Steve Tomlin Crafts

As summer approaches and the grass begins to grow I am starting to prepare for the scything season by making some parts for wooden hay rakes. This summer I’ll be teaching a couple of worksops on how to make a wooden hay rake so it’s good to have some of the pieces prepared in advance.

The teeth (also called ‘tines’) of my hay rakes are made from green ash which is cleft from straight grained logs to ensure they are strong for the work they will do. I start by selecting a six inch log approximately 5″ in diameter and mark out a grid work of squares 5/8″ square so step the finished teeth will be 1/2″ diameter so this makes the blanks slightly bigger than they need to be. I tie the log with a piece of string to hold the parts together as I cleave and then split the log along the grid to make a pile of square section blanks.

The blanks are then knocked through a tiny cutter which is simply a sharpened steel tube the square bullet goes in one end and as if by magic a beautiful round hay rake tine comes out of the bottom. Like everything there’s a knack to getting the billets to pound through straight but it’s a quick process and you rapidly build up a beautiful stock of teeth. These need to dry before they are fitted into the head.

As well as teaching some workshops on how to make wooden hay rakes, I hope to have some of my rakes available for sale at my learn to scythe courses this summer.