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Author Archives: stevetomlin
NW Group Meeting Jan 2011
In the depths of winter, when there’s not much around to mow the next best thing is to meet up with friends and spend the evening talking about scythes and mowing. Following on from the National Scythe Association meeting the … Continue reading
Posted in scythe festivals & events, Scytherspace, Uncategorized
Tagged course, event, group, north west, scythe
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The Scythe Association is born
At the weekend 11 of us gathered in Oxford to discuss setting up an association to represent and further the use of the scythe in Britain & Ireland. The idea has been around since last summer when Simon Fairlie, who … Continue reading
Willow bow for harvesting cereals
To follow up from Chris’ post here’s a couple of photos I took last autumn which really show the benefits of using a bow when cutting cereals. These were taken during our demonstration at Old Hall Farm in Cumbria. My bow, … Continue reading
Perfecting reed-cutting techniques in Norfolk
In mid-December a few of us met to continue trials cutting reed with an Austrian scythe, and to help with the management of a local nature reserve. This was generously hosted by Richard Brown, who has a house just yards … Continue reading
Garden Sculpture
Another week of steam bending and finishing for a wooden sculpture which has been commissioned for a private garden in London. Working with Charlie Whinney, six lengths of high-quality ash board have been curled and twisted into an organic ribbon … Continue reading
Peening bench/ station
At the peening workshop, I discussed the importance of having a good peening station for your work. For consistent, accurate peening everything needs to be stable and solid with the force of the hammer blows being transmitted down to the … Continue reading
Restored hewing axe
The last time I was visiting my girlfriend in Austria we found a hewing axe blade rusting away outside in a chopping block. It was in a pretty sorry state with no handle, rust and some horrendous dents and nicks … Continue reading
Plasma Cutting
I’m a hand tool worker and get a lot of pleasure and inspiration from working directly with simple tools and the material, there is a beauty and elegance in the traditional tools that were created by our predecessors to accomplish … Continue reading
Posted in SteveTomlinCrafts, tools
Tagged hand tools, plasma cutter, sculpture, steel
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Gilded Curly Shade
Today I finished work on the large gilded curly lightshade for Charlie Whinney. The 50 steam-bent wooden coils were stretched over a spherical framework and pinned in place using cocktail sticks as miniature dowels. My instructions on placing the coils … Continue reading
Gilding ash coils
This week I’ve been working for Charlie Whinney on a bespoke version of his Curly Lightshade design. The key feature of these is coils of steam-bent ash which cover the light in curls. For this special, bigger model 50 coils … Continue reading