For every Wednesday in January 2012 i have been high tailing it down to Bolton Wildlife Trusts office on Bury Road. The aim of these visits was to teach woodland management and greenwood skills to a bunch of guys and gals from the local area.

The first and second session was coppice management showing all the students how to use tools such as axes, saws, billhooks, hookaroons and froes etc. The sessions also included tree felling, tree biology and identification, natural succession and much  more. Over these two sessions we gathered enough material to take back the the workshop and start work on rustic gates and bowl carving using handtools.

All involved seemed to enjoy the sessions very much and i have been asked to go back and deliver more sessions in the future. Below are some pictures of the sessions.

 Peeling a Wilow pole with a Daun PeelerUsing the shavehorse 

Rustic gate production using hand tools

Well, just had a busy weekend at my place. I have been wanting to set up a few things so i can crack on with making some riven Oak gates for various places. I set too on Saturday constructing a riving rig so i can split the Oak as i need.

Riving Rig

The riving rig is made of two 6 foot posts with willow cross pieces, one of these is set at an angle. Using a froe to start the split, the piece of Oak is braced between the two cross pieces and with a bit of knowledge and putting some beef behind it the Oak splits lovely.

The next job was a working block, set at a good height for me so i can remove excess wood on the riven piece with an axe before it goes to the shave horse.

Working Block

The legs are riven Oak and the block is a piece of Hornbeam. Hornbeam is great for chopping blocks, traditionally used for butchers blocks and cutting boards. This piece of Hornbeam i have had for a few years and was a tough old girl trying to drill 32mm holes in the base for the legs, but we got through. 

So, by the end of Saturday i was ready to go and make a gate on the Sunday.

A decent start and things went well. The gate is made from 12 month seasoned English Oak and was a delight to work with both riving, axing and with a draw knife. It took a little thinking about, especially ensuring the tenon joints matched up on the hinge and latch post.

Rustic Riven Oak Gate

But eventually it all came together and i am pleased with the result. I am going to leave the gate in a shaded area for a week or so to dry further, then i will finish it off and hang it in the hole it was made for.

Some friends of mine have recently moved back to England from the other side of the border. They have a couple of dogs that like to wander, so they asked if I could come and erect a gate and some fencing for them.

As always willing to do my bit, i organised all the tools and fencing materials along with a 12 foot gate and a couple of  7 inch square posts and rocked up at there place early last Friday morning. Within a few hours the Small Cedar that was showing some signs of dieback was gone and the hinge post was in.

Hinge post well in and concreted

The iron work for the gate was screwed and bolted on, then that was the day over as i wanted the concrete around the gate to cure. "Pub it is then" came the cry, so off we went.

The next day after a bit of preparation the gate was hung, the latch post concreted in and some post and rail fencing erected. I was waving goodbye to my friends at 3 pm safe in the knowledge that the dogs would no longer wander and glowing with pride at a job well done.

Around November last year a team of volunteer rangers from Lancashire County Council and myself set about constructing a drystone seat at the main carpark at Beacon Country Park in rural Lancashire. The aim of the seat was to enable the public to sit and admire the view over the Fylde plain and the surrounding woodlands. The stone was shipped in, a date was set and at the end of the week a well constructed seat was in place for all to use.

Around the last Bank holiday in May this year, some very fine people decided it had stood there long enough and destroyed all the good work, almost overnight, along with various other walls and signs and broke into the public toilets also.

The head ranger Andy Greenwood met me in the shop one day and broke the bad news and ask me if i could come up and rebuild it in a different design and commit the worst sin possible for a dry waller, use cement.

The date was set and all the equipment organised and the picture below met me on day one.

Destroyed seat

The wall was nearly completely destroyed and several hours later all the stone was sorted and stripped out and ready for rebuilding. The design was changed to  try and prevent high'ish walls from being pushed over, so a curvy type structure was in mind.

Wall about half way built

Looking at the weather at the back end of the week i had to get a wiggle on as thunderstorms were due on Thursday and i didn't want the cement washing out of the wall. By Wednesday, after some long days and a couple of whacked thumbs, the wall was finished. Some good comments from the public boosted me on, on this otherwise lonely job.

Below are some pics of the finished stone seat, that i hope will stand for a very long time.

Seat with cemented top

Seat finished on the Thursday evening, after a hail storm early morning