Woodculture  est. 1997

Cleft Woodworking                  Click here to see pictures.

The first seeds of the idea of working wood directly from the woodland tree came to me during a voluntary working weekend with 'English Nature', coppicing. We were making woodland glades to promote and diversify wildlife. My job was to cut and burn the felled trees - in this case little or none of the wood was put to any other purpose.

As I worked I gazed at all the different pieces of wood, thinking something else should surely be done with all this beautiful, shaped timber? My only previous experience of wood was at school, where everything we made came from uniform sections and planks, who's manufacture was a complete mystery.

Shortly after my working weekend, I heard about the process of working and using cleft (split) sections of green (fresh cut) wood - often carried out in the woodland itself. Could this be what I was looking for? So, after making a few enquiries, I booked on a mid week, 'Greenwood working', course. This provided me with all the fundamentals I needed to see what actually could be done and, more to the point, what I could do with all these lengths of branches and tree trunks, etc.

Many years have since passed and I now have my own workshop, where I have devised special apparatus enabling me to utilise irregular shaped pieces of wood. Conventional craftsmen obtain their measurements from the straight, flat edges of the workpiece, (Face side and Face edge) which are at 90° to each other. My measurements are derived from an invisible datum, running along the centre of the workpiece, hence maintaining the wood in its most natural form. Here, I am able to co-ordinate any flat surface in any position at any angle, which can then tie in with the corresponding geometry of the other components, forming an exact geometry throughout the product.

I use mostly oak and ash with some yew for a contrasting colour. They are all excellent woods to work with, strong, resistant to the elements and pleasing to see.