Living Wood - From Buying a Woodland to Making a Chair
This new edition is intended both as a practical manual and an inspirational guide and falls into four distinct sections:
- Becoming a green woodworker - Mike's story, from growing up in the woodlands near Bristol to owning a share in a woodland in Herefordshire;
- Setting up a woodland workshop - the process of buying a woodland and developing the facilities including an access track, a woodland workshop and kitchen and a compost toilet. Mike also covers methods of harvesting wood both by hand and with machinery for woodwork and for firewood;
- Fitting out a woodland workshop - plans for a shelter, updated designs for a shaving horse and a height-adjustable pole-lathe, new information on tools and a detailed chapter on sharpening;
- Making ladderback chairs - new techniques for ultra-tight joints without glue, which make use of the irregular shrinkage of wood as it dries out. Also new designs including armchairs and rocking chairs and details of seating with bark and with rope.
The book concludes with a chapter outlining the green-wood revival over the last thirty years plus useful information on "woody" organisations, suppliers and books. Now in its 4th edition, Living Wood has 240 pages, with an eight-page section of colour photos including an inspiring selection of photographs of Mike’s latest workshop at Brookhouse Wood. It also contains over 120 black & white photos and 200 line drawings.