Shrink pot made from birch and willow

I was inspired to make this shrink pot from the coopered pot in my last post. It was interesting playing around with a different shape. This one is oval and smaller at the bottom tapering to a large top.

The lid is fiddleback willow, cut from a solid plank. The pot is birch and the bottom is willow with an oak peg.

The pot is still in its raw state and will need a finish. I am think of painting the birch on the outside and just beeswaxing the inside and lid.

The pot is 11 cm high and 13 long and 8.5cm deep at he top, so only a small pot.

Pots

Swedish coopered pot and shrink pots

A friend who came to use my workshop to cut out some wooden parts for puppets, bought along this coopered pot. This is a lovely little pot held together with willow bindings. He bought it second hand in Sweden. I especially like the way the lid is held in with a fixed peg on one side of the handle and a removable peg on the other side. The loose peg has defiantly been sawn out with a band saw, and then whittled.

 and with the lid off

I have not done any coopering and I use a different method to make small boxes. I take a log and hollow it out. A groove is made around the bottom and a disc of wood is cut to the size of the hole and fitted into the groove. As the pot dries it shrinks around the disc, holding it firmly.

and again with the lids off

My lids are tight fitting and so need a gentle pull to take them off. I will use the two peg technique on a few shrink boxes, especially those that go travelling in bags, to picnics etc. This way the contents will not be able to spill.
I would be very interested to find out more about shrink pots, in history or links to modern makers. If you have any information then do please let me know.

Above, made from birch.

 Above, willow

Whitehouse side axe

New handle for a rusty axe

A client asked me to re-handle this axe so he could sell it on. It came very rusty, but luckily only newish surface rust and not the decades old deep rust. It went into my electrolysis barrel. By passing a small electric current from a battery charger through the rusty tool the rust is lifted off.

The axe is a C Whitehouse and Sons 3lb side axe, now weighing in at 2.5lb. The handle was made from a seasoned log of ash which has a bend in. The log was split and axed into shape.

You can just see the compression figure in the grain of the wood just above the eye. The wooden block with the black markings on is a measure in inches and centimetres. Please note: I have not sharpened the axe, I have just ground it down ready for the final sharpening and honing.

Below is the axe in use to show that there is plenty of room for the hand. The last thing you want is to graze your knuckles when swinging a heavy axe

This is a lovely side axe, one which I would like to use. The weight is just right for me, but alas I am already regretting not buying the head for £40 when my client offered to sell it to me.

Forest Sell-Off

This is from Jonathons Porrits blog

http://www.jonathonporritt.com/pages/2011/01/forest_selloff_new_wrapping_sa.html

Quality tools - cheap axe

I love my Gransfor Bruks carving axe, as I love my Whitehouse and Gilpin kentish pattern axes. These are known as top quality tools by anyone in the know, and sometimes they can cost an arm and a leg. Gransfor Bruks has been doing outstanding business for some years now. I have seen people selling the axes at markets to passers by, and at £50 minimum each. That is something I thought that I would never see.

I am a great believer in using and renovating old tools that others throw away, and have written articles for magazines describing the processes involved. If you are starting out on your greenwood or bushcraft journey and can not afford a GB axe, or have not yet learnt the techniques of making, fitting and sharpening old tools then there is another option.

The old adage of buy the most expensive tool you can afford is still generally true, but to make my point about renovtion, I went out and bought the cheapest axe I could find. How much? £3.25 for a "Rolson Quality tools".

 

It was the gold colour that drew me in, a gold coloured axe, cool. Five minutes on the grinder, or you could easily use a file as the metal in axes is quite soft. Then onto the bench stones where I got the original angle of 60+ degrees down to 32 degrees and slightly sided. Siding means that the bevels on each side of the axe are not even, and being right handed, I need the left hand bevel to be longer and flatter and the right needs a more obtuse bevel. This is so I can use the axe in a more upright or vertical position, just what I like for green wood working.

The handle was a nightmare, far to big for my hand. I often hold the axe up near the head for greater control, so out came the knife and I whittled the handle down.

Above is the end result: it is sharp and can slice a sheet of newspaper easily. It worked a treat on green wood. On seasoned fast-grown ash I struck a problem as the edge rolled or bent over slightly, so out came the diamond stone and I resharpened it. The same happened again, cheap axes, I was thinking good for splitting wood only. This time I resharpened again and took the bevel to just over 35 degrees and I have had no problems with it since, and have hacked through a fair bit of wood with it.

I like the shape of the head and the toe is perfect for getting into the wood, especially when doing spoons. I still do not particularly like the handle, and would like to replace it with one I have made. The steel feels just a bit softer than my other named brand axes, but since getting the edge geometry right, this is not much of an issue.

The thing is, that if I sanded the handle smooth and removed all paint etc, blacken the head, and asked you to use it, would you be able to tell this was a cheap £3.25 axe?

This would not be my first choice when selecting an axe to use in my workshop, but then again I do have over 20 to choose from. With a little modification it works and works well. When I first got my GB wildlife axe I still had to grind the edge to the geometry I needed for the work I do.