Time to get mekin'!

The wood fair I mentioned in the previous blog was a great day out. Despite the rain we stayed all day and took in all that was on show. We stopped and spoke to many people who were involved in a variety of practices including charcoal 'cooking', spar making, basket weaving, logging with horses and a few framers and chair bodgers. Unfortunately there wasn't a pole lathe on show, though I take that as a sign to get practicing and get on the APT & GW demonstrator list.

Fineshade woods is in the heart of Rockingham Forest; an enormous managed woodland in Northamptonshire which is home to a colony of reintroduced Red Kites, one of which allowed me a quick photo.

Fineshade could also be a good source of timber for future projects!

I've had a discussion of late on the Bodgers.org forum about what makes a good froe and whether I should continue with my home made froe, or invest £70 in a Swedish Gransfors model. After reading other people's suggestions I came to the conclusion that I should stick with the one I've got and try a different approach to cleaving. The current froe is quite heavy duty and so I realised that the problem may not be in the froe itself, but the object I was using to drive it into the wood. So last night I spent half an hour with the axe carving a beetle from Eucalyptus, which is ideal as it's tough as old boots and not much good for anything else!




Now the froe is much more effective; it just needed a bigger whalloper!

Wood fuel fair.

This Saturday I hope to attend the National Wood Fuel Fair (Byline: 'Kindling your enthusiasm'). Questionable puns aside it looks to be an interesting day and I hope to see and learn some useful information to keep us warm for next winter. I am particularly interested in charcoal making and have already started filtering the charcoal from the ashes of our wood burner to use on the BBQ over the summer.

It seems we have made it through the particularly cold winter with a great deal of wood left to spare. Our gas consumption over the whole period has averaged just £20 per month, which has been further helped by installing new high grade windows throughout the house. Once I've gotten round to laying out all the loft insulation that's waiting to be laid, we should be even more energy efficient.

More info about the wood fuel fair can be found here: http://www.forestry.gov.uk/woodfuelfair

I'll try and include some photos after the event.