Green woodworking tools

 The gas company was clearing brush from the gas line and left them long.  They were mostly chokecherry, up to 2.5" in diameter at the base and 6-15' long. Perfect for bean poles in the garden.

I tied them up to a wheel & axle and dragged them home.

Its very important to strip the bark off.  Birch will rot in a year if you leave the bark on.  Chokecherry contains cyanide in the bark that can make it last a bit longer.

The best way to get bark off is with a drawknife and shave horse when it is still green.  The critical part is that the head & platform be close to parallel.  I have the head on a pivot

If you have longer sticks, a shave horse isn't the best.  I saw the Sussex Knee Vice in Woodland Workshop by Ben Law.

 

It works pretty well.  I think I could have done better with my leg angles.

I need to stake down the log of the vise or it will move around.

When the sticks are crooked, its harder to clamp.  Moving the pivot further up the knee board will help. 

This has the advantage of being really portable.  Its also comfortable to use.

Before shave horses, there was something called a paring ladder.  Peter Follensbee talks about one on his blog.  The book above by Ben Law also talks about it.  I am going to try making one and leaning it up outside.

You can see some long planks in the background.  I had a long soft maple log fall down 2 years ago & split it into 4 quarters.  I cut one int those planks with a chainsaw.  I used a beam mill but its clamp broke.  Those 2 were done freehand and took ~ 20 minutes per pass,   Splitting is ~ 15 minutes IIRC. 

This winter, a spruce tree fell in the yard so I cut it up.  This section is 13" diameter on one end and 10" on the other.  Its 14' long.  A log weight calculator said it is around 420lb. I was able to move it with the log arch I built for the maple log.

Staked furniture

 It's been awhile.  I've been reading lots of Chris Schwarz and his Anarchist series.  Great books and I think 2 are also available as a free download. The physical book is quality and there's a story  of  one surviving a flood.  They're not cheap paperback; they'll last a centuryor more.

I've wanted to build a chair or stool.

Wheelwrights used to use a spoke pointer, on the right and a hollow auger on the left.

You set the blade on the hollow auger to make a size up to 1" or so.  It will cut the stick to that size,but you need to taper the point so it fits.

I have lots of choke cherry that grew on the fence line.  After you cut down, the stump will send up new shoots.  Doing it on purpose is called coppicing.

These sticks are 4 years of growth and 1-1-1/2" around at the base. Its almost thick enough to make spoons.

 

The board I glued together is from older trees that were 5"-6" around.  It may also regular cherry that I found.

 It was supposed to be a stepstool, but it creaked when I stepped on it.  So its a plant stand.

 

The stick that has no bark on it in the middle picture split after 2 week.  One of the issues with choke cherry