Moni anthu aku matabwa [Chichewa] - (Hello wood people)
News - by Wendy of the Wool:
The last meet was quite busy: Tea, biscuits, and banter were consumed in large amounts - we welcomed back some familiar faces who we haven't seen for a while – Carl, Kevin, Pete (and Bess) and Jackie. Recent joiner Bob returned and got on with carving a spoon – he seems to have quickly got back into the swing of things.
Richard and Dave Wilkins continued to have a spoon carving lesson, Bowl Mike worked on a couple of bowls. Kevin carved out some blanks for future spoons. Jamie and Ranger Dave continued their festive build up of Santas who are coming along nicely I've been reliably informed that a Sleigh of Santas is the collective noun for a group of Santas (I would have thought a Sack of Santas might be more appropriate!).
Word Of The Week - R2 of the Wood:
Riving/Cleaving:
Riving or cleaving is an ancient technique to process lumber for making wooden objects, some basket weaving, and to make firewood. Unlike wood sawing, the wood is split along the grain using tools such as a hammer and wedges, splitting maul, cleaving axe, side knife, or froe.
Carpenters use a wooden siding which gets its name, clapboard, from originally being split from logs—the sound of the plank against the log being a clap. This is used in clapboard architecture and for wainscoting. Coopers use oak clapboards to make barrel staves. Split-rail fences are made with split wood.
There are a range of traditionally made baskets from Ash or Oak, made by pounding the wood with a mallet and pulling long strips from the log.
Splitting firewood from logs that have been pre-cut into sections (rounds, bolts, billets), can be done by hand, using an axe or maul, or by using a mechanical log splitter. When splitting a log by hand, it is best to aim for the cracks (called checks), if there are any visible. Some types of wood are harder to split than others, including extremely hard woods, as well as types like gum which an axe will often bounce off of, and chestnut, which is typically so twisted it's near impossible to get a clean split, but any type of wood, having large knots or twisted grain can make it difficult to split.
The advantages of splitting wood along its grain, rather than sawing it is that the wood is much stronger. Due to this, it was historically used for building ships (e.g. drekars) and traditional skis. A defining feature of shakes, which are like shingles, is that they are split rather than sawn and because the cell structure of the wood remains intact may be more durable, and similarly trunnels when split are stronger than when sawn.
Members Services (See Listings at bottom of page)
A new section of our Newsletter where local members can offer charged services to other local members. For example: Craft Courses, Tool Repairs, Lathe building, Lathe for sale etc. If you have a service you would like offer here, please reply to this email.
Listings will be approved at our discretion and are limited to local sole traders. There are no listing fees. We do not take responsibility over any transactions, so please be mindful of where your money is going.
Regular Bits n Bobs:
If you have them, bring your lathe, shave horse, and any other fun equipment. We have a few chopping blocks and one kuksa horse, so if you can bring your own please do. Note for those with Lathes, our floor space is mostly concrete, so treadles may not be able to be pegged down.
Our meets don’t just have to be about making wood chips, we encourage members to bring other crafts to the meets, be that spinning a yarn, weaving a basket, making a tool sheath from leather or bark, and even decorative methods for our wooden items. Feel free to showcase your other craft skills as we are interested in sharing and learning a wider range of skills as we grow as a group. If any members would like to lead a session of various crafts for the group, possibly a paid one day course, please get in contact with me and we will see what we can arrange for the future.
About the venue:
The venue has toilets, kitchen, and is accessible to wheelchairs. I will supply teabags, coffee, sugar and cows milk. Please bring your own non dairy milk if needed. If anyone wants to bring biscuits, cake, snacks to share that would be nice, but bring your own lunch, bowl/plate, drinking vessel, and cutlery please.
Members have suggested a contribution for Tea/Coffee a few times, so I have decided to ask for a contribution of 50p. Obviously if you bring all your own bits, there is no need to chip in.
Free secure parking is available within the walled garden. Follow the main driveway all the way down, past the public car park and the “no unauthorised vehicles” sign, then the Walled Garden’s big gates will be on the left. Toot your horn to let us know you’ve arrived.
See site map, and map links near bottom of page.
Hope to see you there, and please email me at essexaptgw@gmail.com if you have any questions.
Richard Roberts - Group Coordinator APTGW Essex Bodgers
APTGW Membership:
Our meets are free of charge to members of the Association of Polelathe Turners and Green Woodworkers.
Non members are welcome to join us a few times to see if it’s something they’d like to pursue further. We then ask that folks join the APTGW. It’s only £20 per year and membership runs from January to December each year.
Join the APTGW here: https://www.bodgers.org.uk/joinus
For just £20 a year you get:
A quarterly Gazette with news views and articles on all aspects of green woodworking.
Attend the UK Bodger's Ball always held in mid-May (this is chargeable, but a bargain!)
Win prizes for your creations at the many craft competitions at the ball
Connect with other Green Woodworkers, tool makers, rural crafters.
Learn new skills in a variety of length courses.
Attend and participate in the Annual General Meeting which is held at the Bodgers Ball
Vote on how the organisation progresses and elect, or even stand for the committee!
Here is a "what 3 words" ink to the location: https://w3w.co/sizes.soup.puddles
Google maps link to location: https://goo.gl/maps/f6rYfb92p6n43Uz99
Members Services
Spoon Carving Lessons - R2 Wood
Learn Spoon Carving split into 3 separate lessons, held on different set days as shown below.
Lesson 1 covers axing out a squared blank.
Lesson 2 covers spoon design and axing the outline of our spoon.
Lesson 3 covers the knife work to finish our spoon.
There are three options to choose from:
One Lesson - £50 - offer price £40
Any Two Lessons - £90 - offer price £75
All Three Lessons - £130 - offer price £110
Lesson Dates:
Sat 09 Nov Lesson 1 - 2 places available
Sat 23 Nov Lesson 2 - 2 places available
Sat 07 Dec Lesson 3 - 2 places available
All prices are per person. Offer is only for paid up APTGW members on the dates shown above. Guests are welcome, but will pay the regular price. Please contact Richard at info@r2wood.co.uk to enquire or book.
Sharpening Service - R2 Wood
I’ve launched a sharpening service for greenwood carving tools, offering APTGW members a 5% discount. Covering Sloyd and Spoon knives, Axes, Adzes, Gouges and more. Please contact Richard at info@r2wood.co.uk to enquire.