Deep frying axe handles in raw linseed oil. Why do we do this? Cold oil is thick and sits on the surface. Most commercial finishes mix oil with white spirit which thins it and helps it penetrate the wood, we prefer to use pure cold pressed oil with no additives. By heating the oil it thins and penetrates deep into the wood helping to waterproof and protect it. It also makes it look beautiful.
The Wood Tools workshop is feeling like Santa’s grotto this week; full of parcels of beautiful tools.
If you’re looking to order for Xmas our last posting dates are as follows…
Australia - 5th December, 2pm GMT
USA - 12th December, 2pm GMT
UK - 19th December, 2pm GMT
And of course if Santa doesn’t bring you what you’d hoped for, we’ll also be here packing parcels in January.
We’ve recently been working with some lovely film makers called Three Degrees West Productions. They’ve made a gorgeous film showing our Sheffield axes being made, and this is a 30 second edit of that film. We love it and would love as many people to see it as possible. And if anyone out there is wondering if a Sheffield axe would be just the thing for Xmas, there’s still time…
This is a branch of a Norway Maple tree; Acer Platanoides. It’s rather hard wood and makes lovely spoons. It was particularly favoured by Viking cultures in Northern Europe and lots of woodwork from Medieval Novgorod was Norway Maple. Here I’m cutting the section of the branch that will give a nice angled crook spoon; it’s a lot more work than cutting a spoon from straight grained wood but it gives nice results and the grain is strong at all the parts of the spoon that need strength. I rough the blank out with an axe then shape with straight knife and hook knife. I leave the spoon slightly thick at this stage and let it dry before doing the final finishing cuts.
What do you give as a gift to one of the richest men in the country as a special wedding gift? I was quite honoured to be asked to make this piece for the Duke and Duchess of Westminster. They were married last June, and the Trustees of his estate wanted a suitably special gift. I originally said i couldn't do it to the required timescale, but they wanted it anyway. I hope it has been worth the wait. It is i think one of the nicest objects I've ever made, or maybe I should say, helped bring into existence as it's quite a collaboration. I collected the burr oak from Eaton Hall estate last March and have been gradually working towards this since. The silver was spun by the very talented @wm.handmade apparantly one of the most challenging pieces he's made. The engraving was done by the superb @angus_mcfadyen , who has engraved all my silver pieces for many years. Finally, the little film was shot by @3degreeswest as a quick side project to a lovely film they are making of our axe making. Watch out for that one coming soon. Mazers we're ceremonial medieval drinking vessels made of wood and silver. I've studied most of the surviving originals, and many appear in my book, The Wooden Bowl. I only occasionally get to make items like this, and it is a pleasure to have the opportunity. Incidentally, the engraving is a Word worth quote "Nature never did betray the heart that loved her." I find it quite heartwarming in a world that's being trashed by over consumption that the richest people value something hand-made for them with a meaningful message. As makers, we should all recognise that and value what we do.
Do you know the difference between a shovel and a spade? The best wooden spoons are shaped like shovels, with the handle at an angle to the bowl, rather than inline like a spade. If you make such a spoon out of straight grained wood it will have weak grain at the front edge which will eventually break during use. If you make it out of a branch or “crook” as shown here then the grain is strong at the leading edge of the spoon where it gets the most wear.
This is how our Sheffield axes are forged. It’s a scary and highly skilled process using a 1960’s Massey drop hammer. It’s not for the feint hearted, I’ve had a go and forged a few but it’s very scary, this is Richard the director of Footprints Tools who forges our heads for us using our dies set in their drop hammer. Not many people do this work today and nobody had been forging axes this way in the UK for the last 30 years. We felt it was time to bring it back. The actual forging is quite quick though there is a lot of set up and fine adjustment time to get everything working perfectly. Most of the time producing an axe is in the finer finishing work, grinding the bevels, hardening and tempering, fine sharpening, fitting the handles, making the sheaths. At all these stages it’s the fine attention to detail that makes the difference between an ordinary axe and a great one. We aim to make the best axes that have ever been made in the UK and we will use a mix of the best modern technology alongside time honoured craftsmanship to create heirloom tools.
This is a dressing wheel in use. when stones are used for grinding they can become “glazed over” as the surface becomes clogged with dust, slurry and metal filings. In use this feels like the tool you are trying to grind just skates over the surface. The dressing wheel “opens up” the stone, as well as helping keeping it true or round. A newly dressed stone almost grips the tool applied to it and drags it in rather than it skating away. Brian Alcock the old grinder who we learned from told us this is all about feel but also how much you use the dresser is personal and varied from grinder to grinder. Some would be using the dresser all the time, he looked down on them feeling like they were wearing the stone away too quickly. Not using it enough is also bad, though continuing to work on a glazed or out of true stone is not good. Finding the goldilocks degree of wheel dressing is obviously very personal to the user.
This is swarf. Its formed in grinding workshops when countless thousands of microscopic iron filings coalesce back to form a solid. Anything that gets placed in front of the big grindtones will become coated with swarf. Local sculptor Anthony Bennett created ‘The Sven Swarves’. We just love the natural textures like a wild landscape or a windswept beach.
Oiling the tops of axe handles is a therapeutic job. A little linseed oil helps protect the wood against moisture getting in. It also brings out the lovely colours. You can see the darker oak wedge against the lighter ash of the handle. Quite a lot of our wedges like this one have a darker line down one side. That’s because we cut our wedges from old whisky barrel staves, the inside of the barrels are charred to bring out the flavour and this darkens the wood.
