Association of Polelathe Turners Kent Meeting 11th 12th October

What a great weekend was had by all (Nice to meet you all) driving to the site in Cranbrook Kent the mist and fog was very heavy both days but when the sun burnt it off what nice days we had.

When i arrived i started the fire on the Saturday and had a chance to have a chat with John the host of this event, so then i unloaded the pole lathe and my beech plank ready to make my shave horse over the weekend. People started to arrive not long after i was in place, there was around 15-20 people throughout the day some stopping all day some passing through. There was lots of chestnut shingle's being made by 2 brothers and people trying there hand at making them also.

Sunday started a touch earlier as there was few few hardy souls that stopped the night in the damp but hey they had fun in the local pub. They headed out to get bacon, mushrooms and eggs all in a fresh bread sandwich yummy. John and Mike started making some goblets and let others have a go out turning out the centers

I enjoyed the whole weekend and look forward to taking part in the next the group has a good feel to it and no one is scared of passing on knowledge to others.

Image above Mike Gordon Sussex Group

Guide

Guide to bodging
Selecting a not too old, leggy (quickly grown) beech tree within a stand would have been the ideal choice for the bodger. Tools needed to be a bodger are limited to a saw, axe, chisels, draw-knife and a lathe (traditionally a pole lathe) for turning. He would have a lonely existence working from temporary woodland workshops near to where he had felled the tree. The tree would be sawn into billets about the right length for the chair legs. The billet would be split into many pieces using a wedge. The axe would be used to shape the pieces into the shape of a chair leg. The axe would only sharpen on one side. The bodger would then use a two handled draw knife to refine the shape of the leg. Finally, using a pole lathe (made of wood and string) the bodger would finish off his work. The finished chair legs would be left in the woods to season for a few weeks (depending on the weather) then taken to a centre for making chairs. Once at the centre the benchman (dealing with the sawn part of the chair) and the framer (dealing with assembling the chair) would take over.

Origin of the name bodger
The name bodger may have derived from Badger, as the life of a bodger was similar in many ways. As they spent the whole day in the wood only coming out in the evening. Although, this has not been confirmed.
The Pole Lathe
The modern lathe is powered by electricity but the pole lathe was power by foot.

It was called a pole lathe because the 'driving string' was attached to the 'tensioned pole which was up to 12 feet long'. The driving string was rapped around the piece of wood being worked on and also attached to the 'foot-powered treadle'.

The bodger would press down the treadle causing the wood being worked on to spin in one direction. He would use a chisel rested on the 'tool rest' to cut the wood to the required shape. He would take the chisel away from the work when he takes his foot off the treadle as the work is turned in the opposite direction by the action of the tensioning pole.

There were two other parts to the pole lathe.The lathe bed and the puppet The puppet could be moved within the bed to allow for different length pieces of wood.

I am now a member of the Association of Polelathe Turners (APT)

Pole lathe for begginers

So after chatting with Robin Fawcett we have booked a pole lathe session at Capstone on the weekend of the 18th 19th of April 2009 place will be limited to only 6 people
If your interested please make contact and we can sort out a place for you for a small fee

First attempt at spoon making

Well after bad weather all weekend i had a go at making my first spoon, it looks more like a weapon than a spoon hahahahah. I coppiced a piece of sycamore and split it down the middle and went to work with the hand axe to get the shape that i was after. Then to work with the knife i started to carve out the shape and whittle down the handle. Its a chunky spoon to say the least.
Well there more practice needed before they become an item that people want to buy hhahaha.

Imgage above is from a survival challenge that we worked earlier this year at Cpastone Country Park