Steve Tomlin Crafts

Seeing is peening

Posted on June 4, 2014 by stevetomlin

When trying to freehand peen your scythe blade, one of the most important elements is getting the lighting right so you can see the hammer marks on the scythe. Being able to see where your blows are landing allows you to adjust in order to place them accurately; if you can’t see where you’re hitting, your chance of success is much lower.
First clean your blade, anvil and hammer using a fine abrasive such as wet&dry paper or a garryflex block. As well as removing any dirt this will leave a matt surface on the edge of your blade. Then each strike of the hammer will shine the surface of the steel, the photo shows these marks as I hammer the first row of peening onto a new blade.

To see those marks you need low angled light from in front of your peening station, I find evenings to be the best for this which also makes a good end to a day of mowing. Experiment with your own situation and don’t be afraid to move yourself around to get the best view.

Posted in peening & sharpening, Scytherspace | Tagged anvil, freehand, peening, scythe | Leave a comment

How to make a wooden hay rake

Posted on May 23, 2014 by stevetomlin

With the all the people wanting to learn to scythe and their increasing use for managing wildflower meadows or making hay, there’s a need for good quality wooden hay rakes for collecting and turning the grass.
When I couldn’t find a good one for myself I decided to make my own and have spent a few years researching traditional designs and construction techniques from several countries. I now make hay rakes for sale but, since they don’t fit in an envelope, they’re a product for a local market only. This suits me fine and I’m now keen to teach the craft to other makers with the hope that one day there will be hay rake makers across the country supplying their local market with a regional style of rake.
Last week I was teaching a group in the woods in Cumbria on a beautiful sunny weekend. As much as I want them to take home a rake I also want to try and pass on the knowledge I’ve picked up to make the most of the materials, cope with problems and design rakes for different uses. Starting with green ash we split and shaved the heads and bundles of small billets to knock through my tine cutters to make the teeth (tines). I’ve several tine cutters now, some commercial and some homemade to show the differences. It looks simple but there’s a knack to getting good, clean tines and Ian was especially good at this.

Overnight the tines and head are dried and then comes a lot of drilling. It’s easier to get the holes straight with a helper though with time I have learned to do this on my own. Knocking in the teeth is always nerve-wracking in case the head splits but all the heads came out fine. We made split-handle rakes and also single bow rakes, improvising the steam-bending for the bow in the kitchen and with a carefully-selected and straightened hazel stail (handle), the rakes came out looking very fine indeed.
If you’re interested in a hay rake workshop, either for yourself or your group, please email me for more details.

Posted in greenwood courses, SteveTomlinCrafts, wooden rakes | Tagged course, greenwood, hay rake, tine cutter, UK, wooden, workshop | Leave a comment

Welsh love spoons

Posted on May 14, 2014 by stevetomlin

At the weekend I made a trip across the border to teach a spooncarving course at the Woodland Skills Centre for a group including Rod Waterfield, the Centre manager.
They were a great group; lots of laughs over the weekend and hard work from everyone. I had to work sometimes to convince them to adopt my carving techniques which can feel awkward initially but are ergonomic and efficient once practised and they were amazed by the sharpness of my knives but all turned out good spoons and, more importantly, went home with the skills to make more.

Spoons, carved with love in Wales.

Posted in greenwood courses, spoon carving, SteveTomlinCrafts | Tagged 2014, course, Wales, workshop | Leave a comment

Beech Leaf Noyau

Posted on May 7, 2014 by stevetomlin

Three weeks gone by already? Thankfully my friend Barbara reminded me it’s time to get the beech leaves I collected out of the gin and turn it into noyau.
The leaves and gin have been sitting in a kilner jar on the window ledge infusing away and there’s a definite green hue now once it’s strained.

Add sugar, water and brandy to turn a bottle of gin into two bottles of noyau. The recipe doesn’t say so but these things normally improve with age so I’ll give it a couple of months before tasting.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged beech, liqueur, noyau | Leave a comment

Anna Karenina – just the scythes

Posted on May 3, 2014 by stevetomlin

Sit through 3hrs of frocks just to see some folk mowing a field for 1 minute? Not even if it’s your friends mowing in a Hollywood movie with the snaths you made yourself?
Sorry, I always said I’d wait until the clips from Anna Karenina were on the internet and now they are, courtesy of my mate Andy!
Grab your popcorn sit back and enjoy- but don’t blink!

Posted in Scytherspace, Uncategorized | Tagged anna karenina, movie, scythe | Leave a comment

May Whistles

Posted on April 30, 2014 by stevetomlin

Making a May whistle is one of the many traditions associated to May Day and a simple craft project to introduce skills not just for carving wood but using the tree bark as well. I like to make them because they’re a simple, seasonal project that can only be done at the right time of year.
Anna Casserley has been collecting information and stories on her May Whistles website and produced this instruction leaflet so you can ‘ring in the summer’.

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Leatherworking workshop

Posted on April 28, 2014 by stevetomlin

It’s always great fun to learn new skills, especially when that includes learning about a new material so when my friend Ruth Pullan mentioned she was starting to teach courses in leatherwork including tradition hand stitching, I jumped at the chance to invite her to Cumbria.
We started out by looking at samples of different grades and types of leather and discussing their qualities and uses. Ruth had brought beautiful British veg-tanned leather and explained the different ‘cuts’ and how to get the best from them by working with their natural qualities. I’ve looked through leather catalogues in the past and never really been sure what exactly the various terms mean so this was really valuable information.
After a talk through her specialist tools and a demonstration of hand stitching we started making our own leather belts using top-quality bridle butt straps and brass buckles. A seemingly simple belt actually involves quite a number of processes to do properly including setting the buckle, finishing the edges and of course the stitching using two needles. This was the most time-consuming aspect of the belt but also the most pleasurable for me as it’s something I’ve often admired but never seen demonstrated. The method is fairly simple when you’re properly shown and a rhythm starts to develop after only a few stitches.

The finished belt just oozes quality and I can’t wait to see how it ages over the years as the leather softens with time and use.

A new material opens up all kinds of possibilities and ideas for leather and wood combined. I’ve got ideas for new products combining the two which I’ll be working on this year as well as making some proper leather sheaths for some of my favourite tools.

Posted in materials, SteveTomlinCrafts | Tagged course, cumbria, leather, Ruth Pullan | Leave a comment

A use for young beech leaves

Posted on April 17, 2014 by stevetomlin

There’s more to trees than just wood – the bark, sap, fruit, seeds and roots are all useful. Yesterday evening I was out collecting leaves for a project I’ve been wanting to do for a few years.
For this I want to have the freshest young leaves possible, while they’re still soft so I’ve been going to my local woods on a regular basis, watching the buds open as we head into spring. If you leave it too late in the season, the leaves will turn waxy and then you have to wait another year. I love these seasonal things that you can only do at one time of year; like picking blackberries or slipping the bark off a twig to make a whistle.
These leaves are only a day or two old and on small, understory trees; the big mature beeches that seeded them take longer to come into leaf and, when they do, they’re to high up to easily collect. At first it can be hard to identify the ones you want because they not the characteristic waxy dark green and you can confuse young hazel for beech. To identify them, the beech has long brown cigar-shaped buds and lighter yellow-green leaves which are less serrated and more downy than the hazel. Once you see them together the difference is obvious and your eyes quickly become attuned to spotting the distinctive colour.
Picking is quick, relaxing and quite addictive, just thinking about the texture of the leaves, choosing the ones that look nicest and listening to the sounds of the woods. Following one tree to the next soon takes you away from the paths and it’s a nice way to get gently lost even in a small wood you know well.
So what’s it all for? Well, I’m making beech leaf noyau – a little-known country liqueur. It’s a bit like sloe gin except using leaves instead of fruit and then adding brandy and sugar later. Here’s the recipe I’m following, from this website. I’ll keep you posted on how it’s going, meanwhile if you know any good seasonal recipes let me know in the comments.
Beech Noyau
A noyau is a cordial made from brandy, gin, cognac etc. This, however, is a classic British version, using young beech leaves.
Ingredients:
1 bottle of gin (700ml)
225g white sugar
200ml brandy
400ml young beech leaves
Method:
Only use very young beech leaves, freshly stripped from the stem. Add these to a bottle or glass jar (with a secure lid) until the vessel is half full. Add the bottle of gin then stopper the jar and store for 3 weeks before straining the alcohol off.
Meanwhile add the sugar and 300ml water to a pan and bring to a boil. Take off the heat and allow to cool before mixing with the flavoured gin and the brandy. Pour into bottles and store.
This makes an excellent mixer and can even be drunk neat. It’s well worth making and I guarantee that everyone you serve it to will go mad for it.

Posted in SteveTomlinCrafts, Uncategorized | Tagged beech, liqueur, noyau, recipe | 7 Comments

Swill basket making course

Posted on April 14, 2014 by stevetomlin

In today’s internet world it’s a treat to find a craft that’s particular to one region and still being carried out in the same way as it has been for hundreds of years. Last week I had the chance to learn some of the skills of a traditional Cumbrian craft for myself.
Owen Jones is the country’s only professional maker of swill baskets, a beautiful, rural basket made from riven oak and used for everything from carrying coal or potatoes to laundry and newborn babies. I’ve known Owen for a few years and am proud to count him among my friends as we see each other at shows and occasionally scythe events around the county. His courses are very popular and book up incredibly quickly but this year I was lucky enough to get a place on the three day course at his workshop.
We started out ‘making ready’ the oak billets, cutting logs to the right lengths and cleaving them for different parts of the basket.

These are then loaded into a steel tank and boiled for several hours which softens the wood and allows them to be split into fine ribbons for weaving. The wood is worked straight from the boiler so we were all kitted out with towels to protect our knees, hugely fashionable. We learned to pull the wood apart, guiding the split with our hands – it’s exciting, sensuous work guided by feeling the material and I could happily done a whole week of this.

At the same time we dressed a hazel rod and bent it round a former to make the swill ‘bool’ or rim.

Preparing the materials is a big part of the basket as some of the material must be dressed to thickness, either using a drawknife or by drawing is between your knee and a knife blade. This meant we only started weaving on the afternoon of the second day.
Every piece in the basket has a name, each is slightly differently shaped and fine-tuned by eye so although it looks like a simple weave, it actually required Owen to patiently talk us through each step as we built up the shape.

By this time I’d become too involved in the process to take photos so here are a couple of other baskets from around Owen’s home; the first are cyntells, Welsh frame baskets woven by Owen from semi-green willow and a Devon stave basket which was especially nice for me as it reminded me of my friend Mark Snellgrove who now makes these and I’ve made one myself.

And finally the finished swill basket, beautiful and strong.

It took us until right up to the end of friday to complete them but Owen made sure everyone got finished and always seemed relaxed, taking time to point out a particular birdsong or tell us how excited he was to have his veg seedlings coming up in the greenhouse. It was lovely to spend the days in the company of a man so comfortable in who he is and so deeply rooted in a craft that even after 26 years and “about 10,000” baskets he still finds wonder and pleasure in the process. If you have an interest in basketry or craft in general I would heartily recommend you get along and take the course yourself.

Posted in greenwood courses, SteveTomlinCrafts | Tagged course, cumbria, oak, Owen Jones, swill basket | Leave a comment

How's Your Peening?

Posted on April 7, 2014 by stevetomlin

Well, Peening Day is done for another year; I hope you got your blades nicely cleaned and sharpened ready for the mowing season. Peening is a vital part of using a scythe, without it you’ll find the blade not cutting as you want no matter how much you hone it.
In the UK, peening is a pretty unknown skill, we don’t hammer the edge of any other tools so there’s a lot of learning to be done. I’ve been lucky enough to learn to peen scythes from some real experts in Austria and have taught many people through the learn to peen courses I’ve run in Cumbria. Like with my other courses, I’ve been taking apart the process to find the best ways to teach people how to peen and explain the method. I’ve had lots of success with students and plan to write a few posts here to try and help those of you just getting started.
First, here’s a few starter questions to ask yourself if you’re struggling with peening:
1. Do you understand the geometry of the scythe edge, which side is beveled, what the cross-section looks like and why it’s like that?
2. Do understand how the peening jig and anvils work to form these shapes under the action of your hammering? At the scythe festival last year I did a 1-to-1 for someone who was smart enough to say that hitting a curved shape with a flat hammer didn’t make sense to him. Once I’d explained and he understood it, it was much easier to start to learn the peening process.
3. Do you do any other craft activity that involves hand-eye coordination in the same way as peening?
4. Can you peen with the jig? People often underestimate what you can achieve with this tool and how important it is as a method for progressing to the anvil.
5. Do you have a decent setup for peening and, most importantly, can you see what’s happening when you strike the blade – do you know what to look for?
6. How much time do you put into learning to peen; how many blades do you have and how often did you peen them last year?

Posted in peening & sharpening, Scytherspace | Tagged anvil, jig, learn, peen, peening, scythe, scything, sharpen | Leave a comment