I spent last weekend making helicopters; no, it wasn’t what I expected to be doing either. I was at Dalkeith Country Fair, a new event just outside Edinburgh, as part of Gavin Phillips’ Shed Therapy stand. Gavin had asked me to join his team of greenwood demonstrators and makers who provide demonstrations, have-a-go session and items for sale at a number of shows through the summer. The team also included Tom Dillon (one of Mike Abbott’s assistants), Rolf Buwert a professional turner and Digger Gardiner who’s new to woodworking and was getting his first taste of being at a show.
I had brought my kitchenware, chairs and fan birds and we arranged our marquee with polelathes, shavehorses signage designed to tempt people over to have a look and have a go. As I unpacked, I casually showed Gavin the toy helicopters I sometimes make. He was immediately taken by them and set me to making some more. Well, I pretty much spent the rest of the weekend carving ‘copters to try and keep up with Gavin’s amazing ability to sell them. Simple in a way; walk up to someone, offer to show them how it works and then wait for a break in their enjoyment to ask if they’d like to buy it to take home and continue the fun. By Sunday we had established the ‘Dalkeith Flying School’ and families, as well as buying a helicopter each for competitions, wanted their photo taken by the sign.
But hang on, I’m a craftsman and these are just gimmicks aren’t they; why am wasting my time on them? The simplest answer is that they gave a lot of pleasure to a lot of people and meant I went home with some cash in my pocket when other things weren’t selling. From a larger viewpoint I think that anything which engages the public with natural materials and the idea that they can make their own toys or whatever from local materials is a good thing.
While I’m talking about helicopters, make sure you have a look at Toy Making Dad. When I was first learning to make them I was having stability issues and, after searching a few aeronautical forums I happened upon Dan’s site which solved all my problems, as well as making me laugh out loud.
In years to come thousands will claim to have been there but in truth a select bunch of six scythe folk turned up to Sprint Mill in Cumbria for International Peening Day. Huge numbers was never my objective and our group spent a really enjoyable and productive day together. Though it wasn’t a true teaching event I was of course happy to answer questions and help everyone out with their blades. There’s a lot to learn in peening; it’s a real skill which takes time, practice and timely advice to learn. It’s great to see people who’ve been on my ‘Learn to mow’ courses and are still mowing and I want them to continue enjoying it.
During the day we also took some time out to try a variety of push mowers, including a new Al-Ko 380HM Soft Touch Lawn Mower which 
We’d elected Edward to make the maiden voyage. He’s the most experienced curach-man among us, it will be his boat and I think he was the most excited to be finally getting on the water. He didn’t argue and, once the friends were gathered and cameras poised, he stepped nimbly in and was given a friendly push out onto the lake. We were fortunate to have 
Of course we couldn’t get away from the ‘Three Men in a Boat’ tag so we called Edward back to let Ian and I join him for a photocall. On top of his reluctance to stop playing, Edward was somewhat dubious about this venture; the curach is only 10ft long and not really designed to carry three men but we assured him it would be fine. We climbed carefully in and sat ourselves fore and aft as comfortably as possible on the hazel ribs.
I’m no sailor and much happier with my feet on dry land but there’s a special thrill in building a boat yourself and getting out on the water in it. The curach is wonderfully stable and even with all of us in barely drew any draft. Sitting low in the boat with just a sheet of canvas between me and the water gave a wonderful feeling of closeness to the lake. Ian had had the forethought to bring a bottle of holy water (from the Bushmills distillery) which we used to toast our success.
Between this and the last meeting, Edward had fitted the fixed seat so there was nothing to stop us. We’ve chosen a single layer of 12oz canvas for this 10ft curach. Many craft use a heavier canvas or double skin but we want to keep it as light as possible and, as a boat for the Lake District, it will never have the beating that a true sea-going curach would. Fortunately, the canvas is available in wide enough pieces to go right across our hull without seams. Starting from the centre we stretched the canvas across the hull and tacked it in place using roofing nails. It’s tough on your hands trying to pull a 6ft wide sheet tight but tapping the skin afterwards we got a very satisfying sound which we took to mean it was good enough.
From there it’s a case of sewing in some tucks at bow and stern to fit the skin around the curved shape. A perusal of Edward’s little curach made by Jack Robinson revealed that he’d somehow fitted the skin without a single tuck but we were definitely going to need them. Even Ian was drafted in to do some sewing and gradually it all came together – we can each identify our own tucks from ten paces.
I’m on holiday this week in Austria and, with spring well on the way over here, Christiane and I spent a few hours together raking the meadow she mows. This is public land by the apartments where Christiane lives and which she has been managing since 2008. At 3500m2 it’s a decent piece of land to take care of with the scythe.
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