Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
Wasting time on a Saturday afternoon. . .
Dave Mount
>Beautiful September day here in northern Minnesota, too nice to do real work. A black ash tree uprooted over a trail back in the woods, and the bottom few feet were a little punky in the middle and no good for a sawlog (though there were a couple decent saw logs above the hollow). What to do with the hollow part? Decided to split it into pieces like this. . .
and get out the shaving horse. . .
Dave Mount
>to work the rivings down into these. . .
to make a. . .
Dave Mount
>wood pitchfork!
Not that I really needed a wooden pitchfork, but I've always had an itch to make one (or more) since seeing Roy Underhill do it many years ago. While Roy was the original inspiration, the specifics for this one came from Drew Langsner's earlier book, I think it's called "Country Woodcraft".
Actually it probably won't be very durable, black ash is pretty soft, and the ash tree I took the rivings from was growing at a glacial pace. The butt was only about 20" but I counted it at 289 years old! Like oak and other ring porous woods, slow growing black ash is even softer than normal, but it sure did yield nicely to the drawknife. It was so easy to work I didn't even bother to use the broad hatchet to do the initial work, I just did it all with the drawknife.
Kind of fun and, like I said, way better than doing real work on such a pretty day. . .
Best,
Dave
Looks like fun. I use a metal pitch fork alot
Michael Stadulis, in Gloucester County, NJ
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Re: to make a. . .
Kevin French, Antrim, NH
>And NOW your wasting OUR time reading your postings.
What a great way to waste (?) time.
Very cool!
Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA
>Nice job Dave. I take it's in a drying rack to shape the handle curve?
Your wastes of time are much more productive than mine...
Re: Bending frame
Dave Mount
>Hey Scott--
Yes, the frame is to put the necessary bends in the piece. The tines are bent by the frame as well, although they are shaped in two steps. First they are spread laterally using wedges, then pinned in place to dowels that are just barely visible near the base of the slots that define the tines. Then, in a second step, the tines are curved in the other direction, along with putting the curve in the handle. The wood is softened for both steps by ladling boiling water over it. I have a steam box that would have worked for the first step, but once the tines are spread it wouldn't fit in my steambox.
Best,
Dave
Thanks for the additional info!
Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA
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