The Bodger’s Ball was a great weekend; plenty of interesting demos, folk to talk to and time for to relax with a beer. A wonderful setting too at Lower Brockhampton in Herefordshire. Too many things to write now so here’s just a few highlights.
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Watching Andy Hayes hewing timbers for a traditional aisled building and talking to him about the french system of apprenticeship and his hopes of establishing something similar within the Association of Pole-lathe Turners. |
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Sean Hellman carving a beautiful fan bird to win the half-hour challenge while also entertaining his audience in his own inimitable style. |
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The crosscut saw challenge with Matt Jarvis looking very serious and Dan acting as official timekeeper and log holdfast. I’ve been collecting up old saws, including a 5ft crosscut, for years and learning how to sharpen them. It’s great to find out that other’s have been doing the same. |
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The ash grows well in Herefordshire and there were plenty of straight clean lengths available for demos and racing. We don’t have such good ash in Cumbria so I took the opportunity to split a log and shave it into rake heads. Thanks to Mark Allery for letting me use his kit. |
Enough delay, it’s time to take the first cuts. I’m careful and slow, tentative strokes to feel the blade in the grass and remind my body of the movements and how everything feels. Can I still do this; have I forgotten over the winter, will it be how I’ve remembered it from last year? The doubts fade away the blade sweeps through its arc, my body remembers and with each cut my confidence builds and I relax into it more. Soon it’s like I was never away, I’m moving in a steady comfortable rhythm, breathing easily and enjoying the pleasure of the work.
Steadily folk arrive to watch and ask questions, a few trying themselves after being surprised by how effective and fun it looks. Gradually they move on to see other demonstrations and it’s just me mowing with Simon and Andy who have their own scythes and we work on as a team finishing up our allotted patch before stopping to chat about scythes, mowing and the coming season. It’s almost over too soon, I could have happily continued but breakfast is calling and I know there’ll be plenty more grass over the summer.
A straight stail is essential for a good rake so it can slide through your hands while you work and and for balance. You can test a rake’s balance by holding it horizontally in your hands. As you relax your grip it should rotate to hang with the head level and teeth down, ready for work. Otherwise you’ll always have to work to keep it level, tiring your arms and hands more quickly.
I’ve been in Manchester this week, installing a new window display for the Harvey Nichols store. The scheme was designed and built by Charlie Whinney back in 2009 and since then has toured the group’s stores in Edinburgh, Leeds, Birmingham and Bristol. Each store is different in terms of window sizes so we adapt and modify the structures to suit. Made from steam-bent ash and oak, the structures are remarkably strong and flexible so we can get them into a shape to fit the space and placement of mannequins.
This was even more obvious on Tuesday evening when we worked through the night to install more loops and knots of ash onto the main entrance canopy. Lots of people passed by on their way to from a night out but few stopped to ask what we were doing or how the piece was made. Maybe folk in the city see this sort of thing all the time.
