Galerie - Het Noeste Leven

You may have seen a little while ago that I someti

You may have seen a little while ago that I sometimes use a chainsaw as well. This was to saw trees into boards, which could then be used to make benches and tables. The next steps are again all done by hand. One of the first things to do is roughly shape the legs. These may start to dry a bit in the near future, and at the end I will also put them indoors for a while. This makes the legs slightly drier than the top of the benches and tables. When the holes have been drilled in the tops and the ends of the legs have been made exactly to the size of the holes, the legs will shrink slightly less than the holes in the tops, so that the legs will fit extra well. I don't want the difference to be too big though, so that the legs don't split the top boards while drying.

Surrounded by trees, with the sound of bird in the

Surrounded by trees, with the sound of bird in the background and perhaps even a deer who will overlook your progress, as a participant recently saw, you can attend workshops again next year on our land in the woods between Aalst and Waalre (The Netherlands). Of course the bowl and cup turning workshops will be scheduled again, as well as spoon and shrink pot making. And as there is a growing community of pole lathe turners in the Netherlands and Belgium, it might be the right time for some in-depth workshops. I don't know yet when all that will take place. But please let me know if you think you would like to participate, or if you might be missing something in the workshops. And if you are not yet on the mailing list, sign up so that you will be the first to be informed when the new dates are announced. You can register by providing me with your name and email address. In the meantime, you can still do a private workshop. These will be held at my house, so in between carving and turning we can warm up inside, by the stove with a hot cup of tea or coffee. #workshop #workshops #woodworking #houtbewerking #houtdraaien #wipdraaibank #draaibank

Just some lovely cherry curls on the pole lathe.

Just some lovely cherry curls on the pole lathe. #woodcurls #woodworking #woodturning #cherrywood #endgraincup #endgrainturning

Lang geleden, in een dorp hier in de buurt, werd e

Lang geleden, in een dorp hier in de buurt, werd er een baby geboren die de naam Amber kreeg. De ouders waren heel blij met Amber en wilden graag een kommetje dat was gemaakt van het hout van de amberboom. Nu, na heel lang wachten, heb ik dan eindelijk een stukje stam in handen. Net genoeg voor een paar kommetjes. Dit is er 1 van. Hopelijk gaat alles goed tijdens het drogen en dan komt er binnenkort een kom jouw kant op Tommie!

Last year I attended several events. One of these

Last year I attended several events. One of these was the Viking market at Schothorst in Amersfoort (The Netherlands). I always enjoy being there. Relatively small-scale, many nice participants, cozy and intimate, and fairly limited opening hours, which results in a lot of time to spend with other craftsmen and other enthusiasts. Here you see a number of photos that were taken in the morning, before the site opened to visitors. My stall from my own perspective and also from the perspective of the visitor. #livinghistory #polelathe #historicalcraft #craft #demonstration #earlymedieval

Winter is coming and the workshops are going into

Winter is coming and the workshops are going into hibernation. But, after the winter we will wake up and hapily continue. If you would like to participate in one of those workshops, you could follow me to get updated on new dates, but you could also subscribe to the newsletter so that you will automatically receive an email as soon as the new dates are known. You can subsribe via the website, or by sending me a message with your name and email address. Will I see you next year?

Some steps in the process of turning a cup on the

Some steps in the process of turning a cup on the pole lathe. Look at those lovely colours in the walnut wood. I wonder what the will look like after the wood had dried and has been oiled.

There's something strange going on with this cherr

There's something strange going on with this cherry wood. Splitting and cutting the wood was very different from other cherry wood. And while drying, it acquired a very beautiful, intense dark brown colour. It was clearly a prunus species, but clearly not regular sweet cherry. I don't know what it is, but I think it's beautiful. Unfortunately it was only a very small piece, so I couldn't make more than just this one bowl. I made the dark line by letting the wood react with iron, just like you get those dark spots around a nail on an oak gate. #traditionalwoodwork #polelathe #bowl #woodenbowl #cherry

Although I mainly work with traditional hand tools

Although I mainly work with traditional hand tools and even my lathe is muscle powered, I also use a chain saw now and then. In this case to saw oak into boards. The trunks that I am sawing here have a diameter of 40 cm (the beech trunk on the far right of the first photo is even 75 cm in diameter, but more about that later). Of course you could do it by hand. For example, take a look at the Roman ship found in the Meern in Utrecht, The Netherlands. It is made from a large oak tree from Flanders and the sawn boards are 22 meters long! But, you'd need at least two people, you need a special saw and saw construction and a lot of time. And while I would love to do it someday, I don't have any of those things available at the moment. So this part of my work is done mechanically. These oak trees will be made into benches and tables. The wood in the second photo is beautiful for a bench. To ensure that it will last a long time in all weather conditions, I will remove the bark and sapwood (the strip of light wood just below the bark) and only the dark heartwood will remain. The heartwood of this native oak contains a lot of tannins, which greatly extend its lifespan in wet conditions. The sapwood has much less of this and would rot away quite quickly. American oak would also not be suitable for outdoor use, for the same reason. The trunk in the third photo produces beautiful wood. But, as you can see, there is a second light strip of wood in it. Apparently something strange happened to this tree while it was growing. In any case, a strong pruning, since the large knots are present in the central part, but not in the outer part. This has led to a second layer that looks a lot like sapwood. That's why I'm not going to use this outside. But perhaps it would be very nice to make coffee tables for indoors, for example. Then sapwood is not such a problem. #woodworking #chainsaw #oak #boards #alaskansawmill

What I actually wanted to show recently were a few

What I actually wanted to show recently were a few photos of the process of making the spoon that I had made for #Lepelpost (or directly translated to English, 'spoon mail'). It is not a detailed explanation, but might give an idea of how such a spoon is made. In the first photo you can see how I carved a piece of cherry wood in such a way that the curve of the spoon is already present and I was able to draw the shape of the spoon on it. In the next photo you can see what more I chopped off with the axe, after which I continued with a knife. Or rather, I should say knives. A curved knife (WoodTools) for the concave of the scoop and a straight knife for the rest (Morakniv). #spooncarving #woodworking

Although most of you will know me from the present

Although most of you will know me from the present day or early medieval times, we sometimes travel to and through other times as well . For example, in September we were present in the 17th century at the Battle of Stevensweert in, you guessed it, Stevensweert. While I am turning bowls, my most charming wife attracts customers and demonstrates how to spin beautiful woolen yarns. It turned into a nice weekend, thanks to @hethistorischbanket and #toentertafel. #livinghistory #17thcentury #craftsmanship #historicaldemonstration #woodworking

Walnut can be hard to split and axe out, but it's

Walnut can be hard to split and axe out, but it's great for turning. You'll loose a drop of sweat or two, but look at the shine you can get on it on the lathe. There is some more walnut ready to make some more cups out of this winter. #woodencup #woodworking #craft #walnut #walnutwood

The pole lathe can be physically demanding, but ca

The pole lathe can be physically demanding, but can offer psychological comfort at the same time

In September I met @jarrod__dahl from @woodspirith

In September I met @jarrod__dahl from @woodspirithandcraft ) and bought a beautiful cup that was finished with urushi, a natural lacquer from eastern Asia, made from the lacquer tree. See my post of September 13. Well, I do have a complicated relationship with urushi. I find it both very kitschy but also very beautiful. Which one it is, depends on the type of urushi and the number of layers applied. With black urushi in many layers one can no longer see that the bowl or cup is made of wood and it has the appearance of a plastic bowl to me. Personally, I don't like that, although on the other hand it is the pinnacle of the craft and I can very well imagine that I would have found it astonishingly beautiful a few hundred or even a few thousand years ago when it was already in use. So smooth and intense and shiny, and that in an Iron Age setting. With a few lighter coloured layers the wood will get a warm glow with a nice, light shine. I have tried to imitate exactly the latter effect here. Which brings me to the other part of my relationship with urushi. Although it can be very beautiful, the lacquer comes from Japan or China because the right trees grow there. By now I have not yet finished with what we can find and use in our own surroundings (NW Europe) and that is why I have tried to replicate the looks and feel of urushi as much as I could, using local materials. This cherry wood contains a fair amount of tannins that can react with iron to form a black compound. By dissolving a little iron in vinegar and applying it to the wood, the iron is absorbed into the wood and can react there. By then baking the bowl in the oven, the sugars in the wood caramelised and it became a bit browner. I created the shine by applying the first layer of linseed oil by hand and each following thin layer with very fine sandpaper that is intended for polishing metal. Layer two with grit 600, layer 3 with 2000 and then a few more layers with 3000 grit. This affects the woodstructure that is created by turning on a pole lathe. So no, not urushi, and I can't match the skills of Japanese turners and varnishers, but they have inspired me to see what else I can do with local materials

Good news for lovers of WoodTools axes! I have a s

Good news for lovers of WoodTools axes! I have a small stock of axes again. Because I wanted to make a video, I was looking for my tripod. Well, I couldn't find it, but I did come across a box of axes. The website has just been updated and they can now be ordered again. But beware, once this box is empty, it will probably take a while before the people at WoodTools get production back up at the level at which I can order some more axes from them for resale.

What would I be explaining here about the hook too

What would I be explaining here about the hook tools, which are being used for making a bowl on the pole lathe? Next weekend (4 and 5 November) is the last time, at least for this season, that you can hear the answer to this question live during a demonstration in the @prehistorischdorp After this weekend, the museum will close for the winter break and the other events will also be in hibernation. And myself? I will retreat to my workshop and get to work on benches and tables, and of course all kinds of turning on the foot-powered pole lathe, with some big plans. And I am also in the process of setting up a two-year project together with a colleague from Flanders. If financing can be secured, you will hear more about this in December. Will I see you again on Saturday or Sunday?

Autumn is coming. Green turns into brown, leaves a

Autumn is coming. Green turns into brown, leaves are falling, soil becomes visible and earthy odours surround us. This is what I tried to capture in this spoon for #lepelpost2023, a Dutch/Flamish spoon swap. It will soon be on its way to someone's letterbox.

UPDATE: the last spot has been taken. One spot ha

UPDATE: the last spot has been taken. One spot has become available again for the bowl turning workshop this Saturday (October 28). Last chance to attend a workshop this season. Costs: 85 euros. If you would like to participate, please send me a message. First come.....

"Hey, are you in National Geographic?" "Um, I don'

"Hey, are you in National Geographic?" "Um, I don't know." This is what my wife Rachne asked me and what I answered. Well, apparently I am. The new issue of National Geographic Historia (Dutch; number 5 / 2023) contains an article about life around the year 1000. It's a story about emperors, powerful women, the church and relics, but also full page, or, as I should rather say, as centerfold over two full pages, as a kind of playmate of the month, a large photo of me turning a wooden bowl at the @prehistorischdorp . #bowlturning #history #livinghistory #crafts #lathe #earlymedieval

At @Lepelfeest, one of the workshops I teach is al

At @Lepelfeest, one of the workshops I teach is always surprising. I don't know in advance what the results will be. The assignment is simple. 1. Function. What are the minimum requirementes to function as a spoon. 2. Appearance. What makes a spoon look good? 3. Manufacturability. What do you want to make and how should it be made. Which steps are difficult, and are they necessary, or could it be done differently? This year it was a fun process again. It was agreed upon that you should be able to stir your pan with the spoon, even in the corners, and that you should also be able to eat with it. For this purpose it would be nice if the spoon would not be completely straight when viewed from the side, but had a bend in it, the so called crank, because this makes eating more pleasant. The idea was the following: we make a spoon from a fairly flat, split piece of wood. We cut this in such a way that we have to change the carving direction as little as possible. To get create the crank, we are going to steam bend the spoon. After coming up with this idea, almost an hour had passed. Two hours to go. During those two hours we first cut a few spoons and made molds. The molds consisted of a thick board, split from a small trunk. We drilled holes in it and placed freshly carved pins. In the meantime, the spoons were boiled for about 20 minutes in a pot that we could borrow from the catering. Immediately after cooking, the spoons were bent into the mold. After a week of drying in the mold, the spoon came out and it actually retained the shape we had given it. And here is the result. Maybe not the prettiest spoon, but it functions quite well. And more importantly, we learned a lot about design and bending wood. And if you also want to try this, I would like to advise you to make the pins of the mold a lot bigger for example. Not because they are not strong enough, but because there are now small dents where the spoon was clamped against the pins. Or do you perhaps have other ideas to prevent this indentation? Please share your ideas and continue the design process! #lepelfeest #workshop #spoondesign #create #design #steambending

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