GREEN WOODWORK
Green woodwork is the traditional craft of working freshly cut, green wood, by hand, to make a wide variety of objects. It is often an open air activity in temporary shelters in woodland settings. It is called green woodwork because the wood is worked in the fresh unseasoned state which is easier both on tool and hand. The material for green woodwork is mainly small trees cut during woodland thinning. Nature is constantly replacing these trees and in the process locking away carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. By making something with them it remains locked away for even longer.
Green Woodwork: what is it?
Many of the techniques used in green woodwork have been practiced for centuries, predating the modern age of machines and oil based technology. So green woodwork is also green in an environmental sense.
In the 19th century people who developed this craft to make chair parts became known as bodgers, a word which often has a different meaning today! The shaving horse, pole lathe and various hand tools were the bodgers’ equipment, all efficiently powered by the human body and nothing else. Their craft has been revived in the last thirty years and a new movement has emerged headed by, among others, Mike Abbott, who taught me. The Association of Green Woodworkers and Polelathe Turners exists to support this growing interest in the subject. An episode of the “Master Craftsman” series of programmes, aired recently on TV and presented by Monty Don, which featured Guy Mallinson, Mike Abbott and three would-be bodgers, has given the subject a further lift in public awareness. This revival is in keeping with the approaching post oil era, but also it meets a hunger in people to be more present in nature and the open air, and to learn new skills using their hands.
child’s ladder back with bark seating
roughing out chair parts with side axes
assembling a ladderback chair
pole-lathing
drilling a seat rail mortise
