Wooden Shingle (shake) Making

Hi All, It's been a little while but I hope to get back into blogging again now.

Over the last few months I have been reading up on shingle (shake) making and giving it ago to cover the woodshed roof. Shingles are wooden tiles, they are normally called shingles if they are sawn or sometimes shakes if they are split.

I read up on the traditional technique in Ben Law's new woodland craft book and also found a couple of great educational videos on youtube, here are the best two I could find. Many thanks to these people for sharing, I learn so much from youtube.

So you need to make a 'brake' to help split the shingles off how you want them. Here are the pics of my process for making this:

 and here is me and my Dad, starting to make them in the spring sunshine!

and we were very lucky today with mum making us all some lunch!

Note the wild garlic addition, picked from about 20 metres away

So far we have made about 150, and its taken a couple of days, I think we need 2000 so it's going to be a long job, but it's a great way to spend your days, so it's all good :)

A Few Items I have Made Over the Summer

Another stool, I wanted to make a really chunky sturdy one, I plan to refine the design as I make more

Table and bench for my flat

 

In fact I am sat, using them right now writing this blog post!

Bow and arrow for my God Son (foam practice golf balls glued on the ends!)

A Few Nice Things I Spotted on my Summer Adventures

Just a post with some very Random things that were worthy of a quick snap over the Summer of 2014

Hand crafted gates in Minorca

Beautiful beech roots in a wood near Bath

Old steps used as part of a farm shop display, with a birch twig broom behind.

The green roof of the Vancouver Convention Center emerging from the sea mist.

Beautiful Canadian trees (Giant Cedars if I remember correctly)

A Working steam crane in Bristol

And to finish this very random post here are those same Beech roots in Autumn complete with an intrepid explorer.

Green Woodworking

One of the main reasons I bought a wood was to do green woodworking, I love making stuff and doing it in the middle of the wood just using hand tools is fantastic. I am hoping to progress to running courses one day too. Now at last I have had chance to get into it a little more and here's what I have made over the last couple of months.

The shave horse! Very important piece of kit, thanks very much to Harry Rodgers for this video giving the dimensions and advice for making one, mine is made mainly from sweet chestnut.

First stool, chestnut top, laurel legs and hazel for the er..other bits.

Simple chopping/serving boards. I do chainsaw these so not quite so green I am afraid. The walnut oil finish on the darker one is definitely preferable to the varnish.

Probably my 5th or so attempt at a spoon, this time using hazel, I do like this one and used a lot of reference  from other spoon carvers to get the form right.

March 2014 Woodland Update!

So we have rigged up a new extra strong tarp after the storms got the better of the last one. With a new design too, which uses just ropes in a kind of criss cross way so hopefully the whole tarp moves and gives with the wind with no particular stress points.

You can also see my new woodworking bench, made from sycamore with chestnut planks. It is really solid, and has a heavy duty vice donated by a woodland neighbour (thanks Andy!) So getting set up with a better working area to start making more cool stuff!

Looks like we may have some mischievous kids around though, this large water butt was full and would have taken some serious pushing over! See all the bluebell shoots coming up though where the leaves were washed away by their mini tsunami.

Talking of flora and such, here were Mums finds of the day:

1. Colt's foot

2. Dog's Mercury

3. Scarlet Elf Cup Fungus

4.  Turkey tail bracket fungus

A Walk Around Britian

Just stumbled across these very inspirational guys Ed and Will, here's a short youtube video for you enjoy and their website here http://awalkaroundbritain.com/

More Birthday Preparations!

Things are progressing nicely ready for Saturday, still plenty to sort out but myself and a band of helpers got lots done on Wednesday. I got to put my new Froe (gransfors bruks) to good use with the updated table design and split all the cross pieces before nailing them to the runners. 

Table coming along nicely in the snowy setting

A day later and its melting away and the table is nearly finished

A mysterious flag appears, later found out it was kindly delivered by my woodland neighbours, Mary, Peter and Kim!

Merry band of helpers putting up the big tarp.

The result so far!

Still just light enough to work at 7.45!

Even though the wood is now pretty much clear of snow you can see we have a problem below, the access track is a nightmare! My car had to be towed out (thanks again Peter, Mary and Kim). Hopefully a few of us will be able to clear this tricky section Friday morning ready for the guests to arrive. (So see you tomorrow guys and don't forget your shovels!)