Tim Willey

When Basil Brown's famous excavation at Sutton Hoo was completed in 1939, it was perhaps no surprise that the fabulous ship-burial treasures revealed in Mound One took centre stage. That beautifully decorated helmet and the garnet-encrusted jewellery have since become icons of Anglo-Saxon craftsmanship. And yet, one of the most significant finds, with immense implications for constructional archaeology, was a host of humble iron nails, still joined to their washers. Like a giant join-the-dots diagram, they clearly delineated the position of the ship's planking, long since rotted away. These are what every ship and boat builder now knows as nails and roves: an extremely sturdy and adaptable fastening that essentially rivets two planks of wood together, creating an effective—or almost effective—watertight joint. I have a lovely seventeenth-century boat rib with its verdigris-patinated copper nail and rove still clinging on, long after the rest of the hull had disappeared. Boat pl...

Take a heavy-duty tarmac rake, grind off the tines, and weld on two angled braces — and there you have it: a Bracken Basher. Research suggests that bruising bracken is far more effective than cutting it. Repeated over several years, the treatment weakens the bracken's rhizomes until they eventually give up producing new fronds and simply wither away — apparently!  

With so many young birches thriving in the new plantation there's no shortage of roots to use for stitching. The little box is made with a band of ash and a lid of birch ply.  It's stitched with birch root and has a stout birch root handle. The stitching technique has perplexed me for years - ever since I found a lovely Scandinavian butter box in an antique shop.   It's very deceptive, as it looks like a series of loops using double root strips, but after studying it for hours I realised it was a single root that's pierced with an awl at every overlapping point. Apparently there is a fairly common embroidery stitch called a split back-stitch which seems to be identical. It's such a simple and satisfying technique and the birch root is incredibly strong and pliable.  I've found that the best roots lie just beneath the surface and after they are stripped of bark and split in two they can be dried then soaked back to life when needed.  Incidentally, that beautiful ...

Early May, and with the woodland looking so lovely I  thought I'd put aside the visual excitement of a nail sticking in a bit of oak and just show a few simple photos! The woodpile is particularly neat this year, which is simply the result of cutting to a standard length and splitting to a standard section ... Not sure why we didn't do this before? Masses of bluebells this spring, This is partially the result of thinning out some conifers, which being evergreens, shade out the bluebells in early spring. This is what happens when you overplant an old broadleaf woodland with a catch crop of conifers.  But, at least you can try to put things right again.  Interestingly, the bluebells have now colonised the centre of the main woodland ride.  And finally, some greenery on the hedge I laid some years ago.  I relaid a few stems this winter in an attempt to repair the deer damage. It's just started to green up again, but, with the tasty leaves back at a  convenient...

Before I move on from the cleft-stave basket (it was, after all, intended to be a fairly brief project). I feel I must pay my respects to the humble nail.   Now in the past, I've not been the nail's greatest advocate, and I'm sure that's something to do with Mr Fairborn, my old woodwork teacher: 'Why use a nail when you can use a half-blind dovetail'!  But, I've come to deeply admire this humble little fastening; in particular the cleft and annular varieties that I've been using recently on the baskets. I was so impressed with the Herculean holding power of these two devices that I attempted to take a closer look.  And, in the tradition of so many investigative sciences, I started by making a 'section', attempting to slice through the middle of two nail-jointed examples. Not much to add really: the photos tell a pretty powerful story.  However, I perhaps should mention, that if you make a mistake - and I make quite a few -  they're the very d...

I've been trying different versions of the cleft-panel basket (pretty much making decisions as I go along). I'm not only using different woods - hoping to find the right balance of workability (easy to cleave) and durability - but also testing different configurations of fastening using clenched and annular-ring nailing and varied patterns of banding. I've also had a look at the ways I might simplify the construction with a view to running a day's workshop out in the woods (single band, straight sided). However, I'm still not so sure it could be covered in the time without making just too many compromises. I'll keep working on that one! I've now got eight different examples, which I've shown below.  I've also included a photo of an original Jack Rowsell basket, which although doesn't strictly use cleft staves, is still the favourite in my growing collection of European baskets. As I mentioned in an earlier post, there are still a couple of makers...