Axe WorkShop

I've just come back from a great weekend away camping up in a wood in staffordshire learning how to use axes. It was snowing when we got there but that only added to the fun!

We also made charcoal over the weekend and you can read about that here.

A very snowy tent

 

First lesson - learning not to embed the axe in your leg - an important lesson!



Splitting wood safely



Chopping down some small trees that needed to be removed



Learning to tie faggots using a woodmans clamp



Base camp for the weekend



Jonny showing a method of sharpening an axe



A extra safe and precise way of splitting wood - good for blanks for tent pegs



Some rough tent pegs



Dan making a mallet



Some spoon carving lessons



A rough shaped mallet

The group stood with our measured "cord" of wood

It was a great weekend, I learnt some new skills and practised old one. I also got to spend quality time with my brother doing what we both love.

This was our second axe course (find a link to our first one here) run by different firms and they were for completely different things so it would be unfair to compare the two. This one was from a bush craft point of view where the other was more to practise the traditional skills of the men that used to fell trees with axes for a living. 

This was our third course with Survival school and we weren't disappointed. It was nice to be outside and dedicate yourself to learning bush craft skills for the weekend with no other distractions. Going back to basics is great fun and although some of the things you can make straight off the axe are a little rough round the edges its a great skill to develop and learn and one I hope I'll be using more in the future (even if it's just to split fire wood) and I'll use the knowledge I've picked up to help me. The instructor were great making the whole weekend fun as well as some good company from the other students. I love weekends like this!

Throwing Axe!

I've been spoilt again this year (like always) and got loads of presents - far more than I probably deserve.
One of the wood related presents I got was a throwing axe, along with other things I'll blog about later. This was from my brother who also got himself one so we could have a bit of fun together.

Light weight Tomahawk

 On boxing day we went out into the orchard and threw them at a large poplar butt Dave had felled earlier in the year. To say it took us a little while to get our eye in would be an understatement -put it this way I wouldn't have wanted to stand behind the target! But once we did we were managing to get them to stick into the wood quite often.

Couldn't hit a barn door at... Oh wait you did!

Tomahawk - bit of fun

I feel that there will be many brotherly competitions coming up!

We're also both booked to attend an axe course (not throwing axes though) towards the end of January with Survival School (who we've done bush craft courses with in the past) and I'm really looking forward to it, although we're camping so I hope we have some dry weather. It should be a great opportunity to learn more about axes and how to use them.

Now I just need to make a target big enough so I can't miss it!

What wood related presents did everyone else get? (I'm sure Brian must have something...)

New Axes

When my brother got his Gransfors Burks carving axe I decided there and then I wanted an axe made by this company, so when he and my sister asked what I wanted for my birthday I hinted towards this (as a present from them both as they are expensive). When I received it this weekend I wasn't disappointed. Not only had I got the Gransfor large forest axe but my brother had restored an old axe, making a handle the same shape as his carving axe and sharpening it up nicely. I need to put them both into use now and make something (or chop something down!), I quickly used the forest axe on Sunday to chop off a few branches from a tree in the garden and it's really well balanced and so so sharp - I just hope I can keep it that way!

Thanks Dave and Em!