actions 1 tvw action: weaving - home | tim willey · malleable rib can be successfully woven to...

tvwactions 1

Weaving is the process where flexible material is interlaced withadjacent material (this is usually flexible but it can also be rigid).The process is repetitious, the repeated weave giving structuralstrength and material coverage.

malleable rib can be successfully woven to produce anexceptionally strong structure. The action of weaving has oftenfound application in building construction, with the technique ofwattle and daub, in particular, exemplifying the infilling potentialand permanency of interwoven material ('usually hazel or cleftoak' (Harris, R p.20)). The structural integrity of woven materialhas similarly been used for wattle fencing and hurdles. This craftis still practiced today and provides lightweight, durable andversatile panels which, although traditionally used as a stockproof barrier, are now much in demand for domestic gardenapplications (Tabor 1994 p.132).

salient features of action

action: weaving

indicative practices

Basketry is perhaps the best example of the weaving process,utilising pliant osier rods to construct artefacts of high utility(Christopher 1950). Several other materials have been traditionallyused in basketry; rushes, grasses, straw and birch bark, are typicalof the supple plant materials which, alongside osiers, respond wellto interlacing. Weaving is such a versatile practice that many non-typical materials have been adapted to the technology. Thetraditional swill baskets of Cumbria (Quinn and Felix 1999 p.92) aremade by peeling strips (spelks) from boiled, quarter-sawn oak. This

An example of hurdle fencing in The Vigilance of theGood Shepherd, a French manuscript from the 15thCentury. *

* With grateful acknowledgement to the Bodleian Library Oxford.

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action: binding A large variety of bindings or 'bonds' have been traditionallyemployed and these were formed, where possible, from locallyobtained fibrous material and were often selected from the samematerial they were used to bind. A good example of this is the'withe' or 'rose knot' binding used to consolidate bunches of willowrods or 'osiers'. More recently, synthetic cordage has becomecommonly used for binding, particularly polypropylene bailer twine.



Binding is an action where stem, or more unusually, woodmaterials are bound with twine, string, or other flexible materialssuch as osier wands or bramble stems. This action compressesthe material and holds it in a consolidated form.

Binding is an action normally associated with transitional practicessuch as the bundling, compacting and storing of stem materials,

but is also used in the making of besom brooms (Arnold 1968 p.96),faggots (a bundle of sticks or twigs bound together for fuel) andfacines which, shaped like an elongated faggot are 'still used in largequantities for river defence work'. (Tabor 1994 p. 111). The use ofstring, rope and twine as a binding medium is a long establishedpractice; Ashley (1993) describes 3354 knots many of which are appropriate to the action of binding.

Binding osiers using willow 'withes'.

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action: wedging



Wedging, a form of friction joint, relies on the spreading ofmaterial within a restraining surround. This action effectivelytraps the material within its unyielding surround by means of adriven wedge which expands the material radially.

Wedging is used as a mechanism for jointing and is best seen inthe traditional besom broom. Here, the wedge which effects theexpansion of the brush stems (usually gorse or birch) is effected bythe wedging action of the driven in handle. Another use of theexpanding action is seen in the mortice and tenon joints oftraditional wooden furniture, where a wedge is used to expand thewood fibres of the tenon within the constraining mortise.

Besom broom showinghow handle (which hasbeen cut short) is usedas a wedge to expandthe gorse stems withinthe metal tie strap.

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action: combining



Combining of individual stem elements to form a unified mass. Themechanism acts as a system where the individual functionscontribute to the greater system function. It is common forcombined material to be composed of smaller, often bundled andbound units.

The function of combining is clearly seen in thatch and thatching(Arnold 1968) where the material attributes of the individual stemunit, such as stiffness, water resistance, and lightness contribute tothe the strength, water shedding and insulating properties of the roofin its entirety. Combining is a common action and is seen in floorcoverings, upholstery, packing, brooms, faggots and fascines -bound bundles of stem materials used for flood defences andgeneral water course workings.

Thatching, using reed(Phragmites australis).The thatch is first laid ontothe roof in bound bundleswhich are cut free aftersecuring.

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action: tying indicative practices

Tying is an action which depends on the use of a supple materialto fasten together two or more material units. String, rope ortwine are commonly used as the tying medium but other materialslike split bramble or wire can be utilised. Tying (as an action)differs from binding in that it creates a joint as opposed to simplygathering material together. Tying can involve multiple turns as inwhipping or lashing (Budworth 1999), or might be a single turn,finished off with a tuck, or a hitch.

Many practices involve tying and it is an action which, by virtue ofits speed and versitility, can be used to hold or align materialtogether as an expedient measure; temporary bridge building beinga particularly good example (Ashley 1993). This fact not-with-standing, tying has been used for all manner of permanentstructures such as boats and rafts and in building constructiongenerally (Janssen 1995).

Detail of bamboo steamer showing cross lashing.

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action: riving indicative practices

Riving is a key action in the working of green wood. It isa process where wood, timber or sometimes stemmaterials are split longitudinally by working a wedgeshaped tool - either a froe, axe or billhook, between thefibres of the material. The cleaving line tends to followthe grain and as such, does not cut through the fibres,the resultant material is therefore much stronger than itsrip-sawn counterpart. Riving requires a high degree ofskill but is a very rapid process when carried outcorrectly. A number of aids can be used to influence thedirection of the cleaving line and to prevent 'runningout'. All rely on some form of grip, against which thepractitioner can tension either half of the splittingmaterial - the split tends to run towards the sectionunder tension. Riving is usually a halving action sothat either side is equally balanced, although there arespecial tools designed to facilitate multi-sectionedcleaves in supple materials such as willow (Tabor 2000p.94).

Riving has been used for preparing green wood formany practices and it is still considered to be the mostefficient way of sectioning coppice material for furnituremaking and for dividing willow wands for basketry– aprocess called scalloming (Verdet-Fierz 1993 p.131).Riving, although largely a preparatory action, is also acomplete process in itself and evident in products suchas roofing shingles and fencing stakes.

Riving a coppiced hazel rod using a billhook. Thepractitioner is using his legs to grasp the materialwhich also facilitates tensioning to guide the direction ofthe cleaving line.

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action: bending indicative practices

Bending is an action which brings about a change of direction inmaterial in relation to its original line of growth. Heat is often usedto create a permanent curvature, particularly when in conjunctionwith green wood . Steam is the most common source of heat,but hot sand and even a naked flame can be used to soften thewood fibres sufficiently to allow the wood to be eased into shape.The heat must penetrate deeply into the wood so that it meltsthe hemicellulose layers which bond the fibres together(Germain). The heat-bending process is often supplementedwith jigs and tie straps which keep the material in place untill thebend is set.

Bending is common to many woodworking practices when curvesand bends are needed. Stickmakers use hot, damp sand to heat theends of suitably dimensioned hardwood, before being eased intothe bend which forms the handle (Arnold 1968). Furnitureproduction is often dependent on heat-bent units such as thoseused for curved chair-back frames. Boat building, with its relianceon compound curves, utilises heat bending for many woodenmembers including ribs, strakes and stems (Norton 2000).

Heat-bent walking stick.

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action: fastening indicative practices

Fastening is a jointing action which relies on a specifically designedfastener which passes through the material to be joined. Thecommon feature of a fastening is that it draws the pieces of materialtogether rather than just connecting them (cp. linking).

Fastening is common to many diciplines connected to woodconstruction; of particular note are the rove-nailed hulls of clinker-builtboats (Norton 2000). The rove nail, usually made of copper, is passedthrough the material to be joined and then through a washer. Thepoint is hammered around the washer. The clench nailing used in themaking of sussex trugs demonstrates another form of fastening -where the nail is hammered through the two materials to be joinedand then the point is hammered back against the material (Bryan2003). It is a very effective join and many times stronger than straightnailing. Nuts and bolts, although usually associated with engineering,have found a use in joining together constructional woodwork andare a particularly useful fastening when timber has to be demountedor regularly tightened.

Clench nailing on a frenchwood-lath basket.

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action: linking & threading indicative practices

Linking is used to flexibly combine wood members so theyoperate together. The linking mechanism is usually made fromwire or rope and is joined to the wood through the action ofbinding or fastening. Threading is a similar action but utilises aclearance hole in the linked material through which the linkingmaterial (usually cord or rope) is passed.

Chestnut pale fencing is perhaps the most recognisable productto use linking, and this system of joining cleaved chestnutstaves with twisted galvanised wire is still regarded as anefficient and convenient way of erecting barriers, and is made toa British standard (Tabor 1994). It has been used for over acentury as a versatile stock proof fence, and yet still finds favourwith motorway contractors for temporary barriers. Rope laddersand simple ad hoc bridges also incorporate the action of linkingas well as threading, as do willow screens and split-woodwindow blinds.

A roll of chestnut pale fencing showing the linkingmaterial (galvanized wire) which is twist bound to thecleaved chestnut staves.

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action: jamming / generic division: green wood indicative practices

Jamming is an action which relies on the elasticity of wood fibres.It occurs when a pointed object is driven or wedged into the woodand the fibres are sprung apart. The fibres exert a frictional gripon the object and effectively hold it in place.

Nailing (straight nailing as opposed to clench nailing) is the mostfamiliar form of jamming and is used for many joining andpositioning tasks. Nailing, however, is not particularly strong andis susceptible to tensional forces (Oakley1948). A variation onthe action of jamming, although not strictly a constructionaltechnique, is the practice of picking up timber from the woodlandfloor with the billhook. This is an expedient measure used bycoppice workers in moving wood conveniently around the forestworking area (Tabor 1994).

A billhook 'jammed' in a coppice pole creating aexpedient and convenient way of manoeuvring wood.

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action: turning indicative practices

Turning involves shaving off wood fibres from revolving 'stock'. Awood lathe is used to revolve the stock material and a turning toolis used to peel the fibres away. By this action the stock can beshaped.

Turning is an action associated with furniture making, of whichWindsor chair manufacture is a particularly a good example (Arnold1968). These chairs were made inside, or close to, the woodswhich provided the constructional material (mostly coppice poles).The legs, posts and rungs were turned using a pole lathe and thesewere left in stacks to season in the open air before final assembly.

Turned beech legs on a Windsor chair.

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action: shaving indicative practices

The action of shaving is a reductive process where thin sections ofwood are cut from the stock material by some form of sharpblade. The blade can be held in a device for regulating the cut, ormay be used free-hand.

The most basic form of shaving can be seen in a practice oftencalled 'wittling'. This is a process where a piece of wood is carvedwith a knife using a free-hand technique and was commonlyemployed for making small, houshold items such as treen andclothes-pegs (Edlin 1949). The use of planes, draw knives andspoke shaves still use the basic shaving action, but incorporate agreater degree of control, and are often more specific in theirapplication. Cabinet makers, wheelrights and other specialisedpractitioners in wood, have adapted the shaving action within anumber of specifically designed and sophisticated tools (Sturt

1963). As a preparatory practice, shaving, using a shaving-horse anddraw-knife, is commonly used to prepare riven wood prior tofinishing on the lathe (Abbott 1989).

Detail of trug handle formed by shaving rivenhazel with a draw-knife.

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action: housing indicative practices

Housing is an action where one constructional member is 'let in'to another. The resultant union can be rigid, as in mortice andtenon joints, or loose fitting as demonstrated by the staves whichare slid into the frames of a timber frame building panel (Harris,R 1999).

Housing is a versatile action, ranging from the typical wood jointsfound in furniture making (Oakley 1948) to simple woodenstakes let into the ground for fencing posts (Brookes 1988).

Housing joints on a Windsor chair.

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action: stitching indicative practices

Stitching is an action which involves a flexible material beingthreaded sequentially through a pattern of clearance holes in twoor more sections of woody material. The stitching actioneffectively draws the materials together creating a joint.

Detail of steamer showing wire-stitchedbamboo laths.

Stitching is an action more commonly associated with textilematerials. However, stitching wood together with wire is atechnique which can be found in boat building, where it is used asan interim constructional method allowing joints to be alignedbefore bonding (Welsford 1999). Wire stitching is also found as ajointing method in constructed wood-lath artefacts and this actionis often seen on split-bamboo work, where thin wire is used to stitchtogether the overlapping laths.

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action: reducing indicative practices

Reducing is an action (in relation to timber and wood) whichinvolves the incomplete combustion of organic material. It is thecentral process in the manufacture of charcoal. Wood is stackedin metal retorts or, more traditionally, covered in earth turves. Thewood is then ignited and a very controlled 'burn' is maintained bymeans of controlling primary and secondary air ways. The task isto burn off or vaporise the volatile fractions in the material whilstleaving behind pure carbon in the form of charcoal.

Charcoal burning has always been a primary activity of woodlandproduction (Edlin 1966). Charcoal is used in the manufacture ofsteel and has historically been the principal fuel for forging; itburns cleanly and is an efficient source of energy for cooking andspace heating.

A contemporary charcoalkiln and the coppicedpoles ready to beconverted into charcoal.

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action: compressing indicative practices

Compressing is an action which squeezes materials together andis used to consolidate and strengthen. Compression is oftenapplied to stem materials as a preliminary action for binding orwedging.

Many practices incorporate compression as part of themanufacturing sequence and many ingenious devices have beendeveloped for aiding compression (Tabor 2000). The best knownproduct which uses compression before binding and wedging isthe besom broom. The thin stem materials used for the brushhead are first gathered together then compressed in a vice calleda 'besom grip' (Lambert 1977); the head is then bound beforewedging in the handle.

The besom broom head is subject toconsiderable compression before beingbound and wedged.

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action: stacking indicative practices

Stacking involves arranging material units together to form astable mass. It is an action which is used for material storageand as an an aid to drying or seasoning.

Stacking could be regarded as an expedient or interim action asevident in its most crude form - the tumble stack of firewood.More sophisticated stacks can be seen in the peat stackscommonly seen in the western isles of Scotland. These 'cruachmhona' are made in such a way as to offer as few horizontalsurfaces as possible upon which rain water could lie. They tendto be very ordered in their construction and have a relatively highaggregated strength. Similarly constructed, are the stacks ofroughly-hewn wooden soles of the clog maker which werestacked in orderly mounds with plenty of air spaces to aidseasoning (Edlin 1949).

Peat stack showing regular arrangement givingstability and allowing good circulation of air.

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action: weighting indicative practices

Weighting utilises ancilliary weights to hold in position materialwhich would otherwise be unstable and easily displaced.

Weighting is a marginal practice which is normally reserved forenvironments subject to high winds. The Black houses ofnorthern Scotland and the Hebrides utilise weighting to hold inplace the straw thatched roofs (Fenton 1995). The weightingforces are, in this case, dispersed over the roofing material bymeans of cordage and netting which were common utilities ofthe northern fishing communities. Hay stacks are similarlyweighted in this way, a practice which still continues on someHebridean islands.

Roof structure of a blackhouse.The weights (localrocks) are fastened byrope, and transfer thegravitational forces to thesecuring net.

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action: spinning and plying indicative practices

Spinning is an action which uses a rotary movement to twistflexible fibres together. Intrinsic to the action is the facility tointroduce fibres as spinning progresses so allowing the overlap offibres and therefore extending the length of the spun materialindefinitely. A related process is 'plying' where two or morestrands of fibre (or spun fibre) are twisted together.

The spinning of fibres is an ancient practice and there ispreserved evidence of its use that dates back some 5000 years(Laing 2000). Hand spinning or plying can be carried out with anumber of different plant species and is a versatile processwhich can take place at any time, and started or stopped asneeded. As such, it was a vital skill for nomadic peoples whoused the resultant cordage for all manner of constructionalpurposes (Goodrich & Rhind).

A coil of coir string, made from the spun andplied fibres of the coconut.

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action: compounding indicative practices

Compounding is an action which holds together differentmaterials to form a unified whole. Compounding is often used inthe formation of composites where a matrix, usually a fluid orparticulate material, surrounds another material and then dries orcures. The combined material, sometimes aided by pressure,forms a solid mass which, by virtue of complementary mechanicalqualities, is stonger than individual materials alone (Ingold1982).

Traditionally, compounded composites were used extensively forbuilding construction. 'Daub', the material used to render 'wattle'infill panels in timber-framed buildings, consists of clay, earth,sand and plant-fibre, usually straw (Harris, R 1999).This materialdried to form a relatively impervious membrane. Also, Cobconstruction - a fairly localised vernacular building technique -used compounded wall-panels consisting of earth and strawformed into repeated horizontal layers.

Section of wattle and daub infill panel showing daubconsisting of sandy clay mixed with fibrous plantmaterials.

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action: retting indicative practices

Retting is a biological or chemical action where the moresusceptible vegetable plant materials (pectin and hemi-cellulose)are softened or dissolved by bacterial activity or by chemicalinfusion. This action effectively enables the separation of themore resilient fibres from the parent plant (Jarman 1998).

As its name implies, retting is a derivative of rotting, andtraditionally plant material was allowed to soak in water until themore susceptible fractions of the plant material were rotted away.This was an important preliminary to fibre production, the fibresbeing used for textile manufacture and the production of rope,twine and cord. Chemical retting is a more controlled practiceand is based on the chemical extraction of the pectin and hemi-cellulose which bind plant fibres together (Smith 1996).Chemical retting is generally the faster process and ispredominant in the industrial production of fibre.

Coir fibres derived from the retted'mesocarp' layer of the coconut fruit.

tvwAbbott, M; 1989. Green woodworking. Lewes: Guild of Master Craftsman Publications Ltd.Arnold, J; 1968. The shell book of country crafts. London: John Baker.Ashle y, C; 1993. The ashley book of knots. London: Faber & Faber.Brooks, A; 1988. Woodlands. (s.l.): BTCV.Christopher, F; 1950. Basketry. London: W & G Foyle Ltd.

actions bibliography

Edlin, H; 1949. Woodland crafts in britain. London: Batsford.Edlin, H; 1966. Trees, woods, & man. London: Collins.Fenton, A; 1995. The island blackhouse. (s.l.): Historic Scotland.Germain,G; (no date) Steam bending frequently asked questions (online). Avilable at: <http:www.wcha.org/tidbits/steamfaq.html> (Accessed April 2002).Goodrich; Rind; (no date) A Bibliography of cordage and cordage making (online). Available at: <http://www.ropecord.com/cordage/biblio/biblliography>(Accessed 1 November 2003).Harris, R; 1999.Timber framed buildings. Risborough: Shire Publications Ltd.Ingold, T; 1982. Reinforced earth. London:Thomas Telford.Janssen, J; 1995. Building with bamboo. London: Intermediate Technology Publications Ltd. Jarman, C; 1998. Plant-fibre processing. London: Intermediate Technology Publications Ltd.Laing, J; 2000. Angus McPhee weaver of grass. (s.l.): Scottish Arts council.Lambert, F; 1977. Tools and devices for coppice crafts. Machynlleth: Centre for Alternative Technology.Norton, M; ed. 2000. Never broken in a sea. Grimsay: Grimsay Boat Project.Oakley, W; 1948. The boys workshop companion. London: The Bodley Head. Smith,T; 1996. Industrial hemp. Hempology 101 (online). Available at: <http://www.hempology.com/textbook/ch3.html> (Accessed 1 November 2003).Sturt, G; 1963. The wheelwright's shop. Cambridge: Cambridge at the University Press.Tabor, R; 1994. Traditional Woodland Crafts. London: Batsford.Tabor, R; 2000. The encyclopedia of green woodworking. Bristol: Eco-logic Books. Verdet-Fierz, B; Verdet-Fierz, R; 1993. Willow basketry. Colorado: Interweave Press.Welsford, J; 1999. Backyard boatbuilder. Aukland: Reed Books.

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