Got Wood

Last week Dave the blacksmith showed Kasha and myself the river up behind the falls at Thortergill forge.

They used to open the blacksmiths to the public and operate a tea room. They also used to open the walk behind the falls to visitors which was nice of Dave's family as it is all private land, but since the cafe has closed nobody except family and friends go up there.

When we were there last week a few recently fallen Silver Birch caught my eye because of the long straight trunks that would be perfect for longbows so I had arranged with Dave that I would be back with an aptly named bow-saw to chop some and get them laid down ready for the spring when they will be dry enough to work on.

The walk up behind the falls is amazing, and I have already arranged that I can take Kieran up there when he is next over here. He loves going to the forge anyway, I think he already has it in his head to be Daves apprentice at some point.

Kasha took some pictures as I collected the first few pieces, it's heavy stuff is wood so I will go back and get more at another time. I like to create the longbows, but I also think it is nice for whoever ends up owning them to have a picture reference of where it actually came from.

Back in the barn I had the usual job of "Oh no! Last time I did this I should have sharpened my tools" and as ever I hadn't so it was tool sharpening time once again. Please notice the safety glasses girls and boys.

I like working in the barn. Ok, it may be a bit chilly at times but there is a stove in there that I could use to warm the place up if I wanted.
Thing is when you are in the barn you are usually doing the kind of thing that warms you anyway so usually there isn't any point in getting the stove cleaned out (yeah....I should have done that after last time) and all lit up.
This time was not an exception. The day was a bit cool but I was about to start splitting trunks ready to dry them out so I guessed that I wasn't going to be needing the warmth of a log fired stove behind me.

 I have learned through various tries and by talking to other bowyers that it is best for a longbow if the wood splits along it's own natural path as this seems to help with the strength and flexibility of the finished bow.

For that reason I prefer to split the trunks with a metal splitter, where possible breaking through any knots that seem to be in the path of the split.

There are times when this goes well, like it did today and after a few minutes of heavy hammering the trunk found it's very own path and before you know it you have two pieces of wood that you have to leave alone for 3 months before you can touch them again.

It's all great fun!

So, we can come back to this early in the new year when the wood can start to be worked into it's new form.
It's a Birch so it will need a bit of Oak laminated onto the belly to make it strong enough to be a longbow but I'm sure that living in Garrigill a bit of Oak won't be very hard to come across. Even easier when you happen to know the local tree surgeon, but I think I mentioned once before, only two degrees of separation around here, so even if I didn't know him, I would imagine that I would know someone who did.

Right now, the world is just right. I have wood laid down for bows, I have just had word that I have my son on Christmas day, nothing went wrong that I had to run into work this weekend, Kasha is painting (which means Kasha is very happy).
This is all going far to well, are you sure this is my life?