Oh Boy!
For the last year, I have been looking for the same sharpeners I learned to use in England. I have looked everywhere, high and low, to no avail.
This past week, I was visiting one of my big brothers in Rutland and we spent the afternoon going from one hardware store to another. I was 'window shopping' for a pruning saw and a few other things I'll need for my structure for the upcoming EXPOSED exhibit at the Helen Day Art Center next month.
Our last stop was an Ace hardware store... no luck on the pruning saw or ratchet loppers... they did have a giant roll of biodegradable twine though, in a pretty ochre color. It was with no expectation really, when the guy asked if there was anything else he could help me with, that I said, "Yes, kind sir, might you have a set of DMT diamond Diafold sharpeners?" Actually, I think what I said was more like "yeah, do you have any diamond sharpening things?" Someone else might not have had a clue what on God's green earth I was talking about, but he was able to figure it out and lead me to the sharpener aisle.
From a distance, I spotted them. One blue and one red. Exactly what I wanted and had hunted for in countless other hardware store's this past year.
My excitement was hard to contain, and, I guess came as a surprise to the store clerk and my brother both. They had a good laugh. One might have thought I'd just been given a pair of diamond earrings, or a diamond necklace or something equally and typically diamondy.
But no, for me, this was so, so much better!
As soon as we were back in the car, I had to open them up. And was eager to get home to my beloved billhook, 'Betty' and tend to her poor blunt edge.
She and I have been getting reacquainted these last few weeks, harvesting some willow and stripping off the bark down to the nice white cambium layer.
It is a glorious way to wile away the hours of an afternoon... just me and Betty and a stack of willow. I have ended up with a nice pile of curly bark... drying in a bag outside my front door. It smells heavenly. I am saving it for someday when I have a wood stove again (or a Kelly Kettle!)
Here's a couple of pics...
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| That's my (sorely blunt) billhook, 'Betty' in the middle and my new sharpeners. It is most likely that I will give them each a name too at some point, because that is the way I am! The blue one is the coarse grit and the red is the fine. The handles fold over the sharpener to protect it and make them really easy to carry around! |
I got mine at http://woodsmithexperience.co.uk/, it is a Morris Spar Hook...
'The Morris Spar Hook, is a smaller bladed (7 inches) billhook traditionally used to split hazel thatching spars, however it is well liked simply as a smaller and lighter weight billhook for harvesting and working-up smaller coppice material'
The hooks John and the others used were larger, With a blade 9 inches or more, and just that much heavier.
I found them too cumbersome for me. When you are swinging something sharp around close to your body, you kind of want to be in control of it, if you know what I mean! Betty is just the right size and weight for me, and for what we do.
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| Stripping the bark from willow on a sunny day! |
If you harvest the willow at just the right time in the spring, the bark peels away so easily! it is also good to debark it the same day you harvest, while the sap is still flowing. I waited a week or so to do a little bit of what I harvested and though the bark came off relatively easy, it left a bit of green instead of the nice white of the cambium layer. Still beautiful. Still usable.
And with that, I will close.
I am eager to get a walk in before it starts to rain!
until we meet again-
susie
