As always there was a tremendous range of really wonderful folk from Yvonne the biodynamic beekeeper to Duncan the knifemaker and Barn the itinerant spooncarver who has been staying with me for a while and helping out. Most folk though were completely new to working with wood but everyone made nice things, learned new techniques and had fun. I learned too, I have often told folk how it can help with some cuts to tilt the knife to get more of a slicing action. Duncan pointed out that this also effectively decreases the edge angle the knife is working at, so effectively you are working with a 20 degree bevel knife not a 25 so it goes through more easily.
After the course it was straight back to work on a new oak bridge for the National Trust Longshaw Estate. A favourite worksite because it can be combined with lunch at Grindleford Station cafe, home of pints of tea and my favourite meal of all egg chips and mushy peas. Who could complain at this for a worksite?
This is the main timber for the bridge nearly finished.
We winched it down to the site here but I have not quite worked out how exactly we will get it across the stream yet. It weighs about 3/4 ton.
Friday rained all day so we opted to stay indoors clear out a corner of my barn and set up a grinding and sharpening workshop. This is Barn and in the foreground you can see a new purchase a big water cooled grindstone. perfect for grinding 10 axes ready for the start of the next developers spoon carving course next week.
Robin – I've looked around a bit for a source for that type grinding stone. Any suggestions? I am in the US.Thanks – Brad.
Hi Brad, mine was removed from a school several years ago and has passed through a few hands as it was not working. I took it to a specialist motor firm in Sheffield who fixed it up for me and it now runs smoothly.
That's what I was afraid of. Everything these days seems to have gone to the bench-top models. Thanks.