Hi, I’m Jack. I make wooden household items or ‘treen’ using traditional hand tools and techniques.
I first started carving about 10 years ago when I was living in Bristol in the South West of England. It began when I visited Cherry Wood Project, a woodland coppice not far from the city and took a short introductory Green Woodworking course.
Both the course and spending time in the woodland had a massive impact on me and I began to regularly volunteer there, as well as starting to pursue carving more in my own time. The woods had no power, just a couple of hoses for water. I learned how to thrive in a woodland environment, hand-felling trees, raising roundwood structures and making furniture and other craft, all with traditional hand tools.
The people I met and the times I spent in those woods are probably some of the most defining times in my life and have shown me a way of living and working in harmony with the natural world.
I cannot express enough gratitude to Tim (who began the project) for what he created there and how open and kind he was with everything he did.
A bit about process.
Working with ‘Green wood’ or freshly cut wood, is something that has been practiced for thousands of years. I try to stay relatively close to the same tools and techniques that have been historically used. I feel passionately about helping to preserve this way of working into the future as I feel it is important not to forget these skills.
I carve the spoons and utensils with an axe, straight knife and bent knife. The bowls I turn using specially forged hook tools on a foot powered medieval style ‘pole lathe’ that I built.
Working with wood in this way and with these relatively simple tools creates an aesthetic of its own. Tool marks are left on the work. You can see all the cuts that have been made by the various blades and in my opinion that adds an extra layer of depth and interest to each item. Sometimes you will find an axe mark that hasn’t been removed and sometimes a cut where a knife has slipped.
All of these are just signs of the human that has made them and brings you one step closer to the maker. They are honest, handmade items.
The majority of the wood I use is provided to me by local Arborists or windfall. Everything is tool finished and sealed with walnut oil and a beeswax/walnut oil butter.