Every now and then, I make an attempt to have a clearout of bits of wood, just as I do with old radio bits and bobs. What starts off as an earnest attempt at 'tidying-up' is invariably doomed to failure, and becomes a time-consuming diversion, whe each item I pick up to decide on its fate henceforth, setting my mind thinking 'where and why did I buy this, or how did it come into my possession? Should I keep it, dumpt it or give it away? Could I make something with it - ah yes, I know'...then I'm off on a frolic, forgetting what the main point is - to 'tidy up' (tidy being a relative term, which in my case usually means trying to be a bit less untidy), and I get diverted there and then to start some project or another before I've finished many other half-started projects that have stalled pending a 'tidying up' session.
Recently, when rummaging through my woodstocks to 'tidy up' I picked up an offcut of yew and was going to chuck it out, but then I started to think what I could make from it, and my mind started wandering off about the tree that this little piece might have come from, and whether it deserved to be burnt or spared. Yew trees grow to a very great age - hundreds of years, and it's no exageration to say that they were once the raw material for 'WMD'- the English long-bow - a wicked weapon which saw off the French at Agincourt. Yew has some unique qualities, not least that its clearly defined heartwood and sapwood are clearly defined - one being stong in tension - the other in compression. Longbows were (still are) made from yew which was/is cleaved in a way that half of the bowstave is heartwood, hald sapwood. So prized was it in the middle ages that when Italian wide was imported to Britian, a tax had to be paid in longbow staves, which - due to the warmer climate in Italy, were considered of high quality. So the Italians sold us wine, which made us fighting drunk, and the gave us bowstaves to make longbows to see off the French with. And now we have the EU!
Then I started to ask myself about this little piece of wood whose fate lay in my hands. Was it a branch off a much larger tree, or a piece of a trunk from a smaller tree. Why was it felled - was it an unsafe tree in a churchyard, where many Yew trees grow? Was so old that it was planted at a time when Shakespeare was writing his sonnets? The I completely forgot about my tidying up, decided that it deserved better than to be a piece of firewood, shoved it on the bandsaw and lathe and made a little change dish from it, in which to put my small change instead of leaving it strewn over the kitchen worktop. That way, at least the kitchen would look a bit tidier, if not the workshop!
Just as I'd made a heap of shavings all round my feet and all over the lathe, as the change dish took shape, Jennifer came out to enquire 'how my tidying up was progressing'. Ho hum. Well I did hoover it all up, and I've promised not to 'tidy up' my wood stocks again until further notice! Although I'm incorrigible, after 49 years of marriage, she still hasn't given up hope on correcting my anti-social antics, and considers me to be 'work in progress'.
Here are a few pics - the unpromising piece of yew about 5" wide and 8" long that I almost threw away, and the little dish I made from it. The heartwood and sapwood can clearly be seen.
As they say it Yorkshire 'summat from nowt'.
With that, I'm off to tidy up a bit!
David
Recently, when rummaging through my woodstocks to 'tidy up' I picked up an offcut of yew and was going to chuck it out, but then I started to think what I could make from it, and my mind started wandering off about the tree that this little piece might have come from, and whether it deserved to be burnt or spared. Yew trees grow to a very great age - hundreds of years, and it's no exageration to say that they were once the raw material for 'WMD'- the English long-bow - a wicked weapon which saw off the French at Agincourt. Yew has some unique qualities, not least that its clearly defined heartwood and sapwood are clearly defined - one being stong in tension - the other in compression. Longbows were (still are) made from yew which was/is cleaved in a way that half of the bowstave is heartwood, hald sapwood. So prized was it in the middle ages that when Italian wide was imported to Britian, a tax had to be paid in longbow staves, which - due to the warmer climate in Italy, were considered of high quality. So the Italians sold us wine, which made us fighting drunk, and the gave us bowstaves to make longbows to see off the French with. And now we have the EU!
Then I started to ask myself about this little piece of wood whose fate lay in my hands. Was it a branch off a much larger tree, or a piece of a trunk from a smaller tree. Why was it felled - was it an unsafe tree in a churchyard, where many Yew trees grow? Was so old that it was planted at a time when Shakespeare was writing his sonnets? The I completely forgot about my tidying up, decided that it deserved better than to be a piece of firewood, shoved it on the bandsaw and lathe and made a little change dish from it, in which to put my small change instead of leaving it strewn over the kitchen worktop. That way, at least the kitchen would look a bit tidier, if not the workshop!
Just as I'd made a heap of shavings all round my feet and all over the lathe, as the change dish took shape, Jennifer came out to enquire 'how my tidying up was progressing'. Ho hum. Well I did hoover it all up, and I've promised not to 'tidy up' my wood stocks again until further notice! Although I'm incorrigible, after 49 years of marriage, she still hasn't given up hope on correcting my anti-social antics, and considers me to be 'work in progress'.
Here are a few pics - the unpromising piece of yew about 5" wide and 8" long that I almost threw away, and the little dish I made from it. The heartwood and sapwood can clearly be seen.
As they say it Yorkshire 'summat from nowt'.
With that, I'm off to tidy up a bit!
David
