I'm wondering if using a strap cutter used in leather work might not be a great way, easy and accurate, to split the pieces out rather than scissors? Love your channel! (Edit) Never mind, using a strap splitting device at the end!
Living in the area where the "Adirondack Pack Basket" originated, I always wondered how they split those out. Now I want to go beat on a log with a hammer, LOL
I'm just east of "the park" and I pound on logs. Or rather billets like Peter does. Beware , , it's like eating potato chips , once you start you can't stop. I told my wife I almost like produceing the raw materials more than the weaving. I sold some , but it's really not worth it. Selling the splints I mean. To much work to do for a living.
Any others I've seen do this, pound the log. I think beating a billet like this makes a lot more sense. I think you'd get a lot more correctly sized strips. Thanks for posting.
Ash is the only wood I've ever heard of that works this way. In the eastern US, white oak saplings are split apart along the growth rings to make basket material. Not pounded. And only the saplings - not a large tree.
What if you took your box and added the blades from the hand tool in the hole. Then just pull the wood through the blades. This would keep your pieces even and would be less hard on your risks.
Wisdom use a piece of wood on each side of your strip the length of your product that way you can't mess up with another guy did a video where he used a tree cut down and notched the top in half then crosscut the groove and pushes his knife down into it and that's how he use it as a gauge And used as a slither like a table saw o and thank you for the ancient knowledge
It fascinates me that someone came up with this idea I'm taking a bill of wood and separating through the large grains and to parallel pieces! I wonder who originated this process?
Nothing to be sorry about. If I did this work a lot, I might look for ways to streamline it, but as it is, I pound basket stuff maybe once a year or every other year. So not a big deal. An anvil would be my first choice for improvements...
Thanks so much! I never knew you could pound white ash, I only had heard of people using brown/black ash. I am assuming this should be done in the spring for best results? I am going to try this for chair seat material, and make longer strips.
It doesn't have to be spring, but the log has to be freshly-cut; I try within a month or so. They tell me black ash works easier, but white ash still works.
I used white ash.... once , by mistake. I've heard white ash was doable but as our host said several time do it green. Don't let it dry out . Like I did, once , lol. I also tried soaking black ash in a pond and then tried to pound them and they seazed up pretty good to.
