Hello from Herefordshire

[Woodsmith]

Hi! I am Andy Findlay. My wife Hazel and I have just purchased a few acres of ancient woodland in Herefordshire. The wood has not been managed or touched in any way for at least 40 years and is wonderful. We are lucky to have three large existing old farm buildings in the wood, two of which we will use for storage. We hope to use the largest shed and area around it for running low impact off-grid blacksmithing courses during summer months (I have been a smith for 30 years) using charcoal from the wood as fuel and collected rainwater, bellows etc..Some of the courses will focus on toolmaking and bushcraft implements.

The wood is mainly large broadleaf, old coppiced sweet chestnut, some of which are very large, with some mature oak and ash with a good understorey of hazel, ash, and holly.

All this is a year or two down the road, the first thing we need to do is get to know the wood and it's inhabitants and formulate a management plan although we intend to tread very lightly indeed.

Any comments or advice from folk doing similar things would be much appreciated

Cheers

Andy

[Dexter's Shed]

welcome to the forum, sounds like you have struck it lucky with the existing buildings,

[SimonFisher]

Hello and welcome.

I'd certainly suggest, as you indicate you're intending, allow some time to pass where you can observe and learn about your wood before you start any significant changes.

For the charcoal production, are you thinking of a ring kiln or a retort?


Simon

[The Barrowers]

Welcome Sounds Lovely
Keep us informed of progress

[Woodsmith]

Hi Simon

I will probably be building a retort as they are supposed to give off less harmful methane if you direct the output gases from the retort into the heating/combustion chamber below,the combustion changing the methane to CO2. I think a retort may be more controllable too. I believe one should use brash and other 'waste' to fire the retort. Makes sense to me. It will all be on a very small scale to suit the wood.


Andy

[Dexter's Shed]

I'd be interested to hear your progress with the charcoal production, even if it is in a years time, Im looking at trying something on a very small scale using an oil drum, to produce charcoal for a small homemade forge we made, still working on the anvil (piece of railway track) but too much rain for me at the moment

[Andy M]

If you want to make your own retort on a small scale, look at James Hookway's design.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6AfHjUIYv0

I saw it at the Bodgers Ball in 2011 and was very impressed.

[Woodsmith]

If you want to make your own retort on a small scale, look at James Hookway's design.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6AfHjUIYv0

I saw it at the Bodgers Ball in 2011 and was very impressed.

Great design Andy , thanks for the link, best one I've seen so far although I think I go rather larger and use stronger materials

[Woodsmith]

I'd be interested to hear your progress with the charcoal production, even if it is in a years time, Im looking at trying something on a very small scale using an oil drum, to produce charcoal for a small homemade forge we made, still working on the anvil (piece of railway track) but too much rain for me at the moment

I will start a new thread somewhere on here when I start making it. Congrats on making a forge, are you using bellows? You can do a lot with a rail anvil.

[Dexter's Shed]

I'm currently looking into making a foot bellow to leave both hands free, but here's what I did so far

http://youtu.be/X4rg0BiY4CA