Category Archives: materials

Leatherworking workshop

hand stitching leather
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. Continue reading

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Milk Paint Recipe

I’m a big fan of painted woodenware and have been experimenting for a while now with different recipes of homemade paint. The egg based tempera I used on my spindleback chair was lovely but takes several weeks to dry properly … Continue reading

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Purple birch bark

On Sunday I organised a group of volunteers, the NW scythe ‘gang’, to do some coppicing in Edward & Romola Acland’s woods. It’s a 2 acre hazel with standards woodland that Edward & Romola have been working for about 20 … Continue reading

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Peeling Oak Bark with CANW

On Sunday I met with other members of the Coppice Association NW (CANW) at Moss and Heights Spring Woods for a day of peeling oak bark. The woods were worked for many years by legendary coppicer Bill Hogarth up until … Continue reading

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In praise of the homegrown shavehorse

For most greenwood workers a shavehorse is at the centre of their workshop. An ingeniously simple yet effective device for holding work it is used along with a drawknife to shave chair parts, blanks for the lathe, rake heads and … Continue reading

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Austrian timber

I’m just back from my week visiting Christiane in Austria. She lives in a small town in one of the national parks, a beautiful place ringed by majestic snow-capped mountains. As a woodworker, I’m always looking around me at trees … Continue reading

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Willow cutting for Walter Lloyd

Walter Lloyd is a well-known figure in the South Lakes. A bow-top caravan builder, charcoal burner, fell-pony breeder and honorary chairman of the Coppice Association (NW), he can often be found demonstrating hay or straw rope making at shows around … Continue reading

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