Author Archives: stevetomlin

Willow chair seating

I wanted to learn how to weave the willow seat that I had found on the chairs made by David Drew. They had aged beautifully during their time in the Castle Drogo cafe and worn extremely well so I knew … Continue reading

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Scythe Course dates 2012

My course dates and prices for 2012 are finally set, more details on the courses page: Learn to Mow with an Austrian Scythe  26 May, 30 June, 9 Sept 2012  – £60 Scythe Improvers   11 Aug – £70 Improve your … Continue reading

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Pickled oak chair

So me and my Castle Drogo chair (the only furniture I owned at the time) moved to Cumbria. In time I decided that I would make this one-slat chair part of  my new range of handmade green wood chairs. It … Continue reading

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Ransome's lawn mower

Here is the sentence you thought you’d never read on scytherspace: I’ve got myself a lawn mower. This though, is no ordinary mower, it’s a Ransome’s Ajax push mower from the 1960’s with 12″ wide cutters, solid wood rollers and … Continue reading

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Rescuing the Castle Drogo chairs

In 2008, a visit to a cafe set in motion a series of connections leading to my newest chair design. I was at Castle Drogo, a National Trust property in Devon where I was living at the time. After a fairly … Continue reading

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Bowl carving one-to-one workshop

A great day today teaching Sam Robinson  on a one-to-one workshop at Sprint Mill. Sam is a current apprentice on the Bill Hogarth Apprenticeship scheme, now in his second year. We’d been talking about various crafts a couple of weeks … Continue reading

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Crosscut Saw Jointer & Raker Guage

A flurry of posts this week which is unusual. There’s often lots going on but I don’t always get around to posting about them. Anyway, today I got a stage further with my project to start properly using my two … Continue reading

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Blue spindleback dining chair

In between everything else I’m spending quite a bit of time at the moment on designing a series of chairs. I’ve been making green wood chairs since I did a course with Mike Abbott in Herefordshire in 2003. I did … Continue reading

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Saxon Peening Station

I’ve been sent some photos from Michael Stibane in Germany of his peening station which his great-grandfather, who was a cartwright, produced and sold. Peening is done on a flat anvil and by altering the string on the upright pole, the … Continue reading

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Adze, bowl knife and other handles

Anyone getting tired yet of seeing photos of my tools post-fire? Fear not dear reader, I’m nearly at the end now. Later this week I’m teaching a 1-to-1 course on green wood bowl carving for Sam Robinson, one of the … Continue reading

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