Yesterday I went out to the woods to choose some trees for my next little project at home. I need somewhere to store logs for the fire under shelter and since I have always fancied doing a bit of timber framing I am building it to a bit higher spec than is really necessary. The timber will be larch from an FSC certified local woodland, most of the trees are dead straight which will be good for most of the frame and quick to build with but I want to incorporate some curved timbers as well to give it a bit more character. So when I got the call to tell the trees were being felled I went over and picked out the bendy ones, sawed them up and brought them home. Next week I will be using a portable sawmill to cut up the straight trees for the main posts and the week after I have some German timber framer friends visiting, they will help me start the frame and then we will do a little touring the UK together.
Here is the most bendy tree we found, perfect for curved braces.
Felling a straight tree. Thinning a woodland like this needs doing periodically to allow the other trees to carry on growing, just like thinning a row of carrots, if you don’t do it you end up with lots of thin spindly trees which will easily blow over.
Trimming the branches off. Or “snedding up”
Skidding out with the tractor.
My bendy tree alongside the straight ones.
And the bendy bits cut up and on the way home.
RobinI’ve seen your name about, but i’d not seen your blog. Nice work, I’ve added you to my blog rollCheersSBW
Terrific set of pictures. I like the bendy tree. Mungo