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[JK Lewis]

Afternoon all. Just to let you know I'll be felling another tree tomorrow (17th Oct) and hope to stream bits of the process on Facebook Live. Anyone who might be interested, search for Lewis Cricket on Facebook, I hope to get things kicked off around 8.30am.

Cheers, Justin

[manno]

Thats awesome justin. Definitely interested to see or at least hear how you get on second time round. Do you plan on cutting them oversized again or confident enough to drop the size in favour of increasing the number? Anyway. Keep us posted mate!

[JK Lewis]

Funny you mention that. I realise now that by splitting and cutting them as big as I did, I have simply managed to spend 8 months drying out all the bits that I now have to cut off. So, tomorrow's main focus will be to split the rounds to the correct size clefts and stop being so paranoid about them warping. To that end, I have enlisted an expert to help us tomorrow, so we should end up with a higher number of considerably smaller clefts.

[Buzz]

Good luck tomorrow!

[manno]

White gold!!!!!!! 

They look unreal Justin. I dont have fb but did have a quick look at your profile. How did it all go?

[leatherseat]

That should give you quite a few clefts to go at!

Why do you use wooden wedges, rather than metal ones, to split the rounds?

Looking forward to following the process over the coming months.

Thanks for sharing.
David

[JK Lewis]

That should give you quite a few clefts to go at!

Why do you use wooden wedges, rather than metal ones, to split the rounds?

Looking forward to following the process over the coming months.

Thanks for sharing.
David

Well spotted! Yeah, first time out I used metal wedges and sledgehammer, but it was all pretty brutal and the wedges did some damage to the soft timber. This time I got support from a well talented willow guy who brought his own kit. It's fascinating to see how the willow splits beautifully with the right tools, literally no brute force required. this is how the pro's do it, to minimise damage and maximise the yield of clefts. Amazing. You live and learn.

I should have shot more video! Sorry. Next time for sure.

Cheers, Justin

[JK Lewis]

White gold!!!!!!! 

They look unreal Justin. I dont have fb but did have a quick look at your profile. How did it all go?

Hi Manny

Yeah it went well mate, good day. Had a bigger crew this time so not so knackered! The wood is looking good and will be going off for the next steps of processing and drying next week.

Much more organised, and much higher yield expected this time. I learned from my mistakes for once!

All the best, Justin