Can't see the Bows for the Trees.

There is always plenty to do maintaining our woodland base.  Today though we had more ambitious plans.  The up coming Bow Making courses require a lot of fresh Ash Trees for our students to craft their own bows.

We would love for them to be able to fell their own tree to really understand the entire process of crafting a Primitive Bow from tree to shooter, however tree felling is potentially dangerous and an entire course in itself.

Whilst we try to do as much as possible from first principles sometimes a little modern technology gets the job done.

Sadly I didn't get any shots of the trees coming down as I was too busy using the chainsaw.

Stihl MS261 Chainsaw

The Ash trees ideal for bow making in our experience are around 6-10 in diameter. 

Forest Knights are very fortunate to have 250 acres of woodland to practice bushcraft and remove some fire wood.

David contemplating carrying the logs out the woods.

  

We prefer to source our wood from the national trust and the local forestry commission rather than remove trees from our woodland unless absolutely necessary for safety or conservation.

Some of our wood  stored at Amberley ready for the next few courses.

Whilst we were feeling particularly productive at the museum we decided it would be a good time to start on a new wood rack.

Our new wood rack in progress.  The posts are in just the cross beams to add.  We haven't decided if this rack is going to have a roof. We filled it should hold a cord of wood or approx 4000kg so needs to be robust.  

As you would expect after we had finished in the woods there was little trace of our activities.

Details of our 3 day Flat Bow Making Course in Sussex