making a bowl on a pole lathe, the Guardian slide show

A nice slide show of me making a bowl on the pole lathe done by Jon Henley at the Guardian.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/audioslideshow/2009/dec/09/robin-wood-pole-lathe

This is part of a series Jon is doing on craftspeople. I would recommend having a look at some of the others here

Freeman College an inspirational visit

2 days before Christmas I had the privilege of a most inspiring visit to Freeman College in Sheffield and a tour by Helen Kippax the principle.


Freeman college is the most recent of three colleges run by Ruskin Mill Educational Trust  which for a quarter of a century, has pioneered a unique, holistic and student-centred approach to the education and care of young people who fall between the cracks of mainstream provision. In 1984 Aonghus Gordon discovered that when such students work with craftspeople in natural environments on real-life, purposeful tasks, their personal, emotional and social skills, behaviour and health improve dramatically.

Part of the ethos of the founders is to work with skilled craftspeople and the regional specialist crafts so in Sheffield the new college curriculum centres on metalwork and cutlery. The first project new students take on is forging a copper spoon from a solid billet. This board shows the process.

 But perhaps this is more telling as this is work in progress by current students.

Here are some finished pieces of cutlery. bear in mind that these students have struggled in all other educational environments and there are a high proportion with autism, asperger's and other issues.

The key to the process is that the teachers are not teachers but highly skilled craftspeople who the students have respect for. I can understand that respect, in charge of spoon forging is George who worked for 25 years as a silversmith and another 5 making surgical instruments before working at the college, he clearly knows a lot about metalwork at a very practical level but he is also clearly great with the students. 

George has 3 students at a time hammering away at their copper billets and then refining the form by filing and finally polishing.

After copper students that enjoy hand forging can progress to working with silver. I personally think this is pretty impressive work and great to see folks working from a raw billet, I can imagine the sense of achievement they must get.

I have been spreading the idea for some time that I would like to see every Sheffield schoolchild given the chance to make a piece of cutlery as a way of learning about who they are and where they come from. I would also like to see children in Stoke make a bowl they could take home and eat their breakfast from, children in High Wycombe make a simple piece of furniture, in Luton a hat and so on. It was sharing this vision at a Sheffield City Council culture meeting recently that put me in touch with Helen and Freeman College because this is exactly the vision they have for their students. After experiencing hand forging they also get to work in a more typical production workshop.

The "whittle tang" workshop was set up and is run by a chap who's name I am afraid I forget but he again had 25 years experience working in the industry running various commercial cutlery workshops. I asked how he found the difference working with the students and if it was difficult coping with the health and safety issues with challenging young people. He actually said it was no different to working in industry where he would have to train 16 year olds when they first came into work and they had the same issues of struggling to get out of bed in the morning and having bad days when they had fallen out with the girlfriend, it was his job to be sympathetic to that but also to make sure that when in the workshop they could focus on the task in hand and work in a safe way.

The idea here is that students get to work using machinery and produce useful goods for sale. This is the start of the process where the raw sheets of metal are stamped out as spoon blanks.

The blanks are then pressed using hand operated fly presses which put the bowl shape into the spoon.

Each piece is then hand finished and polished on the buffing wheels before silver plating. Knives get wooden handles which are all sawn and shaped by students from recycled wood.

This is all just fantastic and shows what can be achieved. It is great that these facilities are available and fulfilling a very specific need of the 70 students a year at the college. I hope that in the future that such rewarding work experience will be a possibility for every schoolchild as part of their mainstream education.

More details on Freeman College here

and Ruskin Mill Educational Trust here

Finally in 2008 RMET published an excellent research paper by Dr Aric Sigman looking at "The benefits and mechanisms associated with a craft based curriculum."

This research noted that.

"While the effects of a practical curriculum have been valued and noted (LSC, 2008; Ofsted, 2007), research in cognitive neuroscience and psychology continues to find surprising and previously unrecognised benefits that are conferred upon pupils. Moreover, the mechanisms behind these benefits point to the urgent need for greater incorporation of such practical elements into mainstream  education. Beyond the cognitive and neurological aspects of the craft-orientated curriculum are secondary processes such as mentoring through apprenticeship. These produce further benefits that aid the development of the pupil into a more socially viable and employable young adult. The findings of this report are applicable to pupils with or without learning difficulties."

It is an excellent paper for anyone with an interest in how people learn and the broad benefits of working with the hands.

The ethos of RMET is based on a blend of the teachings of John Ruskin and Rudolph Steiner yet the outcome is remarkably similar to the theory of educational sloyd which was developed by Otto Salomon in Sweden and became quite mainstream in the 1920's eventually developing into city and guilds and school woodwork teaching in the UK. Sadly what started as a system of education where the products were not as important as the change in the student has gradually changed into current "resistant materials" teaching in school which seems to be primarily aimed at training in design and industrial processes.

The Heritage Crafts Association seeks input from craftspeople

 I know many of my blog readers are signed up supporters of the Heritage Crafts Association and will have received this message by email but for those that have not....

The Heritage Crafts Association’s aim is to support and promote heritage crafts as a fundamental part of our living heritage. Since the HCA website went live earlier this year, we have attracted hundreds of supporters all keen to help ensure a sustainable future for traditional heritage crafts.

Going into 2010, we are looking to consolidate this support, building upon our advocacy work with politicians and representatives of key agencies. In order to achieve this, we would like to complement the huge amount of anecdotal evidence we have gathered to date with a statistical analysis of our supporters’ opinions and experiences. To that effect we are asking as many traditional craftspeople as possible in the UK to fill in a simple survey.

The survey consists of ten questions and should take no longer than fifteen minutes to complete. To do so, please go to www.surveymonkey.com/s/6FNQF6L.

We would also be very grateful if you could forward this notice to as many of your craftspeople friends and colleagues as possible, and, if you work for a crafts organisation, to post it in your newsletters and email circulars.

Many thanks in advance for your continuing support.
Robin Wood, HCA Chair.

wooden bowl carving, Ollie's first bowl

This is my 12 year old son Ollie's first bowl, made from willow. First he split the log in half.

Next he cut a piece to length. Note stylish pink crocks.

Axing the base of the bowl flat and removing all the pith.

And planing the base flat. This is not totally necessary but it helps when judging the thickness of the base later.

With the blank turned and wedged he starts hollowing with an adze.

A good adze is a remarkable tool and quite quickly it is possible to be remarkably accurate. The adze is followed by a gouge for smoothing and refining the form.

It is important to get a nice smooth line around the edge.

Once the inside is done it is time to start axing the outer profile to match. Ollie finds the weight of the gransfors wildlife hatchet just right and he is very good at carving with it.

It is good to get rid of as much weight as possible with the axe.

Then we move on to the push knife.

This was all done on a freezing cold day and we ran out of light, then the snow came. This morning we decided to bring the bowl horse inside and do some more. Starting with refining the inside and smoothing surfaces.

 

The fingers wrapped around the bowl and thumb inside the gouge give great control.

Then it is back to the push knife for a bit more off the outside.

The bowl is basically functional now but we normally leave them a few days to dry and then go over them particularly getting a sweet line along the outside and top edges with a knife. I'll try to post some pictures when it is finished. And just to show bowl carving is not just for boys, here is Jojo getting stuck in.

bowl carving with crook knives

This period between Christmas and new year is a time for playing with things that I would not have time for at other times. Whilst I have been experimenting with bowlcarving over the last months I have been primarily working in a Scandinavian/European tradition both tools and designs. I have always very much admired the work of the native cultures of the Pacific Northwest and decided it was time I explored those designs, tools and techniques. For years I have coveted the crook knives made by Gregg Blomberg of kestrel tools. I remember seeing a stand with these at one of the first woodworking shows I demonstrated at in about 1995 but they were way out of my budget at the time. Then a couple of years ago when the dollar was very weak I contacted Gregg, he is in semi retirement but still making some tools though at that time he could not accept payment from the UK. Finally this year I managed to order some tools and they arrived just before Christmas so I have been experimenting with them.

To begin with as with any new tool they feel awkward, I keep thinking I would work better and faster with the Scandinavian and home forged tools I am familiar with. I often see students try a new tool only briefly before returning to the tool they know, so now I hear my own comments in my head, and force myself to master these new tools before judging them alongside the ones I know.

These tools are used in a very different way to most European hook knives in that you hold them palm up instead of palm down. I have been working with Eastern Woodlands style mocotaugan crook knives for a while and they too are used palm up but always drawing towards the body. These tools work best when pushing away with a twist of the wrist and once mastered they are very fast and effective especially for texturing and finiashing the outside of a bowl.

Having worked over a scandinavian style bowl I carved one which is inspired by North West Coast traditional styles. The form is loosely based on a raven design ladle. When fully dry the head and eye will be painted with the traditional red and black colours typical of Haida carvings.

I would highly recommend anyone who is not familiar with the work of the native cultures of the Pacific North West taking a little time to see some of the original works of one of the worlds premier woodworking cultures. Putting "Haida bowl" into google image search is a good start.

And here is Gregg's Kestrel Tool webpage http://www.rockisland.com/~kestrel/

3 generations knitting at Christmas

I hope all my customers and blog readers have had a wonderful Christmas. For US readers we don't have thanksgiving so this is the major time for families to spend time together and many folks end up driving across the country to catch up with family. This year those journeys were hampered by snow. Thankfully we didn't have to go anywhere. Nicola's mum came to stay and one day I popped into the front room to find 3 generations knitting together. I love the way Jojo is concentrating intently, Nicola is relaxed and getting on with it but Rena's hands are completely on autopilot whilst she reads a book.

There was plenty of time for playing in the snow and the kids and I built an igloo. Here they are finishing off just as it got dark.

 

And the next day in the sunshine.

There are lots of fun things about being in a small village at Christmas, catching up with all the generation who have moved away but come home for Christmas, carols in church, sledging with all the village kids but probably may favourite is enjoying good food and company with good friends and family. I wonder how many other folks out there enjoyed their Christmas dinner off one of my plates.

Trevor Ablett Sheffield pen and pocket knife maker

On Friday I visited Trevor Ablett one of the last of Sheffield's pen and pocketknife makers. Trevor is on the left with Reg Cooper bowie knife maker on the right.

I have visited Trevor a few times now and bought quite a few of his knives. I tend to give them as gifts when we visit folk on behalf of the Heritage Crafts Association. He rarely pauses in his work and clearly very much enjoys what he does. His knives are not fancy collectors pieces but simple working pocketknives.

The key to his production speed as with most traditional craftspeople is small batch production. This is a batch he was working on when we visited, he will work on maybe 20 knives at a time fist making the parts, cutting and soldering the brass bolsters onto the liners, then roughly assembling the knives as a trial fit. Adjustments are made so that the blade sits properly at this stage.

Note the temporary steel pin holding the parts together.

Grinding a touch of the base of the blade here lets the blade sink a little further into the handle when closed.

When the blade sits correctly he removes the temporary steel pins and replaces them with brass ones which are cut to length and riveted over holding the whole knife, blade, spring and scales together.

Trevor has lots of different hammers for different parts of the job and this sweet little one is perfect for riveting. He has put a spare spring into the gap in the open knife to stop it closing up whilst he is riveting.

This one ended slightly too tight so a tap on either side of the blade loosens it up.

Now the knife is basically finished but still has very square rough scales and bolsters, all this is rounded off and polished, 

I visited with Nigel Townshend who is going to be doing some voluntary work for the Heritage Crafts Association and we were both able to do a bit of our Christmas shopping. From Trevor's finished knives table.

what is the best whittling knife for a child?

And the other question is what age is it OK for children to use knives?

I am a great believer in teaching children the safe use of knives as tools. This is best done with one on one supervision in the home, starting with food preparation. Our children started before the age of 3 helping make a fruit salad using a blunt table knife to cut up banana. Even though the knife was blunt we would teach them how to hold it safely and effectively. Once they were very comfortable with this they could use a sharp knife again supervised for cutting up say cucumber. By age 5 they were comfortable with sharp kitchen knives and a good help in the kitchen.

This was about the time we introduced whittling knives, they had already proven they could use knives responsibly as useful tools.

When our children were aged 6 and 9 we were staying at the National folk craft school at Sateglantan in Sweden and visited the knifemaking town of Mora and had a guided tour of the Frosts knife factory. Mora knives are world famous as high quality but good value woodcarving knives. We went round the factory with the owners and with Wille Sundqvist a woodcarving teacher who has been a great inspiration to me. At the end of the tour the owners turned to the children and said "would you like a knife of your own?" and gave them one knife each. One of these. 

Shortly afterwards Wille gave the children lessons in carving the famous Darlana horses

So what makes a good childs whittling knife? I like fixed bladed knives for proper woodcarving and the little frost knife above is good although the blade guard can get in the way and is not needed. This frosts classic mora knife is also excellent and has small handle suitable for children.

The handle size is important small hands need small handles another nice little knife is the Brusletto balder made in Norway. This has the benefit of a nice leather sheath and a stainless steel blade that won't rust if put away wet.

 All of these are excellent little knives and vary between £10 and £20. Now some people recomend a round tipped knife as a first knife and this one is popular.

Whilst the point at the tip is responsible for more than it's fair share of cuts I find this degree or rounding unnecessary and it makes a knife which any child can see is not a proper knife. Instead I would recommend simply taking some coarse emery paper or a rough old carborundum stone and just blunting the tip a little.

Finally I would not rule out a folding knife, our children both love their Swiss army knives and it is very hard to beat.

 

I would also recommend "the little book of whittling"

This is not serious adult style woodcarving but is full of great inspirational and achievable little projects for children of all ages.

As with adults carving with knives safe technique is of the utmost importance. Teaching the correct way to hold a knife, always thinking if the knife slips through what I am cutting faster than I expect where is it going to travel? Does it stop safely due to the correct body stance or does it swing out of control into a leg or another person? Our children always enjoyed taking a frech hazel or willor stick and whittling it into a walking stick, magic staff or spear. Hope this is helpful. Happy carving.