Whats wood is this handle

[Mick Annick]

Yes, the double quickthorn row is what they do up here for new ones, but I’d prefer the Devon/Somerset style, on a bank, bit of hazel, hawthorn, etc.

Bit late for planting up now, I guess?

Have contacted the hedge laying society, cheers.

Just be wary of Blackthorn, makes a cracking hedge but the spines are lethal - put me in hospital years back.

 

[Mick Annick]

Another Somerset layer here (very much amateur).

My billhook:
View attachment 489405

Not much call for hedgelaying where I am now, so it lives by the stove, for making on-demand kindling, or by the cone splitter, for knocking apart stringy logs. One day it’ll get restored, but that insulating tape is surprisingly durable. Ash handle, is the plan.

How would I go about building a hedge from scratch? All the hedges I dealt with were centuries old. I assume you dig a ditch (both sides?) and pile the topsoil up to make the bank, then plant up? Or use a bit of subsoil for the centre, then plaster with topsoil?

Any makers name on it?

 

[Guineafowl]

Just be wary of Blackthorn, makes a cracking hedge but the spines are lethal - put me in hospital years back.

Sloes are nice, though… The old hedgers had metal plates in their boots for that, I seem to remember.

Any makers name on it?

Bulldog

 

[Anguz]

Should it not have a hook / beak on the end of the handle to stop you throwing it by accident? Mine has a more pronounced one than the Iles version.

Dunno if the handle on mine is original, but if it did have a beak which way would it point? Mine has a cutting edge both sides

 

[Mick Annick]

Dunno if the handle on mine is original, but if it did have a beak which way would it point? Mine has a cutting edge both sides

Yorkshire pattern hook

 

[Guineafowl]

I felt a bit ashamed of the terrible handle on the billhook, so made a new one out of an ash log at the weekend. Initially rived the piece to size to minimise short grain, then bandsaw, spokeshave, chisel, etc.

Blade will be done later.

I drilled a pilot hole through, finishing with a reversed chainsaw file as a makeshift long bit, then with the whole tang red hot, burnt it about 2/3 of the way on. Then tapped it the rest of the way with only the end of the tang heated.

The washer/end bit didn’t go as planned, originally it was split, but of course one side broke off. Hammered the tang a bit longer and bent it down instead.

To finish, a quick burn over with the MAPP gas to bring out the grain, then BLO.

Also made a little hoe, while I was at it. A bit agricultural - some 12mm round and a piece of harvester saw bar:

 

[DAPPH]

Knocked a chunk out of my billhook handle today
What would it have been made of? Ash?
I have had this since I was 10 nearly 48 years ago. Think it needs a little tlc

View attachment 489315

ASH if it is UK made

 

[DAPPH]

Another Somerset layer here (very much amateur).

My billhook:
View attachment 489405

Not much call for hedgelaying where I am now, so it lives by the stove, for making on-demand kindling, or by the cone splitter, for knocking apart stringy logs. One day it’ll get restored, but that insulating tape is surprisingly durable. Ash handle, is the plan.

How would I go about building a hedge from scratch? All the hedges I dealt with were centuries old. I assume you dig a ditch (both sides?) and pile the topsoil up to make the bank, then plant up? Or use a bit of subsoil for the centre, then plaster with topsoil?

Take semi hard wood cuttings ( look it up ) dip them in growth hormone powder and stick in deep sand on a north facing wall to alow slow growth .
Snip off the top 2 inches to reduce transpiration ( water loss)
Look up on line the type of hedging you desire & seek its propagation methods some will b=nd 14 inch long cuttings others a lot longer and the depth to root them as also changes a lot .

Another way is to buy bare rooted transplants by the hundred if you need a lot . Also look at how thick you transplants need to be apart & in what pattern .

My 300 or so home grown laurels were in 4 foot wide diagonals a foot a part . They made one hell of a barrier once ther reached four feet high . After cutting back theyr grew into a very thick bushy barrier that wou,d ahve ben very hard to crawl through , they also made a fantastic wind bread and sound barrier ,


Building they embankment if needed . Make three or four identical big strong A frames to run the line of the bank and string your build with lines as it goes up to get regular banks & height . Fill with spoil as you build , perhaps do a double line a foot a part in the top but stagger them six inches between transplants to get a stronger hedge

 

[Anguz]

Done

 

[Guineafowl]

Take semi hard wood cuttings ( look it up ) dip them in growth hormone powder and stick in deep sand on a north facing wall to alow slow growth .
Snip off the top 2 inches to reduce transpiration ( water loss)
Look up on line the type of hedging you desire & seek its propagation methods some will b=nd 14 inch long cuttings others a lot longer and the depth to root them as also changes a lot .

Another way is to buy bare rooted transplants by the hundred if you need a lot . Also look at how thick you transplants need to be apart & in what pattern .

My 300 or so home grown laurels were in 4 foot wide diagonals a foot a part . They made one hell of a barrier once ther reached four feet high . After cutting back theyr grew into a very thick bushy barrier that wou,d ahve ben very hard to crawl through , they also made a fantastic wind bread and sound barrier ,


Building they embankment if needed . Make three or four identical big strong A frames to run the line of the bank and string your build with lines as it goes up to get regular banks & height . Fill with spoil as you build , perhaps do a double line a foot a part in the top but stagger them six inches between transplants to get a stronger hedge

Cheers - sorry, didn’t see the reply till now.

 

[Guineafowl]

^ can’t edit that now, but I should have mentioned the hedge is going along one side of a 7.5 acre field, so would definitely be a bulk buy of plants, and digger job for the banking.

 

[DAPPH]

^ can’t edit that now, but I should have mentioned the hedge is going along one side of a 7.5 acre field, so would definitely be a bulk buy of plants, and digger job for the banking.

Hire a dozer with operator to scrape the land & push up a bank , I've seen that done over a 400 mtr L shape some 1,7 mtr high .

It was planted with home produced whips taken the early autumn year previously and grown in well manured 18 inch deep friable soil, covered in black polyethene dug in at the edges with the whips hormone root treated then pushed in small Stanley knife holes in pretty straight rows with the very tips snipped off .

Check you don't fall foul of planners in raising your bank .. one case Ii knew of in England at the village of EYE Cambridgeshire had to rip his 100 yard bank out and set it back to the average farm land level
/

 

[Anguz]

Well it appears to work
This evenings efforts

 

[badabec]

^ can’t edit that now, but I should have mentioned the hedge is going along one side of a 7.5 acre field, so would definitely be a bulk buy of plants, and digger job for the banking.

How about a ha-ha?

 

[Pete.]

How about a ha-ha?

They sure had to invent their own entertainment before TV and the internet