Stools for schools and other odds and ends

A local school recently asked if I could supply them with various items of wooden seating to use in the small area of woodland they have access to. Of course, I was delighted to supply them with what they needed!

I took the opportunity to try out a new idea for making the benches. I started with a couple of slabs trimmed from coppice stumps, and used the chainsaw to cut a V-shaped notch into each:

I then used these to support the log being made into a bench, which gave two immediate advantages - first, it stops it rolling around, and second, it elevates it a bit, so you don't have to bend down so low when working on it:

The next step was the usual one, as shown in my video on how to make a bench, cutting notches for the feet in what will eventually be the underside of the bench:

Now for the next new bit - rather than setting the bench on its feet to cut the seating area, I rotated it a quarter turn:

I then pushed the feet into the notches, just to check they were exactly vertical:

Then, I was able to walk along with the chainsaw, using it to slice a thin layer off to make the seating area. This is easier to do in a straight line from above than doing it from the side with the saw horizontal, and much more comfortable too!

The only downside was that having the saw at an angle tended to leave more chain marks on the wood:

But they quickly disappeared once I put the bench horizontal and did a quick skim over with the trailing edge of the chainsaw bar:

And I was left with a rather nice bench!

The school wanted some simple log stools as well, so I selected some suitably-sized logs to cut up and transported the results with my log trolley:

I even managed to get it all into the trailer and the car in one trip!

Here's the end results, delivered to the school field:

In other news from the woods... the Bluebells are growing, having had the first shoots pop out the ground in the second half of January:

And this hen pheasant has been following me around. She nearly ate some bird feed from my hand! Far too tame for her own good I think...

Back in Rye, we did get a light covering of snow one day in January, but it only lasted a couple of hours and there was no time to go to the woods and photograph it there...

I've also been playing around with my Carry Freedom Y-Frame bike trailer, and now have it set up to run on my mountain bike. I tested it out hauling about 25kg up and down a hill, but I'm not convinced I'll be bringing all next winter's firewood back this way...

Talking of firewood, the insulation I installed in our dormer roof a few months ago has certainly done the trick - it looks like we might be using about 30% less firewood than before!

Till next time...

Mike

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Coppicing, stools and benches

We had a productive day in the woods yesterday, coppicing a few stools and adding to the pile of split and stacked firewood, ready to burn in a couple of years:

I also picked out a number of straight sections as I went along and made stakes from them, which will come in useful at some point:

I also turned some of the logs from windblown trees into benches for the community garden in Rye. There's a video of how to make the benches here.

I also made a couple of stools (again, video here), one for use at the wood, the other to sell:

Finally, when I got home I found this bizarre sight  a mushroom had been growing under my car! Presumably it's feeding on the wood chips lying on the drive, left from cutting logs up with the Truncator (video here):

It looks like the weather is turning colder soon - it'd be nice to have a frosty day to work in the woods, it's a bit warm at the moment when wearing chainsaw trousers!

Mike

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Chainsaw sculpture - making a bench in under 5 minutes

Here's a quick video to show a really simple way of making a log bench. We've been using these in the woods for years, and I needed to make a couple of new ones this weekend to accommodate groups of children on school visits to the woodland:

Here's the two finished products, which only took about 5 minutes each to make with the chainsaw. You can vary the height of them by using different size 'feet'.

Mike

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News round-up

With both of us doing our "desk jobs" full time for the past couple of weeks, there hasn't been much to post on the blog. A few things have been happening though, so here's the news...

A few weeks ago we went to a wood near Ashford for a meeting of local coppice workers, organised by Esus Forestry. It was pretty wet, but fortunately this wood has an "indoors"!
It was a good opportunity to catch up with everyone and hear the latest news in the region.

We did actually get up to the woods a couple of times, but didn't get to take many photos, largely because it's been raining so much! My friend Alex came to visit, and we worked on creating a clearing in his wood so that he can bring his family to camp there in future. We even managed to make a couple of benches from the trees that were felled:
We also spent one day in our own wood, mostly tidying up stuff at our shelter and also making stakes ready for some tree planting we'll be doing in a couple of weeks:
At the end of next week we'll be back in Sweep Wood coppicing, and normal service will resume at this blog! ;-)

Mike

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Coppice Harvesting course - Day 2

We continued with our work on the course today, extending the strips we were working and practising landing trees on the "benches" and processing them efficiently. If you missed Day 1, the blog post is here.

Tracy took some photos of me dealing with a tree from start to finish. In the first picture you can see the log I was using as a bench yesterday (nearer to me in the picture) is now on the ground, and I've swapped it for a larger log, which happened to end up in the right place after felling a tree.
This new bench is nearer to the other end of the strip I'm working, as I'm going to fell a tree that's near the fire. It's also a larger log, so will be stronger and take bigger trees landing on it.

A quick look at the tree determined that it just needed a standard felling cut, nothing fancy.
So I set about putting the gob cut in
and then came round the other side (because of the other stem in the way) to put the back cut in
The tree didn't fall immediately, and rather than cut the hinge away to nothing (which would a bad thing!) I put the felling lever in and gave it a heave
It shifted easily and I made a prompt exit, just in case it got a bit lively at the butt end - it didn't, but better safe than sorry!
The tree hung up slightly
but a gentle push from the side brought it down onto the bench
After severing the tree from the stump
I was then able to cut off a 16-foot log. The tree was felled in such a position that this log would only need moving a few feet to join the nearest log pile.
The next step was to drag the top of the tree back over the bench, which is relatively easy as it slides over the bench quite well.
This brought it near the fire, and then I proceeded to sned the branches:
After that it was easy to move the branches to the fire, along with the top of the stem.

These trees aren't huge, as you can see, but it is still worth learning and using these techniques as it allows you to work much faster. The same techniques apply equally well to larger coppiced trees too, and then the emphasis on minimising movement of logs and trees saves even more effort.

I didn't get to photograph Tracy working, but here's a couple of pictures of her work area. As you can see she's been moving on to larger trees than she's been used to:
and has built up a good pile of logs: We also covered some other felling cuts today, which were revision for me and Paul but new for Tracy, such as boring cuts and split-level cuts (links go back to old blog posts with videos).

The lunchtime entertainment including target shooting (at a bit of cardboard) with David's air rifle, which he always has with him for squirrel control.
Tomorrow Tracy and I will be working to remove the trees between our two strips, prior to doing some work with ropes and pulleys at the end of the week.

Mike

If you missed the other posts, Day 1 is here, Day 3 is here, Day 4 is here, Day 5 is here.

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Benches for sale!

OK, maybe not these actual benches, which I've just made ready for the school visit on Thursday, but some more like them:I don't know if anybody would like one, but if you live reasonably near Rye and like the look of them then drop me an email (click on my name at the top right of the page), and I'll see what I can do. Being chestnut they are durable and can be left outdoors without preservative - they'll get a "weathered" look, but won't disintergrate.

Mike

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