Wooden rake making.... R.I.P. Trevor Austin

[toolsntat]

Wonderful insight 8) 8)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNv5FhFI3sU&feature=sub

Andy

 

[jimi43]

That was glorious and so soothing....

Thank you so much Andy...

I needed that today.

Jim

 

[Woodchips2]

Thanks Andy for bringing this to our attention, well worth watching. His use of the table saw would give an 'elf & Safety Officer' kittens but he looked like he had all his fingers intact. I guess his dowel maker could give Veritas a run for their money. Shame he is the last of the rakemakers but so much these days is meachanised.

Doesn't Stuart King do some great videos of traditional working crafts. We see him fairly regularly at our woodturning club in Bedford and as well as doing turning demonstrations he will do other demos like his home made marquetry saw. He came out of a unique mould!

Regards Keith

 

[BMac]

I watched that video last night... three times, and it was wonderful. I love the relaxed, confident manner of a man who knows exactly what he is doing.

Brendan.

 

[johnjin]

Thanks for that Andy
Excellent

John

 

[Lons]

Thanks for posting that - excellent.........but.............

I spent so much time counting the guys fingers that I had to start the video over again. How the hell he still has all his digits is beyond me :?

Makes me want to make a rake now :lol:

cheers

bob

 

[xc-mtbr]

reminds me of Fred Dibnah he was pretty random and had a workshop that he could make anything in, awesome!!

 

[jimi43]

I have been pulling my hair out on a couple of things...

Hours after watching that video...I wonder why I was so very relaxed after watching it and also...why was I not one bit worried about the many safety issues which we all noticed.

I think the answer to both is that he was so obviously a natural craftsman with commonsense

This is why he is so confident standing in front of those whirring blades and still has all his fingers...his eyes and other bits and bobs!

This kind of skill HAS to be apprentice learned and passed on...allows freedom of novelty and experimentation and will never be possible in the namby pamby society we have today.

I will probably get shot down in flames for my comments about H&S...and do you know what....I don't care one iota.

Jim

 

[adidat]

i really enjoyed that, thanks andy!

 

[squib]

Thanks for that Andy,some great machines there.

 

[Escudo]

Very nice video. I love to see these old crafts what a pity they are dying out.

I wonder what will happen to all those lovely old machines when the old fella retires?

Got me thinking about having a go at making a rake as well.

Cheers for posting, Tony.

 

[awkwood]

I wonder what will happen to all those lovely old machines when the old fella retires?

I would imagine that the machines will retire when this craftsman does.
Without some training i dont think the more specialized machines will get used, the more basic machines are not updo H&S so the majority of us will be very caucious about using them. It is a great shame because he has treated them with repect they deserve and these old machines will of served him well.

 

[Froggy]

Great video Andy. I love the way he takes his time to check his work at every stage. You'd think after so mant years it would be easy to become complacement and move quickly and robotically from one task to the next, but he seems to treat that rake as if it was the first he's ever made. Very enjoyable.

 

[seaco]

I enjoyed the video but I just couldn't get Kenny Everett's DIY expert, Reg Prescot out of my mind, it looks like things are going to go wrong so many times!

 

[bugbear]

By complete coincidence, over in hand tools (we were discussing dowel makers), I posted a link to a guy making rakes completely by hand, and NOW (not back in 2005).

So it's not (quite) a dead art, and Trevor Austin won't be the last of the English Rake makers.

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=53405

(heh. I note that the thread has a link back to the Trevor Austin video)

BugBear