My courses are based near Kendal in the glorious Lake District.  Sprint Mill is a terrific place in it’s own right, full of old tools, wood and inspiration.  There is accomodation nearby to suit any pocket, from camping and hostels to 5-star hotels.

For more information, visit my courses page. To book a place, please send me an email.

Green wood workshops

• Fan Bird Carving  27 May – £70
• Working with Birch Bark  2-3 June – £125
• Spoon carving  12-13 May as part of NW Coppice Association’s ‘Weekend in the Woods‘
• Rake Making  3-7 september as part of NW Coppice Association’s ‘Woodland Pioneers’ week.

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In another nice turn to this story, shortly after moving to Cumbria, I met basketmaker Phil Bradley through mutual friends. Phil had first learned his basketmaking from David Drew and was interested in the seating himself so I lent him my chair to examine and organised for myself and Paul Girling, another green wood chairmaker, to go up to Phil’s workshop to learn to weave them together.

We had a fantastic weekend at Phil’s workshop in Cockermouth talking about chair design, basketmaking and craft in general while he took us through the steps of weaving the seat with white willow.

It was a learning experience for him too and, though he had worked out the main elements of the seat, there were certain points that we only figured out as we did them. Several times Phil was impressed with how David had designed the seat to give it strength and comfort while making the weaving process efficient.

The finished seat is neat and has a clean look with just enough decoration given by the waling weave at  front and back which also gives the seat the strength it needs. The white of the willow contrast and complements brilliantly the black of the pickled oak and gives the a really modern look bringing the story very much into the present.

So I have made my own interpretation, altering the dimensions slightly, reducing the length of the back posts and  raising the front rungs to lessen their chance of being damaged by people’s feet.

As a final touch I decided to pickle the oak to give the chair a contemporary feel when paired with the willow seat. Pickling oak is a simple process which I’ve used to good effect on smaller projects in the past. I dissolve a little steel wool in a jar of vinegar and then just wipe the clear solution on to the oak. At first nothing happens but by the time you’ve worked round to the third post, the first is turning a deep midnight blue like magic. The steel reacts with the tannin in the oak so it’s a natural colour which comes from the wood itself and leaves the grain visible.

I was at Castle Drogo, a National Trust property in Devon where I was living at the time. After a fairly ordinary visit to the castle, I was amazed on walking into the cafe to see hand-made chairs at every table. Simple and beautiful post-and-rung ladderbacks with a single slat and obviously made from green oak with a woven willow seat. After sitting and examining them over my coffee I went to find someone who could tell me more about them. A chap at reception told me they’d been made about 20 years before but he couldn’t remember the name of the maker. Anyway, if I liked them then maybe I could buy one, he informed me, as the Trust were about to get rid of them.

A week or two later the chairs were still in my mind so I went back to Castle Drogo with tools to measure, photograph and document them only to find a building site and levelled hole where the cafe had been. Fortunately the chairs hadn’t gone yet but were in a nearby farmer’s barn waiting to be auctioned off.

I thought this was such a shame to happen that I contacted the property manager and working with Linda Lemieux, a local basketmaker, we convinced the Trust that the chairs should be renovated and kept.

A couple of weeks in a damp barn had given the chairs a coating of mould, especially on the willow seats and it took several days to wash each one with hot water and a solution of oxalic acid, clean and reoil the woodwork and carry out some minor repairs. After 20 years of hard work in a busy cafe this amounted to two broken rungs, damage to the top  edge of some slats and a few worn willow rods, testament to just how strong and durable green wood chairs are. For me it was  brilliant to work on them all, handling each one and getting to see how the maker had used even wood which was slightly bent or curved around a knot in order to make the most from his trees. I imagined how it would be to shave the 200 legs, 50 slats and 600 rungs for them and the feeling of watching them take shape. I was so inspired that I decided to try and track down the maker.

The only other chair with a willow seat I’d ever seen was a ‘Somerset chair’  made by Tom Kealy a few years before. I contacted Tom who told me he’d learned the weaving from David Drew, a very well respected basketmaker, and had taught David chairmaking in return. Tom passed me on to David’s friend John Leach, the potter, who happens to live just by the site of the Somerset Scythe Festival.  So I called in to see John and got an address for David in France where I wrote to him with photos of the chairs and the story of the rescue. I figured, if I’d made a batch of 50 chairs and they were still being used 20 years later I’d like to hear about it so maybe he would too.

In return I received a lovely letter with a wonderful series of photos showing David, his wife Judy and daughter Jane making the chairs. They wrote that 100 chairs were made and took the three of them 2 or 3 months to make while they lived in a mercedes truck during a cold winter. Whatever happened to the other 50 chairs I’ve no idea.

At Castle Drogo now the chairs are used around the property for staff and volunteers. I have kept one for myself and when I moved to Cumbria with it the trail of connections continued. More of that next time.

We started by looking at some of my carved bowls and discussing the design elements involved,   importance of balancing the bowl by knowing which areas needed to be left thicker and where it could be carved finer. Sam was also keen to see some of my spoons and the finish I achieve solely through carving and which he’s aspiring to.

Sam had brought along some birch logs which were really fresh and ideal for the project.  Once cleaved in half with a froe we began immediately with marking out guidelines for the bowl and axing out a twist in the wood.  I always start by establishing a flat surface for the base of the bowl. This makes it sit stably on the bench and acts as a reference surface for marking out the height and measuring the depth as you carve. Flattening the top surface at this stage is a lot of work that will then be carved away when hollowing.

These one-to-one courses are great fun to do as I can fit the content exactly to the student’s skills and learning goals. It also gives me chance to put in lots more information and ‘tricks of the trade’ that there wouldn’t be time for with a group. A quality final product comes from well thought-out design and I showed Sam some tips on marking out for the bowl shape before we got onto the adzing. From our previous conversation I knew was an area where I could really improve Sam’s technique and his efficiency in hollowing the bowl. Sure enough, after a short demonstration, the chips were flying and the bowl started to take shape. Working with an adze is fun and exciting; like the axe it can swiftly remove large amounts of wood but can equally, in skilled hands, work extremely accurately. When I’m carving, I like to work right up to the line and leave a smooth surface with the adze, so there’s only the refining work to be done.

Before that though, we flattened the top surface of the bowl then remarked our shape and did a little more work with the adze before moving on to using gouges and knives. I had brought a selection of tools that I have used over the years for carving bowls, explaining their pros and cons. I demonstrated how I push the wide gouge through the wood using my body weight and hand positions to add power which then leads to controlled cutting and a smooth finish. Sam is well used to working with tools of course and a quick learner so he quickly picked it up and before long had a bowl full of beautiful shavings. As well as the gouges, we used a selection of hook knives including one long-handled knife designed especially for bowl carving, cutting across the grain to smooth the bottom of the bowl.

The other area that Sam wanted help with was in defining the outer surface of the bowl. He had picked out one of my spoons he especially liked as inspiration for his design and I explained how the same principles of wall thickness applied to both the bowl of a spoon and a large bowl. With a combination of axe, gouge and knife he worked on defining the shape, learning for himself along the way the importance of the initial design stages and the challenges of marrying the sides, ends and handles together.

At the end of the day Sam took away a really well-made, good looking bowl but more importantly the practical skills in using the adze and finishing tools. He was already planning his next bowl as he left.

One-to-one sessions can be catered to your own goals but could include

• Spoon carving and design
• Hay rake making
• Learn to carve fan birds
• Make and use a shavehorse
• Steam bending wood
• Axe and knife techniques for various projects

A day with me in the workshop costs £150 including  materials and use of my tools. Or share with a friend for £250.

Anyway, today I got a stage further with my project to start properly using my two man crosscut saws with the arrival of a jointer/ raker guage which I bought online from America. This one is a ‘short’ jointer made by Atkins & Co of Indianapolis. It’s marked as being patented ‘May 5 74′ which, the more I think about it, could be 1874? Well, aside from a bit of surface rust, it’s in great condition and I’m pleased to see there is still a thin shim of paper under the raker guage plate where the previous user set it up for his saw.

For sharpening, a flat file is clamped into the tool and bent to match the arc of the saw teeth using the screw thread. The file is then run over the teeth to file them all to the same length before they’re sharpened. The raker guage sets the distance below this arc of the raker teeth which clear the sawdust from the saw cut. I’m looking forward to trying it out.

There’s a lot of interest in two man saws here in the north-west of England and I’m planning to organise a day this year for people to get together and learn about their use, sharpening and maintenance. If you’re interested in taking part, send me an email steve-tomlin[@]hotmail.co.uk 

My chairs are post-and-rung frame chairs, often known as Shaker chairs after the american religious community that made and popularised the style. For my own chairs I’m working on slightly different designs, seating materials and finishes to produce a range of chairs with a traditional heritage but a contemporary feel. As always I’m experimenting with the craft and trying to push it forwards.

This chair is my first spindleback. It’s important to get the spacing and angle of the spindles right so the chair is comfortable; a centre spindle is definitely to be avoided as this is where your spine will sit. The chair is made from locally grown ash with steam bent back posts to tilt the back which gives support and comfort. It is painted with my own made tempera paint, a mixture of egg, oil and water as used in paintings by the ‘Old Masters’. I love how the paint has an organic, aged look to it with the grain of the wood still visible, as though this is a chair with history. To complement that feeling I’ve used ‘antique’ paper rushes to weave a traditional rush pattern seat.

These chairs are made to commission and cost £255 + p&p. Please email me steve-tomlin[@]hotmail.co.uk to discuss your requirements.

Later this week I’m teaching a 1-to-1 course on green wood bowl carving for Sam Robinson, one of the Bill Hogarth Coppice apprentices. It’s something I really enjoy doing, partly because it uses such a simple tool kit, my hollowing adze and large hook knife being principal among them. Sam has done a little carving already and is looking for some tuition to improve his efficiency with the tools and final finish. I also want to spend time with him focusing on design and the overall balance and shape of his bowls.

So, more ash carved or turned on the pole-lathe and fitted with the original ferrules that I sifted out of the ashes. The adze is wedged with oak, left long so I can tighten it up if needed as the handle dries fully. My tools will never win a beauty contest and I’m still sad to know that despite my best efforts they’re not the tools they were. If nothing else, I’m now really good at carving and fitting handles. I’ve been thinking of making some spares in case I need to do this again but maybe that’d be tempting fate..

As this is our first curach there was plenty of time spent scratching heads, discussing details and double, triple-checking measurements. There’s pleasure in the making so no need to hurry and the day flew past. It’s a very simple construction with bolted lap joints though getting the angle between the shoulders and the gunwales took some thought. The next one will be easier and we’re definitely planning a ‘next one’.

After lunch we took a trip over to Edward’s woods to make the most of the daylight and with Paul & Kirsten’s help cut 50 hazel rods 6ft long and ‘light & fine’ for the hull ribs, called ‘couples’. This will give us a few extra for while we’re learning to bend them into place.

Back in the workshop we used a string line to check the alignment of the frame, kerfing the joints in the bow for the fine adjustment.

Rightly pleased with our day’s work we settled by the fire for a celebratory drink. Ian brought out the ‘tasting kit’ and led us through a sampling of some excellent Islay malts. If only every day was like this.

While we were working, I spotted some birch logs leaned up against a tree which Edward said had been cut last year for firewood. So when we stopped to eat I had a try at harvesting some of the bark. In spring when the sap is rising, the bark peels away easily whereas this needed a lot more coaxing and felt more brittle. Nonetheless I got two good sized pieces and brought them home.

The inner side of this bark is much darker than of the spring bark so I started to wonder if this is ‘winter bark’. In countries with a tradition of working with birch bark, bark is harvested in the dormant season for the darker coloured layer inside. This is scraped away to reveal the lighter bark underneath and make patterns and designs on the finished work, like these baskets by Jarrod Stone Dahl.

I contacted Jarrod for advice who said that they call this ‘purple’ bark. It’s considered a lower quality and folk over there don’t tend to bother with it. One problem could be that there won’t be much contrast between the colour of the two layers. Still, we agreed that you’ve got to work with what you’ve got and, since we don’t have such good sources of birch bark in the UK, I’m going to see what I can do with the pieces anyway.