Big Axe

Here's the biggest, heaviest axe I have.


It's a seven pound Elwell felling axe - here's their logo . .


I bought the head from a gipsy called Middy at Hatfield Farmers Market a few years ago now.
I met him at Ashridge Estate on Sunday and although he looks as if he's going blind he's still giving it large . .
He reminded me of the billhooks he'd sold me which had belonged to his dad and his uncles. He remembered the big Elwell axe-head and told us that he'd used it for cutting and laying small trees in hedges.

But I'm sure that when he sold it to me he told me that his predecessors had used it to chop down Oaks on the Hatfield House estate !

It's also got the number 4512554 stamped - perhaps you could work out the date and maker ?!

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Martin Crook came on a days course here today. He did really well and made a sycamore spinning top and carved a small spoon from cherry for his niece. We picked up the sycamore fresh first thing this morning from some tree surgeons working up the road. That's about as green as the Woodworking gets

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Tomorrow we're going to be preparing for a weekend at Blake Hall Game & Country Show near Epping/Ongar, Essex so I've been finishing some priest's, made of Ash and loaded with a lead plug and also some crow/pheasant scarers made from Gayne's Park Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa). This has an amazing smell a bit like sweet pickle and is a great wood to work.

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