Can I make all usual structures with just wood from my small woodland?

[Chubber]

Done a bit of clearing, splitting etc. You are working on a very small plot to extract construction sized lumber.

See 'Raymond Tabor - Traditional Woodland Crafts'. Sorry, can't find an ISBN number on mine.

It will give you information on how to look after your woodland, and importantly what to do with all the small stuff, (there will be huge amounts), the tools needed etc.. I think there is a drawing for a bothy.

A more positive route would be make stuff to sell through garden centres, car boot sales & use the cash to buy timber.

Oil drum charcoal comes to mind.

I envy you your new asset.

 

[Chubber]

Oh I do have a shovel......

Although not made for thicker stuff I noticed it isn't doing bad at taking off smaller branches with a few hacks and that is even when it isn't especially blunt....

I did bring some rough sandpaper with me .....

 

[Chubber]

Is this a wind up?

Hhm..Surely not! After all the OP does have a shovel and some rough sandpaper ....and he hacks things...

 

[okeydokey]

Hhm..Surely not! After all the OP does have a shovel and some rough sandpaper ....and he hacks things...

Might be
The op looks as if has just joined and throwing his dream out to see what happens. He mentioned his mum has many tools- saws and suchlike so disregard - the I only have a chisel and hammer.
Let him gather his tools and with the addition of a cheap bow saw which will cut anything he will come across - leave him to it.

 

[John Brown]

Is this a wind up?

If it is, it's fairly harmless.

 

[Bingy man]

Why would the op bother to waste his and our time on a wind up , he states his ideas were jeered at on another forum so why would he put himself through it again . There are those that exist in life that simply live off the land and some make a reasonable living doing it . If it is a wind up at least it’s original. I’d rather think it’s just someone who wants to try something different. Many years ago my friends dad designed a water saving device for toilet cisterns and tbh it was a tad heath robinson but it worked . He approached several manufacturers and they all turned him down. I can’t help thinking when I fit a modern cistern with the 1/2 flush facility and the ability to reduce the amount of water in the cistern that this is a posh version of my friends dads invention that has been copied.

 

[stuckinthemud]

Guessing games are fun. A hand axe and a saw are not mutually exclusive, they are partners. I cut my round wood with a good quality pruning saw as the narrow blade is less prone to binding in the stem, the saw also cuts to size but for shaping and cleaving a well sharpened hatchet is very hard to beat. However, once the roughing out is done, you need a knife.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

Is this a wind up?

another forum I posted on which got almost unanimous jeering naysayers about me being 'clueless' (well yea why would I make the post - to learn!) and that it is a 'pipedream by the fireside'.

I suspect it's not a wind-up, but more along the lines of an unlikely to be achieved but probably harmless dream. At this forum woodlearner981082 didn't get the chorus of jeering naysayers mentioned in his quote above but I do rather wonder if the supportive commentary expressed here is merely propping up an unlikely venture. Slainte.

 

[Matthew Woodworks]

I don't really like endless you tube videos, but i think you'll greatly enjoy and learn a lot from a guy known by his handle as Mr Chikadee. The worst that can happen is you'll find yourself snoozing in his glow of self sufficiency and skill

 

[niall Y]

Walden Pond springs to mind... It will at least be a voyage of self discovery.

Ben Law, mentioned previously, has managed to build a life based on his woodland so it is possible. Success, however, might well need the cooperation of other " fellow travellers" rather than being a solitary endeavor,

 

[duke]

Thanks. As stated earlier I have done some coppicing already under the instruction of professionals (or those who had been taught by) when I volunteered.

Did some pretty big ones. They pretty much left me too it after a while so I guess they felt somewhat confident in my abilities to leave me alone. The ones here are generally smaller than some of the ones I did there.

Sorry must have missed that!

 

[--Tom--]

Cut smaller pieces of timber, use them to make charcoal. Go to scrapyard and get some leaf springs. Use charcoal and hammer to forge leaf springs into tools. A froe and a drawknife first and then have a go at an axe. The biggest rock you can find can do duty as an anvil

 

[woodlearner9810182]

If it is, it's fairly harmless.

Looks like I spoke too soon about people being supportive here . Though the negative few does not detract (much) from the supportive and helpful majority.

 

[woodlearner9810182]

I don't really like endless you tube videos, but i think you'll greatly enjoy and learn a lot from a guy known by his handle as Mr Chikadee. The worst that can happen is you'll find yourself snoozing in his glow of self sufficiency and skill

Yes some select ones are good. I don't have unlimited internet any more though so have to be selective about what I use it for and videos are an awful squandering of the limited bandwidth unless I really knew it was going to be pivotal to learning something. Long ones not really going to be feasible at the moment.

I could can buy more but I am going to continue like this and see how I go because I spent so much time just watching video after video and falling into that cycle in the past I think it will be good to see how much I can ration my internet use to the essentials.

 

[woodlearner9810182]

Walden Pond springs to mind... It will at least be a voyage of self discovery.

Ben Law, mentioned previously, has managed to build a life based on his woodland so it is possible. Success, however, might well need the cooperation of other " fellow travellers" rather than being a solitary endeavor,

Actually another person who made it I am reminded of is Kris Harbour. I don't know much about him but know the general gist and came across his videos while doing my own research. Seems he started on a bigger scale with a lot bigger money behind him to begin.

I also read on his reddit ask me anything he too gets haters that is why he doesn't reply to his youtube comments with people saying negative stuff like 'your wooden hut is going to catch fire and burn down'.

Seems if you stick your head above the parapet of the status quo you will get a few shots fired at you.

 

[woodlearner9810182]

Cut smaller pieces of timber, use them to make charcoal. Go to scrapyard and get some leaf springs. Use charcoal and hammer to forge leaf springs into tools. A froe and a drawknife first and then have a go at an axe. The biggest rock you can find can do duty as an anvil

Interesting idea but it takes the wind out of sales out of the self-sufficiency focus.

I am going to go to buy food don't get me wrong, well until I can grow my own but that is a long way down the line.

I just don't want to buy when the option to make myself, or repurpose old stuff, is there for me.

Woodworking for shelters I can start right away though with a few tools, as people suggest.

 

[John Brown]

Looks like I spoke too soon about people being supportive here . Though the negative few does not detract (much) from the supportive and helpful majority.

My comment wasn't supposed to be unsupportive. Sorry if it came out that way!

 

[woodlearner9810182]

My comment wasn't supposed to be unsupportive. Sorry if it came out that way!

Not at all, I was merely quoting you as you were a supportive one quoting an unsupportive one.

 

[--Tom--]

Interesting idea but it takes the wind out of sales out of the self-sufficiency focus.

I am going to go to buy food don't get me wrong, well until I can grow my own but that is a long way down the line.

I just don't want to buy when the option to make myself, or repurpose old stuff, is there for me.

Woodworking for shelters I can start right away though with a few tools, as people suggest.

Genuine interest - why would forging your own tools using charcoal you make from your woods be less self sufficient? To my mind being able to make tools you need is more a step towards reducing reliance on the outside world.

I guess salvage leaf springs don’t come from the land but I was guessing that line was slightly blurred already

 

[duke]

Sorry must have missed that!

I based my comment on that you did some coppicing while volunteering. Not knowing the level of instruction you received.
Was this a one day course ?