A Little Sculpture

Salmon sculpture

Two months ago I was asked by Eden Design to design and carve a sculpture for Stoke Gabriel Community Orchard. Two months is just not long enough and it certainly put me under a lot of strain, but it was reasonably paid, and local.
Any business will have an order book and sometimes I have been booked up for months ahead, so a two month lead time is often not enough. I have another deadline next week, and have taken far too long to supply some smaller orders than is polite. I do not agree with  Douglas Adams: 'I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.' it disturbs me deeply if I miss them.

Anyway this had to be a last minute project that took over two weeks to make and I was uncertain whether I was going to complete in time. Luckily after the first week, I knew it would be completed and would look good, so the strain receded a bit.

I should have bought a carving bar for my chainsaw, something that has been on my list of tools to buy for sometime. A chain saw was not much used in this, and most work was undertaken with axe, carving adze, gouges and three long handled hook knives - the same ones that I finished Nicola`s box with. These knives are fantastic carving tools but I really also needed a long handled knife as well.

The first time I saw the sculpture as it should be was today at the opening of the new play park. I do not have the means to hoist the sculpture upright in my workshop to see it as it would be when erected in place, so it was with great relief to see that it looked even better in situ. I was also used to looking at it close up all the time, and not being able to get any perspective on it. 

Although the work was co-ordinated by Eden Design, a lot of community input went into it as well, especially with some of the fund raising. The play park was opened by the oldest resident of Stoke Gabriel who was born and still lives in the house opposite. The children rushed in as soon as they could and played with the joy and intensity that only children can.

My very talented friend Isabel, one of the other artists involved,
 made this large apple sculpture

Some films

For your education and entertainment, from the British Pathe archive.

THE CHARCOAL BURNERS - A JAPANESE SIDELIGHT

WALKING STICKS

THE ASH GROVE

BASKET MEN OF SUSSEX

Forge and tool making workshop

I ran a course at the weekend, making a small 2 brick gas forge and tools. I like a brick forge as it is easily set up and is ready to use within a minute of lighting the gas torch. I am no blacksmith but have made my own tools on and off for over 15 years, often using coke or charcoal. The other advantage of using a gas forge is that it can be set up inside, and very little space is needed.

Before students are allowed to use tool steel they have to practise drawing out a square taper from a 6 inch nail and bending it into a spiral. After this exercise the first tool made was a spoon knife with a gentle curve, the edge was ground into the steel using a bench grinder and belt sander. Once ground it was heated and shaped with the necessary heat treatments to harden and temper it. At the end of day 1 everyone had made their own forge and a hook knife with a handle. Day two consisted of sharpening the knives and making a small carving knife.

I will be running this course again next year, but if you want to make a gas forge then I can send refractory bricks through the post. They are not that heavy and very easy to carve out. I use propane torches from a large gas cylinder, but it is possible to use a cheap all-in-one gas torch with throw away cylinders, they are a bit slower to use, but just make the inside of the forge smaller. MAP gas torches are a lot better but the cartridges are a lot more expensive.

APF and the log to leg race

APF Cannock Chase 2010

One of the best of the year, that is enjoyment wise, was the Association of Professional Foresters show in Cannock Chase, near Birmingham. This was because a whole group of us from the APT were sponsored by the APF and Buxtons to demonstrate green wood crafts and to compete in the International log-to-leg race.
I went to demonstrate fan birds and Dan also came along. This is the first show that I sold every bird I made during a demonstration as well as most of my stock. The ash supplied for the log races was very good for making the birds.

Why is it that when being watched by other expert green woodworkers my fan birds fail? There was one log or tree in the pile that was very slow grown - if using hardwoods for fan birds avoid the slow grown, it does not work.  Gudrun Leitz was watching as I tried and failed to rive this bit of very slow grown ash.
Dan did compete in one of the log to leg races, which I think is amazing considering he had less than half an hour experience on a pole lathe in his life. He was made up when Jim Steele gave him his membership to the APT, which we all 16 of us chipped into. We made him keep the better of his 2 legs and everyone signed it. It was a hard job convincing him to keep it, but us older chaps have often regretted not keeping these milestones in our lives.

We had a great time especially around the fire at night, making new friendships and consolidating old ones. The woodland crafts field was a small oasis in a huge show of big machinery dedicated to cutting and processing of trees often in huge quantities. There were also plenty of other competitions and demonstrations to see. Dan and I did not get much time to have a proper look around.

It was good to meet up with Barn again, still peddling and making lots of spoons .

 Des had a unique pulley system, as his spring on his pole lathe. I had a go and it was very smooth and just the right tension.

 Mark Allery, who writes the Woodland antics blog

Richard Law who writes the Flying Shavings blog.


APF log to leg race from Sean Hellman on Vimeo.

This video is of the log-to-leg race, with Jim Steele entertaining the crowd on the microphone. I filmed Richard Ely, who I had hoped was going to win this year, especially as he came 10 seconds behind Ben Orford at the Bodgers' Ball race in May. We are looking at under 4 minutes per leg from the log, which is very fast. I have never entered a log-to-leg race, but will do next year, I do not do much spindle turning these days. With Dan's enthusiasm and his determination to win a race one day, and being only slightly competitive myself, I am sure my times will improve. I did time myself on one leg and came in at 7 minutes and 30 seconds, but how many penalty points?

A new apprentice

Dan

This has been a long time in the making, but finally all the papers are signed and I would like to welcome Dan as my new and first apprentice.

Dan and I met at a show one and a half years ago, he wanted to come on workshops or just have some work experience. I was happy to have Dan do simple work for me in the workshop in exchange for me teaching him some green wood skills. Some time later Dan talked about an apprenticeship, that is, an official one where he also went to collage, and we got the ball rolling. I did have doubts, not about Dan, but about money, Health and Safety, commitment of being a full time employer, etc.  This has been sorted out, and I have a tidy workshop, where most things have their place with materials and tools easily found.


As an apprentice, Dan will be with me for between 17months and 3 years, and has been reminded often that things are too soft these days with modern apprenticeships. Why indeed should I pay to train and teach a young man a trade?  Surely only 3 years is just scraping the surface? Indeed, the young man - nay  - child should have been indentured to me at the age of 11 or 12 ! The best one I heard was from Jonty Williams, a man taught and practiced in the husbandry of the land, who showed us a contract for an agricultural  labourer apprenticed at the age of 12, for 14 whole years.
The great thing is that Dan knows he has fallen on his feet finding me, and I know that Dan is the dream apprentice, because 16 years old teenagers with his attitude and awareness and a thirst for knowledge do not come my way that often.

So; welcome, Dan, and here is to a long and profitable relationship for us both.

Apart from getting the workshop sorted, we now have a dog. Milo was on  the waiting list to go into a rescue home, and is a Staffordshire bull terrier. So for the last couple of months we have had a big change of routine, walking the dog.  Milo loves my workshop, so many sticks, I am yet to convince him that I do not just make sticks for him. He could chew a couple of hundred pounds of stock very quickly. He likes Dan and does not mind loud machinery; I am not sure that Dan likes him as much since Milo barked right next to Dan's ear, deafening him.

Recently - shows have been attended and sold at, and much other work produced, so the reason for no posts has been I have been very busy with workshop tidying, work, shows and the dog.