Jobs for today...

1. Make sure I have emptied all the Chanterelle from the side pouches of my Bergen.

2. Brush the Chanterelle gently to remove any woodland deposits.

3. Gently fry Chanterelle in butter with a pinch of salt and eat with home made bread and scrambled eggs.

4. Carve new handle for the Lee Stoffer ring scorp and evaluate new axe hand made by Nic Westermann.

5. Finish Snow Goose for Sean.

6. IT'S CHANTERELLE SEASON !!!!!!!!!!!!

Enjoy...J

Spoon carving at the Westonbirt National Arboretum...

Well.

There you go.

This is what happens when two fellas take a biggish tent and some axes and stumps into a wet field at Treefest, national arboretum Westonbirt, and carve things.

Sean Hellman and I win best in show.

Best what in show ? 

I'll leave that to your own imagination.

Whilst at Treefest I met up with my mate Darren from Morgans wood.

He is a clever old stick who can make all manor of wooden objects and furniture for both house and garden. 

Both Sean and Darren use all manor of tooling for there work.

And I am always struck when watching craftsmen process wood using tools that I personally have no skill with, as you know, I limit myself to three edge tools for my Kuksa and Spoon carving.

Imagine my excitement when I watched a demonstration from Steve Woodley.

He, like me, uses an axe as a prime tool for his work.

But way up at the other end of the scale...

Here he is cleaning of bark from a selected timber length with a Swedish draw knife.

And toshing in the log dogs that will keep the log firmly attached to the horses.

Steve spends his time travelling the world teaching and demonstrating his skills, I bet some of my friends in the United States would love to hire him for demonstrations and classes.

Steve marks out a top line with a chalked line.

And then chops 'V' cuts along the log.

Here you can see him using a two lugged bearded broad axe.

A design that hails from the seventh century.

Most of Steve's historic axes are made by Gransfors .

Once he has finished chopping out with the bearded axe he swaps axes and starts in with a Swedish broad axe. 

From memory the axe he uses is double bevelled with a canted handle that allows plenty of room for his hands between the helve and the work.

It's hard work and I needed a sit down...

Well, that's two faces finished.

Steve finishes the faces with a axe from Transylvania.

This is one of his favourite axes, unfortunately it has a small crack appearing at the tight right angle of the beard.

I will give him Chris Grants contact details and see if they can get it sorted. 

As you can see, it's a big old broad side axe.

Job done...

Who needs a mill....

Or a plane, when you can have a Steve ?

Steve regularly travels abroad to pass on his skills at many organised country fairs and shows, why not give him a shout ?

Steve Woodley can be contacted via his web site at... Hand Crafted Timber

His work is included in a reconstructed Anglo-Saxon building at Weststow

Enjoy...

J.

Wilderness Gathering 10

My weekend at the Wilderness Gathering 'X' started with thick cloud and rain.

I spent my time at the Wilderness Gathering with Kevin Endicott.

Kev needed help with his stock and putting the big old canvas 12x12 together.

We were there for four days overall. Kevin's stall was quickly filled with folk buying equipment which might keep the liquid sunshine at bay.

The weather soon took a turn for the better and we started dealing with a rush for sun hats and shorts.

Stuart and Emma were already well prepared.

Kev had a bumper year sales wise and I managed to sit, carve and chat with some friends old and new.

Here's Paul from Bushcraft magazine, a very keen carver.

Jon Mac, Terry Longhurst ( Ilford East Activity Team ) and Ray Hutchinson ( Urban Bushcraft ) .

Terry and Ray tracked me down during the weekend, they are both involved with the Scout movement here in the UK and are pro active in teaching the Scouts some advanced carving techniques.
Terry and some other chaps will be visiting us here in Devon soon for a carving brush up course, some good food and possibly a tipple or two.
Looking forward to it.
I also managed to have a good chin wag with Nic Westermann about some designs we are planning to produce.
More on that at a later date.

Kevin had a fine selection of equipment at the show.

Even something that will  keep a fox dry and warm....

I have a feeling that next time Sean the Silver Fox pays us a visit, he will spend his time sneaking up on me wearing his new jacket.
I also spent some quality time with Patrick McGlinchey who runs Backwood survival.

Patrick is a very knowledgeable man who has spent many many years learning craft skills from indigenous folk around the world. He passes on his knowledge with passion and integrity.

I sat with him for a couple of hours shooting the breeze. I wanted to know if he had an idea of what local materials I could use in the manufacture of an African mouth bow.
He gave me some information that I will experiment with as soon as I have some spare time.
Nice one Patrick, thank you and your great crew.

Now here's a guy I can't thank enough.
For years now I have been meaning to replace my modern nylon over the shoulder knife belt. There is probably a name for this type of belt but I can't for the life of me think what it is.

I asked Tibor, who owns Tibor leather crafts, if he could make up a leather sash that would match my knife sheath, after some time he had made just the thing I was looking for.

I have used it for a couple of weeks now, very comfortable and much better than my old belt.

Now, for those of you interested in old school equipment I would like to mention that Endicotts has managed to stock up on a good amount of first class Polish poncho/Lavvu.
These ponchos are made of good quality O/G canvas material.
Here is our friend Michaela sporting one of the ponchos....

They have button closure arm holes.

And are just the job for keeping the draught at bay on a chilly night round the camp fire.

 Here's the best bit though....

Button two together and you have a spacious two person Lavvu.

I stand at 6 foot 4 inches and I can easily lay down inside and get comfy.
I'll definitely be using mine in the cooling coming months.
The best bit about the whole event, in my opinion, was catching up with JJJ, a superb carver, tool maker and friend...

He had a busy time of it carving and making new edge tools.

Well, my thanks go to all who made this event such an interesting time for me, and to Roger Harrington who organised the Wilderness Gathering.
I'll be back...
J.

Can you help find Dave Budd's stolen knife ?

I spent some time with some great friends at the Wilderness Gathering last weekend.

When I have some time I will post some photos and information.

In the mean time I wonder if you can help out a bladesmith friend of mine who had a knife stolen from his stall.

Here is Dave Budd's description of the stolen knife.....

''Sad to report the theft of one of my handmade knives whilst at the Wilderness Gathering last weekend. If you should come across it, please call the police and or try and get it back to me! Really this posting is just a warning to any thieve

s that the bushcraft community is that and we look out for each other!

The knife has no sheath (I've got that bit), 6" long forged finished blade with filework down the back, Oak handle with copper and leather furniture.''

I thank you in advance for your help in this matter....

Jon Mac