Mallet and Kazoo Making with Oak Group

Over the past, term. Oak Group have become competent in the use of a range of tools from fixed blade knives to bow saws. Today they were putting our skills into practice to make kazoos and mallets. Mallet making required them to use a new tool, a billhook, to cleave the wood to make the mallet handle.

We began by discussing responsible use of wood. For many woodworking projects, green wood (freshly cut wood) is preferable as it is easier to cut and carve. It may seem irresponsible to cut down living trees but it can when done as part of a woodland management plan, be beneficial to the woodland. There are three main reasons why we cut living trees in our woodland.

1) Removing unsafe, damaged or diseased branches.

2) Coppicing (which extends the lifespan of hardwood trees).

3) Thinning (to allow stronger saplings the space and light to grow by removing less healthy ones).

You should always have the permission of the landowner before cutting down any trees or branches and have the relevant risk assessments, woodland management plans and ecological impact assessments in place.

Today we used coppiced hazel for our projects along with some side branches that were removed due to them being damaged.

The branch Elliot used to create his mallet wasn't quite circular so we were a little concerned it wouldn't work out but we persevered. With Danish's help, Elliot was able to cleave the handle using the billhook. On testing the billhook we found that the slightly egg shaped head of the mallet worked really well as it concentrated the impact of the strike in one place. Elliot was very proud of his finished mallet and in looking forward to helping Danish make his mallet next time.

Meanwhile, Anisha, Connaugh and Ellie built on skills learned last we to make a start on creating kazoos.

Luke concentrated on using the bow saw to remove damaged and diseased branches from trees. November to March is the best time of year to carry out this type of work as the trees are entering their rest period so they will not bleed out excessive sap and their are less pathogens in the air that could attack the cut branches.