Interactive lesson

Woodworking, step by step

Interactive lesson: from a log on the holding to a handle, stirring spoon, eating spoon and bowl — choosing wood, drying without cracks, safe grips and a food-safe oil.

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The whole lesson as text

1. Which wood for what

Every holding has wood, and most of it ends up in the stove.

Wood from the holding — Prunings from the orchard, ash and hornbeam from the hedge, beech and sycamore from the wood. Keep straight pieces 30–60 cm (1–2 ft) long and 10–20 cm (4–8 in) thick.
Tough wood for handles — Ash and hickory are tough and don't split under impact: handles for axes, hoes and scythes. Hornbeam and cornel are harder, for hammers and pegs.
For food — Maple and sycamore, beech, pear, cherry, birch and walnut. Maple and sycamore are the best: pale, dense, with no smell or taste.
What doesn't go in the kitchen — Yew, laburnum, oleander and ivy are poisonous. Resinous conifers give a taste and are sticky.

Why: One straight billet of maple or sycamore gives five stirring spoons, and a piece of ash or hickory gives an axe handle that lasts twenty years. But not every wood belongs in the kitchen: some is poisonous, some gives a taste.

Oak has tannin: a bitter taste and dark stains with iron. Good for barrels and troughs, not for spoons.
Wood from towns, roadsides and fence lines may hide nails and wire: a nail ruins an edge.

2. Splitting and drying

Wood cracks as it dries, unless you help it.

Through the pith — Halve the log with an axe and wedge exactly through the middle. The pith is cut away: a piece with pith will crack.
Seal the ends — The same day, coat the end grain with melted wax, wood glue or old paint, 2–3 cm down the sides.
Dry slowly — In the shade, in a draught, not in the sun or by the stove. Billets on sticks, with gaps.
Test with scales — Weigh the piece every 1–2 weeks. When it stops losing weight, it is dry for that room.

Why: Green wood holds 30–60 % water. As it dries it shrinks twice as much along the growth rings as from the pith towards the bark, so it cracks from the pith outwards and at the ends.

Green pieces you can't work in time: keep them in a bag in the freezer, or in damp shavings somewhere cool, for a few weeks.
A 2.5 cm (1 in) board dries in about a year on sticks, finally indoors.