What Is ? GREEN WOODWORK, THE POLE LATHE AND BODGERS

Unlike the modern idea of working with seasoned wood, green woodwork means working with unseasoned (green) and often newly-felled timber. Each method of working has it’s advantages.
Seasoned timber is unlikely to crack, whereas with green wood, the timber can crack, but handled well, this can usually be avoided. With seasoned timber, a tree trunk may be sawn down it’s length to produce planks, this cuts through the grain and produces slightly weaker planking, but generates the maximum quantity of wood.
In green woodworking, a trunk would be cleft (split) which means the grain is left intact and the wood is stronger, but more is wasted.
On turning seasoned wood, the turned object should retain its shape, but green wood when turned, is very likely to go into an oval shape as it dries out and seasons. This seasoning has both advantages and disadvantages, it can be useful when assembling joints in items such as chairs, as the out-of-shape wood can jam solid in joints, but to avoid an oval-shaped finish in items such as rolling pins, it is sometimes necessary to turn the item once, let it season, then turn it to the final shape.

The history of the lathe goes back thousands of years into the murky depths of history. The first lathe was a slave-driven device. The master would be at the production end, whilst the slave turned the workpiece with a bow (rather like lighting a fire with a bow and a stick). The workpiece would be held vertically as opposed to the modern horizontal technique, but apart from this, and despite technological progress, the principle of operation has remained unchanged. If a turner from Bede’s time or earlier could see one of today’s Pole Lathes, he would be able to operate it without difficulty.
By the 16th century, the pole lathe had developed and was in common use in ‘Merrie England’. The power is provided at one end by a springy pole or an overhead branch and at the other end by a treadle (donkey power!) a cord between these is wrapped around the workpiece. On the down stroke of the treadle, the wood rotates forward and the chisel is applied to the wood, on the return stroke, the wood rotates backward and the chisel is withdrawn. Two big advantages over a modern powered machine are quiet operation and regular use keeps you fit!

Ye olde chair bodger was a skilled tradesman, he felled and coppiced to manage the woodlands and produce timber. The timber he produced was used to create whatever was needed. With other tools of the trade, E.g. a shave horse (a sort of mediaeval Black & Decker Workmate), a steamer (for softening wood for bending), etc. he produced chairs, stools, and other furniture, also general household items such as bowls, rolling pins and anything else that was round. The big drawback to this job (apart from the low wage) was that the bodger lived out in the woods, possibly sleeping in a bivouac next to the lathe, and was out there in all weathers - not a pleasant thought in a howling blizzard.

Way back in 1989/90 I was working with The British Trust For Conservation Volunteers (BTCV) in Gateshead. The National Garden Festival Gateshead 1990 was coming up and BTCV were doing a woodland garden. I was asked if I fancied learning green woodwork to do demonstrations there. Ever keen (!) I signed up for the job and was taught how to build a lathe and shave horse and learned turning along with various other skills. I spent a lot of time helping with construction work in the Woodland Garden, – wattle & daub, laying the floor of the Cruk Barn, etc., and of course, demonstrating the lathe to the public.
After the Garden Festival, I decided to build myself a Pole Lathe and at the same time I built one for Sunderland Rangers. These lathes were made with cheap timber from a local timber yard with the treadles being made from floorboards and the bottom of my mother-in-law’s old wardrobe. They worked very well and appeared at many public demonstrations as well as my lathe being seen in the garden on numerous occasions (giving the neighbours something to wonder at).
I have managed to pass on some of the skills I have learned. As a volunteer at the Derwent Walk Country Park and with the help of Brian, another bodger, I ran a short course for other volunteers; and several people tried their hand on the Rangers lathe, until finally, along came Ken who has proven very able. The two of us (dressed up as medieval peasants – I have been called worse!) make a good team at demonstrations.