The Tree of Heaven Project - Felling the Ailanthus

Today saw the start of an exciting new project for 2021. This ailing Ailanthus, or Tree of Heaven, was chopped from a very narrow space in Kensington by the skilled chaps at The tree company.


Tree surgeons and crane operators are highy skilled legends.

After a good deal of consultation with me and the client, the tree surgeon clambered up and around the tree, shackling parts of the crown and cutting them free. These upper branches are unusable for timber so they were removed in two large pieces with brash and all attached. It was very dramatic to see what was essentailly a small tree pulling away and floating through the air. I stood and watched and nodded and gave the thumbs up and tried to keep warm in the cold January weather.

Then the surgeon worked his way downwards, applying precise cuts at positions we agreed to help maximise the yield while the crane company worked their magic. The communication between the crane driver and their man on the ground was amazing. The driver sat in the cab on the street, unable to see the tree, the surgeon or his colleague but managed to pull out all the material, including the trunk from its base from the small garden and onto the road without touching a thing. The client has a carport just below the canopy of the tree and not one piece of the felled tree touched it, let alone crashed through it, as predicted by many.

The chipper is a beast that snatches the brash and smaller branches and devours them. The background, bone crunching sound is a constant reminder of what usually happens to felled trees but also of the the triump of the day . Whatever we salvage of this tree is better than the greedy demands of the chipper.

The yield at first view seems larger than predicted, the tree is in good condition above the root. There is a little rot or disease at the base of the tree but it has been caught at the right time and only extends into the timber about 15cm.  The trunk of the tree was felled in two pieces at 220cm long, which as an initial observation is adequate yield for the proposed projects.  Desktops, for example can be made from the trunks, while the two major limbs will offer material for leg posts and narrow rails if they can be put in the kiln.  Further to that, I retained countless small rounds for turning blanks and making greenwood items for the garden.

Ebonisation process in three stages - London Plane Lacewood

Burley & Daughter demonstrate the art of timber ebonisation, running through the three stages of the process; the preparation of the timber and the extraction of the tannins, the application of the ebonisation solution and finally, the finishing with WaxOil.

The London Plane Project - 3. Working with Lacewood & London Plane timber

Lacewood can be difficult to work and often traditional hand tools are most helpful in converting and shaping the wood into furniture and objects. The medullary rays leap in all directions and working the timber with machines can pull the fibres up and out - leaving deep unrecoverable tears. During the making of the pieces for the project I used a wire brushes, rasps and files, a cabinet scraper, a travisher, a spoke shave, bevel and gouge chisels and hand planes and hand saws.  However, where the character of the timber was less tricky I have used hand routers, router tables and the CNC machine for my final experiment.

 

Edges, Facets and curves

When shaping the dressing table in (mostly) wild lacewood, the hand tools came to the fore. I wanted to bring out many of the visual characteristics of London Plane in one furniture pieces. As well as hand cutting and chiselling the dovetailed drawers I used various hand planes to finish the edges of the top and hand carved and gouged certain areas to add a textural dimension.

 

Using the spoke shave

My favourite tool is the spokeshave, a squat two handed plane that removes material in a localised area. They come in both a convex and a concave profile. I use a convex profile to scoop facetted depressions into boards and legs.

In this video I am using the spoke shave to shape a curved facet on the inside leg of the dressing table.  I mark out accurately the area to work and with a very sharp blade, position correctly and held tightly.  I start removing material from the centre of the facet and work outwards from the centre towards the extremes, eventually working the whole length to create an even and smooth finish.  As I cut through the medullary rays at roughly 45 degrees, facets expose another weight of lacewood figure that looks halfway between the wild lacewood on the front face and the regular London plane on the outside face.