole lathes going. Really great fun and I look forward to more involvement there
I have a write up in the Jan 20th edition of the Totnes Times!
I am in print, in a magazine called country smallholding (www.countrysmallholding.com)!
This Week I have been putting the finishing touches to this chair, in ash with holly arms. This is the workshop I am working in at Bowden House Community near Totnes, where I have also bought a house.
This log is 3 years old, very gnarly and hard, but beautifully complex inside so well worth resharpening the chain a few times!
I start off by using the vertical milling attachment to take off one side to even it up.
Next I clamp the chainsaw in the horizontal Alaskan Mill attachment and slice the planks off one by one. note I have previously cut a flat horizontal face on top of the log to make this possible.
I've just finished making these trophies which will be awarded to the winners of the open and novice Devon hedge competitions. I was thrilled to be asked to do this because I have learned a lot of new skills through making them, and because hedge laying is very close to my heart. Although I don't take part in the competitions its great to think of the winners taking the billhook trophies home with them and feeling proud of their achievement.
