With over 35 years experience in running courses in green wood chair-making, Mike Abbott will guide you through the process of making a chair from a tree in the beautiful Herefordshire countryside. Having written three books on the subject (Green Woodwork, in 1989, Living Wood, in 2002 and, Going with the Grain, in 2011), Mike is acknowledged by many as the leader in the field of green wood chair-making in the UK.
Mike Abbott's Living Wood 
Treading very gingerly, here is the first thing I have put on this blog all by myself. Firstly thanks to Rob for getting the newsletter onto the blog – including the first paragraph which somehow got missed out. Secondly, thanks to Clive for the comments on here – it was great to have you around again after all that time.
We started back in with courses this Saturday after the 6 week horsefly break – still quite a few around but they should disappear again soon. We have a new deputy assistant called Sherene, who is steadily finding her feet out there and working very hard at keeping the place functioning as smoothly as it was with Jack and Leo. Of course Tom is still on fine form but realised today that he is now 2/3rds of the way through his time with me. Blackberries are now ripening, apples are ripening at home, so our first blackberry and apple crumble should happen any day now.
My next project is to work out how to add photos and then film to this blog.
For the 300+ of you who are wanting to keep abreast of developments in 21st Century green-wood chair-making having bought a copy of the new book!! ……
The first change is in bending back legs. We have now gone back to using the lever as described in Living Wood pages 162 & 182, rather than the rocker system described on p127 of GWG (Going with the Grain). Unless you have really big jaws on the sash-clamp, the jig tends to force its way out of the clamp, requiring extra clamps to prevent this – just a bit of a pain compared to the lever. I do like the new leg forming jig with the stronger bend and this works well with the lever – we grip the jig very tightly in the vice, so that we can remove the legs still gripped to the bending former and put the whole lot into the warm box to set – a bit of inspiration from Guy Mallinson on that one.
I have to say that I really like pages iv & v of GWG which locates every double page of the ‘how to’ section, so it’s dead quick to find whatever subject you want.
I’m going to see if I can upload this before we all fall asleep.
More to follow over the next few days,
Mike
Spent three days in the woods with Mike, Tom and Jack, plus seven other enthusiastic people. The setting was wicked, the course amazing. Had been twenty yrs since I`d been on one of Mike’s courses and the experience was just as rewarding second time round – really refreshed my skills and replenished my desire to carry on my enjoyment with green wood crafts. Thanks everyone,,,,
clive the tree,,,