Demonstrations
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Friday – Sunday: Woodworking fun with Roy Underhill
Witness the wit and shenanigans of Roy Underhill all weekend.
Friday, October 17th
Bow Drill Friction Fire with Nico Piedrahita
1-2 PM: How did people make fire before the flint and steel striker? With friction, of course! A little more than just rubbing two sticks together, bow drill is an efficient fire making technique that can be modified for use as a drill for wood, bone, and stone. Get your hands on the bow drill, and maybe even the hand drill for an even more ancient technique!
Tree Identification Walk with Damien Ossi
2 – 3PM: Take a stroll through the wooded property and learn a few tricks for identifying trees along the way.
Naval Stores and The Real Tar Heels: A History Of The Long Leaf Pine Forest with Earl Ijames
3PM: Farmer, Historian, and Preservationist Earl L. Ijames shares the cultural, economic, and natural history of the long leaf pine forests. With primary source artifacts, documents, historical images, and yes, real long leaf pine trees, Ijames gives a live demonstration and evolution of the term “Tar Heels”. It’s a real “pitch” for history and “stave” for conservation!
Making Spoon Gouges with Barron Brown
4PM: Barron will show you how save money and be more resourceful by showing you how to forge and heat treat a bent spoon or bowl gouge using a torch. Learn how to watch the temper colors move along the metal till it’s ready for the quench.
Saturday, October 18th
Blacksmithing with Dan Green of Woodcrest Farm
9AM – 4PM: See local blacksmith, Dan Green of Woodcrest Farm, demonstrate the tricks of the trade at intervals throughout the day.
Traditional White Oak Basket Making
with Neal Thomas
9AM – 4PM: Neal will describe how and where to cut the pole, a 6’ section of the 5-6” tree. Then the billets are cleaved out and riven out of the white oak pole with a froe and riving break into halves, then quarters and eights. From the billets, basket ribs and handles are split through the growth rings and carved out. Weavers are thinned with a shave horse and draw knife and then scraped with a knife. Then Neal will demonstrate how he weaves his lovely traditional white oak baskets, if we are lucky he will sell a few.
Spoon Template Design and Inkscape
with Sunny Beach
9-10 AM: Participants will learn the process by which they can create vector illustrations of spoon designs. Bring a spoon image on your phone and we will work with Inkscape (free vector software). The end product is an emailed printable PDF of your design at the correct scale. This demo covers the basics of vector artwork as well as specific tools in Inkscape that help with spoon templates.
No computer needed at GreenWood Wrights’ Fest. Materials will be available to help you follow the process at home.
So….You want to sell some spoons?
11AM – 12PM: Join Tad Kepley and Sunny Beach for a discussion about selling spoons at markets.
Figure Four Traps with Nico Piedrahita
1PM: Figure four traps are all-wood primitive deadfall traps, perfect for use in a survival situation. All you have is a knife? You can gather some sticks, and in a few short hours have a series of traps for anything from squirrels to possums!
Axes from Around the World with Tad Kepley
1-2PM: In this Demonstration you will get a firsthand look at Tad’s extensive axe collection of approximately 25 Carving Axes from around the world. See some of the best carving axes for greenwood carving from the USA, Sweden, United Kingdom, Ukraine and Latvia.
Spring Pole Lathe with Mozzy the Maker
2-3 PM: Live spring bowl lathe bowl turning!
Spring Pole Lathe with Jasper Mayer
3-4 PM: Live spring bowl lathe bowl turning!
Spoons from Around the World with Tad Kepley
3-4PM: In this Demonstration you will get a firsthand look at over (70) seventy hand carved spoons from around the world. Spoons carved by the late Mr. Wille Sundqvist, Fritiof Runhall, Adam Hawker, Pat Diette, Derek Sanderson, barn the Spoon, Dan Lawrence, Dave Fisher, JoJo Wood and many more.
The demonstration will also take a look at green wood projects to include; Kuksa, Shrink Pot, bag clips, ring bowls, egg cups, buttons, beads, coat hook, bird bowl and more.
Tree Identification Walk with Damien Ossi
4PM: Take a stroll through the wooded property and learn a few tricks for identifying trees along the way.
Sunday, October 19th
Handsaw Sharpening with Richard Moore
9AM: Learn to sharpen your handsaws and make them sing! You will learn about tooth geometry for rip and crosscut saws, and how to straighten them and clean them up. Once you lear to tune up your old saw, it will perform like magic.
Tree Identification Walk with Damien Ossi
10AM: Take a stroll through the wooded property and learn a few tricks for identifying trees along the way.
Blacksmithing Field Trip with Peter Ross
11AM: Visit the local workshop of Peter Ross, the preeminent whitesmith for museum-quality locks and tools. He specializes in reproductions of 17th and 18th century English American wrought ironwork, black and bright.
Marvelous Moravian Workbench! with Will Myers
11AM: Overview of the Moravian workbench and construction techniques.
Blacksmithing Field Trip with Peter Ross
1:30PM: Visit the local workshop of Peter Ross, the preeminent whitesmith for museum-quality locks and tools. He specializes in reproductions of 17th and 18th century English American wrought ironwork, black and bright.
Plant ID with Callan Burton-Shore
1PM: In this class we will take a walk and learn about some of the trees and plants around us (and what we can use them for!). Then we will play some fun games to help us remember what we learned and maybe even snack on some edible plants!
Dough Bowl Carving with Nico Piedrahita
2PM: Come learn about the Appalachian dough bowl, and how it was traditionally made! Using hand tools and a “bowl bench”, I’ll be turning a poplar log into a big bowl perfect for mixing up biscuit dough or cornbread batter for a large family.
Shaker Candle Stand with Will Myers
3PM: One of the most iconic Shaker furniture pieces the spider leg candle stand. Overview of construction techniques and details often overlooked in this simple but not so simple piece.