I decided to use hawthorn for this since I was trimming my tree and it seems like a good durable wood. I regret that somewhat as the thorns on hawthorn actually originate in the wood itself, so it is very knotty and snags the knife.
The branch and branch cutter:
Stripping the bark:
Hand tools:
Two hooks ready to dry:
I had more need for tool hooks that coat hooks, so this is the hooks in use for now:
Weeds are just plants with enough surplus will to live to withstand normal levels of gardening!--Alexandra Petri
I was busy whacking branches of pruned tree limbs with my nata (Japanese machete/axe) when I discovered one species has absurdly sturdy branch crotches. I left them to be sawn later but I ran across this badge but and thought it would be a fun 30 minute craft with perfect wood for it.
I haven't identified the tree yet, but I'll try again when it leafs out this year.
I've made a couple of coat hooks! Found a Jeffrey Pine branch and got to work!
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“There are no words to express the abyss between isolation and having one ally. It may be conceded to the mathematician that four is twice two. But two is not twice one; two is two thousand times one.”
― G. K. Chesterton
Made some hooks today while watching the permaculture summit!
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Initial piece of wood
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Cut down and shaved
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Finished
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Flattened backs
"Each of us have a unique and necessary gift to the world. The purpose of life is to express our gifts. We are all here to contribute our gifts toward something greater than ourselves, and will never be content unless we are." - Charles Eisenstein
My apologies Mike, I thought I included that. Here's some photos showing the backs are flat.
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“There are no words to express the abyss between isolation and having one ally. It may be conceded to the mathematician that four is twice two. But two is not twice one; two is two thousand times one.”
― G. K. Chesterton
Here are my alder (Alnus glutinosa) coat hooks. The tree had fallen in the wind and, although it was still alive, it was blocking the path and looked in pretty bad shape. I managed to get quite a few crotches from it. One of my hooks is from another, unknown piece of wood that the gardeners at the nearby park had pruned. It was much wetter, despite being cut a week or more ago.
I used a billhook as a splitting tool to trim most of the waste off of the upright, then used it as a plane to trim any high spots. I used an actual plane to flatten the faces further. For bark removal, a small mora knife.
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Peeled!
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It sits flat! This one flattened entirely using the mora knife.
Small-holding, coppice and grassland management on a 16-acre site.