Festival of the Tree at Westonbirt - come on down!

[AndyT]

I had a great day out at Westonbirt today. The weather was fine - dry and occasionally sunny - and should be the same for the rest of the weekend. Highlights included:

Phil Edwards (Philly) bravely standing up in public to talk about why he likes planes:

A demo of hewing timber the old-fashioned way:

How the Westonbirt tree team safely cut branches off big trees:

(the main trunk comes down tomorrow afternoon)

A frantic buzz of activity at Tony Murland's old tool stall:

and plenty of wood for sale - I got some nice cedar, and some good dry plane.

So if you were wondering whether to go - I'd recommend it.

 

[9fingers]

I'm hoping to turn up on Saturday with SWMBO in tow to keep control of my expenditure. Mind she went out for a coffee today and came back with a new coat so I will have a little leverage if needed



Bob

 

[Paul Chapman]

I'll be there on Sunday

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[woodbloke]

Not me. I went there a couple of years ago and found it OKish with some stuff to interest me, but a lot of other stuff that didn't - Rob

 

[Dave D]

The highlight for me was to see Garrett Hack turn a maple board into a mirror
with just four passes with a very well tuned plane.

I have obviously still got a long way to go.
He is repeating his talk on Sunday at 11am but is available to talk to each day.

 

[9fingers]

I have just got back and also enjoyed Garretts talk. This was my first introduction to inlay work and it was fascinating.

He certainly seemed to have some fine tuned planes and demonstrated some holly stringing into a cherry board making it look very easy.

Bob

 

[AndyT]

Agreed. I enjoyed Garret Hack's talk, and the chance to chat to him and David Charlesworth afterwards.

 

[mark w]

I went to Westonbirt today, Garrett Hack and James Mursell were good and so was Peter Berry, I`m not a woodcarver but you didn`t need to be to find him entertaining, if the carving work fell through I`m sure he could make it as a stand up comedian, a bit like John shuttleworth (youtube if you haven`t heard of him). David Charlesworth was welcoming as usual.

Mark W

 

[Paul Chapman]

Had a really good day out at Westonbirt today. Even the weather was pretty good

For me, the highlights were the presentations by Garrett Hack and John Lloyd. Garrett's was all about getting a super-smooth finish straight from the plane. I had a chat with him beforehand as he was preparing his blades and learnt quite a few good tips. And boy were they sharp - not just sharp but really sharp :shock:

Garrett was using an old Stanley Bedrock #4

He also covered the use of a card scraper

A really good presentation from which I learned a lot. Thanks Garrett. Just had to buy his book afterwards, which he kindly signed 8)

This was followed by an equally good presentation by John Lloyd on sharpening blades. In a nutshell, John uses a Tormek to produce a hollow grind and then hones by hand on water stones. All basic stuff, you might think, but he had plenty of useful tips to pass on

Here he is looking rather pleased with himself having almost converted me to water stones :shock:

Two excellent presentations and it was worth going just for them.

Lots of interesting people to meet and talk to. Mark Hancock was there giving demonstrations on turning

Nick Gibbs, Editor and Publisher of British Woodworking, was busy with his spokeshave

My favourite plane maker, Mike Hudson of Clifton Tools, was there demonstrating the full range of Clifton planes

Meanwhile, Philly (assisted by Alex from Classic Hand Tools) was trying to persuade everyone to buy Lie Nielsen

David from Classic Hand Tools was looking rather pleased with himself having relieved me of much hard-earned cash 8-[

While Clive from BriMarc and Mike Hancock from Classic Hand Tools were trying to look busy

Had a nice chat with David Charlesworth about back-bevels and tried one of his. I also had a go with the new Rob Cosman blade and cap iron combination and also David's lovely Holtey plane

All in all a great day out. It's on tomorrow so why not go along.....

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[woodbloke]

David from Classic Hand Tools was looking rather pleased with himself having relieved me of much hard-earned cash...

Cheers :wink:

Paul

What have you bought now and is it smugglable? :lol: - Rob

 

[Paul Chapman]

:-$ :-$ :-$

 

[jimi43]

Garrett's was all about getting a super-smooth finish straight from the plane. I had a chat with him beforehand as he was preparing his blades and learnt quite a few good tips. And boy were they sharp - not just sharp but really sharp

Would there be a kind soul who would like to repeat these tips on the "Hand Tools" forum just for those of use who live a tad East of Gloucestershire?

Jim

 

[Paul Chapman]

Garrett's was all about getting a super-smooth finish straight from the plane. I had a chat with him beforehand as he was preparing his blades and learnt quite a few good tips. And boy were they sharp - not just sharp but really sharp

Would there be a kind soul who would like to repeat these tips on the "Hand Tools" forum just for those of use who live a tad East of Gloucestershire?

Jim

Hi Jim,

I don't think it's as simple as that. What Garrett Hack and John Lloyd were teaching was basically what you can read in many books and articles. It's more about quite subtle differences in the way they do things which, when you see it, you can relate to how you do it and see significant differences.

I always manage to learn something from watching how people like Garrett and John work (which is why I drive considerable distances to meet them) but I'm not sure I could pass this information on as a list of do's and don'ts.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[Plumberpete]

I also went today and had a brilliant time. I managed to make loads of contacts and gained lots of advice and knowledge. I will definitely be going again next year. \/

 

[Doug B]

Thanks for posting the photo`s Paul & Andy, good to get a flavour of what`s going on & what i`m missing , hopefully next year. [-o<

Looks like an excellent day out, is it getting better year on year?


Thanks for sharing.


Doug.

 

[Paul Chapman]

Looks like an excellent day out, is it getting better year on year?

I think so. The various stands were much the same as last year as far as I could tell. For me, how good it is depends on the presentations. Last year John Lloyd did an excellent one on making cross-grain mouldings using hand planes and this year both John's and Garrett's were excellent. Just been in the workshop trying out some of the things I learnt

There were other presentations which I didn't attend because they were not of so much interest to me but from comments from others I think they were also good.

It's also great to meet up with others. All very well chatting over the internet but much better to get together

Of course there are always plenty of droolworthy tools as well.............

Cheers :wink:

Paul