Greenwood - Bean poles

I have a feeling that bean poles will be popular this season. Now that Spring is the air, and while the weather is good I can see people are getting out in their gardens. With all the bad news in the media perhaps the vegetable patch will get more attention this year, and maybe a lot more people will start to enjoy growing their own.

If so, I aim to help and with National Beanpole Week at the end of April (25th to the 3rd May) I've decided to get into the spirit by increasing the number of beanpoles that I bundle up this year.

I bundle the rods in 11's and cut them to 6ft 6in or 7 ft using the straightest rods I can find, though it matters little if they are a bit kinky.

I've already sold a couple of bundles this season and here are some already in place.

I am using birch for the poles, mainly because I have more birch and its straighter than the hazel at the moment. Hazel is more generally used. But I imagine that poles of sweet chestnut, ash and willow would also have been popular as they all coppice well and much would have depended upon the type of coppice woods in the area.

The concern always raised with birch is that it has a reputation for rotting swiftly. Herbert Edlin writes about Birch in his book 'Woodland Crafts in Britain' and says of birch poles 'frequently used for rustic work in gardens, with the bark left on to retain their attractive appearance; they endure reasonably well if seasoned before use and barked and creosoted where the butt is inserted into the ground'.





I have not had to bark, let alone creosote the butts and I have found that birch and hazel last for a similar length of seasons, and make fine kindling once a fresh batch is obtained.

To make the poles I first strip all the branches from the stems and cut off the tops using a bill-hook. When doing this I am looking for good besom or pea-stick material in the tops which are then piled to be sorted through once the poles are finished.

Then I sort through the pile of poles looking for the 7ft straight lengths of about 1 inch at the butt end, which I cut to length using a pole as a measure. All the 7ft cut poles are then piled to be sorted. Before tying into bundles of 11 I use the hook to thread all the knots and spikes by running it along the pole.



The offcuts and poles too kinky for beans are not discarded as they may still be of use for tomato or flower stakes. Traditionally these are about 4dt 6in in length and about 1inch at the but. Those too stout may become rustic poles instead. But if all else fails the rest will be turned into charcoal or kindling so everything will be used.

I've finished cutting the birch and almost finished working up the bean poles now. Next will be pea-sticks, as I have my first show to go to this weekend and I want to take a few bundles of poles, stakes and pea-sticks to promote national beanpole week.

Lynchmere Common - Scrub a dub dub

How does the rhyme go.... Scrub a dub dub, two men with a shrub?

Sunday was a gloroious day for getting outside and finishing off some of the winter work. We're at the end of winter work season now. The last of the work needs to be sensitive to wildife in the spring, particularly the rare ground nesting birds that are easily disturbed. We worked on an area of the Lynchmere commons that is entirely managed by volunteer effort (if I count the grazing shetland cows as volunteers as well).



Over the last few years the volunteers have slowly expanded the area of restored heathland clearing scrub as we go.

We had a good turn out with over 20 people joining in through the day and we mainly cleared silver birch and common gorse, where it's growth is starting to affect the regeneration of the heather underneath.






We completed a corridor between two areas already cleared and we found a lot of the much more rare dwarf gorse mixed with the common gorse. In future we should have a good selection of heathland plants in this area. Not to mention a good view as well.

Not all of the scrub is burned. Some is left to provide a habitat and fringe to the woodland areas. I prefer to waste as little of the cut scrub as possible although the volunteers are renowned for having big fires. But each year we are finding a way to use more.


Here is a load I prepared earlier.

Some goes to the deadhedging around our newly planted hazel coppice and I use some for bean poles or pea-sticks and store bales of birch spray to make besom brooms with later in the year. This load should produce all of these as I work it up in the next couple of weeks.

polelathe - pole dancing

I prefer to use a pole rather than a bungee cord when I use the lathe. Not just because it's traditional but because I find that a 16ft pole delivers a more constant force over the whole of the 3 or 4 ft of travel that I use when turning.

In the shed I was using a bungee cord because a pole got in the way. But when I recently broke the bungee cord I decided to experiment with a pole mounted along the rafters to keep it out of the way.




It's not quite as simple as strapping it to the roof as the pole needs to be free to flex. In my first attempt I used a wooden block to clamp it in the middle and a piece of rope to tension the end that protrudes from the front of the shed. But I reverted to lashing the pole as it allows the right amount of flexing along the pole. It's just right now and the pole dances lightly along the roof. I dance a little less lightly on the floor below.

Greenwood - The Sap is rising

The sap was rising strongly yesterday, and pouring from a cut birch stump. It will do this for a couple of weeks. At this time of year the tree is preparing for its return to growth so it's turning stored energy into sugars and transporting them to where they are needed in the branches.

Birch sap is quite strong in sugar, like sugar maple but only a tenth or less of the strength. Not so good for syrup (although it has been boiled down for this) but it is traditionally gathered for use in making birch sap wine.


So now it's time to tap into the trees and gather some birch sap. I use a short lenght of plastic tube, a brace and bit and a demi-john.




The drill needs only to go though the bark and into the first layer of sapwood, just enough to plug in the hose. If the sap is running in the tree it will appear very quickly and start to drip rapidly from the tube.















Leave overnight and collect the sap in the morning, when its running strongly you can gather a gallon overnight.

Taking only a gallon (or maybe two from a very large tree) will not harm the tree and after use the hole needs to be plugged to prevent infections from entering the tree.

Greenwood - Worship of Tools Day

Apparently Yesterday was 'Worship of Tools' Day. I don't know where the idea came from or why it would be on the 11th March but it sounds a fine idea to me.

I was out on the commons yesterday so to get in the spirit of things I gave some of the tools a little fettle today to make up for the ravages of the winter.

I started with some of the greenwood tools that hang on one of the walls. Though most of these tools are not actually in use at the moment as I was out working up beanpoles and peasticks yesterday so most of my favourites were in the greenwood tool box.





Then onto the saw cupboard, which at the last count has 6 chainsaws and half a dozen cross-cut and ripping saws in residence. No, there is no point in asking why? If you need to ask.......

Shame that they have to be hidden away rather than on display but it's not worth taking chances and the location of the cupboard will remain a tightly guarded secret - a secret tool chapel.

As Treewright said yesterday on the bodgers forum - 'He who dies with the most tools wins!' And yes Robin, you might recognise one of the cross cut saws.





Finally time to worship at the lathe, with the chisels.

Well if this is worshipping tools (which might not be far from the truth in my case) then I suppose that makes the Shed a Church. Perhaps its time that my shed gained a little more respect!

Polelathe - The Toolrest

In my recent posts on the new polelathe I've covered making the main parts, the poppets, the centres and the rails.

I needed to get on and make these to get the lathe into use. In the cartshed there are no legs as the lathe is mounted onto two upright posts. But the pole, the tool rest and the treadle can be just as crucial to the ability to carry out good quality work and in comfort.

To start with I've used a temporary tool rest. One of the ones from my other lathes with another strip of wood underneath to raise it to the height of the centres on the new lathe. I made the ledge for the toolrest about 2 inches below the centres to allow for a more substantial tool rest.






But now I've made a suitable toolrest for the new lathe from a spare length of oak left over from the rails. About 2inch by 1 1/2inch its more substantial than my previous rests. This is important as I've noticed that even the slightest flex in the rest can make a good finish hard to achieve by introducing some chatter on the lathe.

I made the curve simple by taking off the corner with a hand plane. I'm still considering how best to provide spacers for fixing the tool rest at various distances from the workpiece, but I can use it as it is for the moment. It certainly seems stable. I have read of using a metal bar to stiffen the rest. I think allowing for a thicker rest to be used should be good enough in this case.

Time to turn my attention to a new pole.

Lynchmere Common - Tree Down

'Tree down' is a message that I hear quite often. It's not surprising with over 300 acres of mixed woodland and heathland to look after. I always find it interesting, especially when spring is in the air, as it takes me to different corners of the commons and each situation is different. Not so much fun when its cold, wet and windy.

Today was a spring in the air day so it was good to be out doing things amonst the trees. I spotted the moon peering down through the birch canopy in the wan sunlight.








Some trees only take a few minutes to clear whilst others can take weeks. Not all fallen trees are cleared. Where they fall across paths, access tracks or on our 5 miles of stock fencing then we clear them swiftly.

In the restored heathland areas fallen trees will enrich the soil and encourage more competitive non-heathland plants to invade. So here we take as much as possible away, but on the edges of the woodland its good to leave some dead or fallen trees which also increases the diversity of habit on the site.

In the latest gales a couple of small birch trees fell on the fenceline. One of the trees had basal rot and snapped off. In falling it hit the second tree and pushed it down onto the fenceline.










It didn't take long to clear these two trees from the fence, open the path and tidy up.

There were a couple of straight sections from the butt with interesting rot so I threw them in the back to try turning, although they might be too knotty to be worthwhile. The rest of the timber was stacked in a neat pile to await later collection for our firewood stack next year.





After another couple of jobs I loaded up with firewood, maybe for the last time this year, and then it was time to go home.

The short wheelbase landrover (a 1965 SIIa) is perfect for all these jobs. I like to run it open all year without sides or window tops as its much easier to jump in and out and grab tools. As a result its very light, doesn't leave deep ruts or get stuck but I do get some strange looks in the depths of winter.

Polelathe - The Wood from the Tree

Enjoying my new polelathe took my thoughts back to last January and an ancient oak tree on the boundary of Lynchmere common at lower brookham farm.

One stormy night a bough, almost half the tree, split off and crashed across the boundary into the field. The old tree is massive, the fallen boughs were as big as three normal sized oaks. It took me the best part of two weeks work to clear it up and yielded a couple of cords of branch wood as well as new chopping blocks, some assorted seats and some reasonable lengths for planking up.


The new polelathe is made from planked offcuts and branchwood taken from the oak boughs.

The weight of the wood was the last straw for the landrover suspension which needed a rebuild, and so this tree is also the cause of most of the metal parts in the lathe.

Some of the shorter lengths have been cleft but I used the chainsaw mills for most of the timber worth planking.




I can't justify the capital outlay of a mobile bandsaw timber mill and I have nowhere for secure parking. So I have gradually invested in a range of chainsaw milling equipment, which is in my price range and very versatile.

I chose the Logosol equipment because of the ease of use, easy attachment, good results and ability to upgrade to more capability. But there are several on the market that do a good job.

For logs too large or too short to manhandle onto the chainsaw mill I use the bigmill which which is a guide rail that attaches to both ends of the log.

The polelathe rails and wedges came from offcuts on the bigmill. Some of the lengths were long enougth to be planked on the logosol M7 chainsaw mill which is my most recent upgrade and which makes the job a lot quicker and easier as well as being more accurate.

For the chainsawheads out there the saw is a Stihl MS660 fitted with PMX chain and a logosol ripping bar. The saw carriage has a magnetic tip to hold the bar straight in the cut.




Together with John we did what we could for the tree, but it's such a large wound that it is unlikely to fully recover, although it will be around for while yet.

Meanwhilst I am thankful to the tree for bounty of wood it provided and intend to find a lot of uses for the timber.

Polelathe - Turning a treat

More than once in the last couple of weeks I've thought that building a new lathe right now was a bad idea. There is a lot of other work to be done and polelathe jobs are stacking up as well.

So its a relief to be at the stage where I can use the new lathe.

And the good new is that it turns a treat. As you can see from the long streamers of fresh shavings its a relief to get back to work and quite addictive especially with the fresh birch I am using.



Before starting work I gave the corner of the shed a quick clean and a mass of old shavings are off to friends chicken coops.

At the moment I am using the old treadle, a temporary toolrest and a jury-rigged pole along the shed rafters, so I will need to sort these out in the next few days. But for now its enough to enjoy using a really sturdy lathe.

Polelathe - Dead Head

The pole lathe needs two pointed metal centres to hold the wood being turned. Power lathe centres are used to turn the wood, but on pole lathes the cord turns and the centres are fixed or 'dead'.

The two poppets are referred to as 'Head' and 'Tail'. The centre in the tail is not adjustable and can be a pointed bolt, whereas the centre in the head poppet is usually an adjustable threaded bar.

I always end up calling them 'dead heads' But lets not go there!


The simplest solution for the dead head, or centre, is to grind a point onto a length of threaded bar. M12 or about 1/2inch in this case. I use an angle grinder to take off four sides then rotate it evenly on the bench grinder to get a smooth cone, the fine grinder disc gives an almost mirror finish.

In the back of mind I knew that I'd put a few bits aside from the last rebuild of landrover suspension. The springs were snapped up by my blacksmith friends but I kept the old bolts and spring hangers. So the handle on the dead head is a landrover spring hanger (circa 1960) and the tail centre is a suspension bolt and lock nut.

Once the centres are ready it's time for the holes in the poppets - probably the most exacting part of the pole lathe as errors in alignment easy are annoying. I used a 10mm bit for the holes and a 10mm wood bit to 'ream' out the holes a little until they are a tight fit.


I drilled the holes through the poppets for the centres using a bench drill press and carefully aligned the poppet to the drill bit with a spirit level to follow the planned centre line. I drilled from each side of the poppet so the worst error is in the middle, but for once the careful alignment seems ok.

And finally the two centres get to meet. Almost. Needless to say they did not align perfectly at first. But some quick work with a belt sander on one of the poppets gets them to within about 1mm. Some more fine tuning might be necessary once the lathe 'settles in'. Now to try it out!