I'm all for guerrilla style, I've been making outdoor furniture and leaving it out for people to interact with. Some were stolen right away, but after time it's created a few new public areas that a lot of people are using. It's pretty fulfilling to see people you never meet get enjoyment from your work.
I’m thinking you should be signing or marking up your stuff as “Whimbles of Wombledom “. UK joke, but meant in the nicest possible way. Let me know if you don’t get it.
Educator. Full stop. Your conversation with James W the other day was great, but you seemed unsure of how to describe your profession. I know your background is in education and I believe you have simply traded the traditional classroom for one with a wider reach, engaged students, and an endless “lesson plan” that encourages creativity and self expression. You are an educator sir, and a damn good one at that. Make cool stuff right now with what you have. Rex will help you find a way to do just that with an old screw driver, an empty sweet n sour sauce container, and last year’s tax return. I exaggerate, but you get the point that you encourage resourcefulness and productivity. It’s seriously necessary for us to live those principles. Thank you Rex. -Castor
You're in no way exaggerating. And old screwdriver can become a chisel, soak things like bark and/or used coffee grounds in mineral spirits in the sweet 'n sour bottle to make woodstain, and use the tax return as a daubber for applying the stain.
@@taitano12 You Nailed It! Creative as all get out and a damn good idea for a carving/etching lesson! Sharpening the driver and using it to carve, gouge, or scratch a decorative design or signature into your workpiece. Then apply homemade organic stain from the Mc-litter you’ve repurposed using a crumpled wad of paper (taxes). I bet you could get some pretty incredible results if taken seriously considering the contrasts that appear from preparation with normal stains and finishes. Hot damn! Another interesting and productive woodworking conversation inspired by the master! Thank you! -Castor
“Small houses on little plots of land” - shows scene of (by UK standards) large detached houses on plots that our developers would be building apartment blocks on.
All it takes is a little perspective. When I lived in Georgia & Alabama I thought our little 2 or 5 acre lots were tiny, and a 45 minute drive to the grocery store was normal. Now in Arizona 1/8 acre lots and zero lot lines are the norm and I feel like I could hand my neighbor the shampoo when he’s in his shower and I’m in my bedroom. I didn’t appreciate at the time how awesome it was to not hear my neighbors every move. A few apartments and tiny houses later, now I appreciate it. Cheers!
Rex, Thanks for this different kind of video. I’m just a teenager working out of a very, very small corner of the garage and this is giving me some big ideas. Thank you!
I love the idea of taking a log through milling, to stock prep, finally to furniture making. This video really piqued my interest as it's something I think about at the moment. Would definitely watch a series of videos along these lines. Great job :)
The old craft used no milling. Riving and hewing were how they reduced log timber into staves and planks. Riving does it without removing wood, hewing with an axe can remove wood at a rate that rivals milling.
I'm lucky enough to have a friend with 10 acres of land, so I spent the weekend turning a log into a stool, and a small plank for another project. I really have you to thank for all I've learned about working with wood!
Even tho' you can't legally cut down a tree, keep an eye on that lot. I'm pretty sure that the city would allow you to pack out some wood from a tree that falls due to natural causes. In old editions of the Boy Scout Fieldbook, there are plans for a pack frame that would allow you to haul out 2-4' sections (depending on diameter and species). If I can find my copy, I'll send you the plans. BTW, I'm lucky in that I have a park on the other side of my back fence. A rather large Black Cottonwood fell in just the past month. It doesn't make the best furniture. I hear it works and looks similar to poplar, But there are a bunch of smaller branches that I plan on hauling home to use for spoon making. I may try and haul back some bigger pieces once the wet weather comes back and we can use chainsaws again.
Fallen trees are some of the best habitat for massive volumes of insects and organisms, they are a hugely important part of forests. If you can, try to leave some for nature!
It depends on the city, county, and even the individual lot and tree. You may want to contact the City/County to consult first. A lot of times you can get a permit for one or two trees a year on a lot as large as this one.
Most of my shop is outdoors, but then, I'm building our house and live on 20 acres of woodland adjacent to a wildlife preserve ad within a state game land ;) I've got an area where I'm gradually organizing the space to be our outdoor classroom and teaching shop. It's really nice when the weather cooperates, but there can be some mad dashes to put things away when it goes wrong, and Michigan winters aren't much for working outdoors ;)
Rex Figures it Out? Nononono, Rex Goes Hiking 🤣 good video man. I like the exploration side. I have found myself engrossed in examining trees and wondering about them as I take walks with my family. Always interesting to think through how the wood lives and grows into what we love to do every day. The info about flat ground vs slope is super interesting, and I never even thought about that! Thanks for all the insights
Im a green wood worker, and I'm just about to move into a new house with 3 acres of forest. Can't wait to set up my outdoor shop. I already source all my materials from the forest.
@@linusyootasteisking I try to avoid cutting down trees. I use wood that comes down after a storm, or I find trees with multiple leader trunks and remove the smaller one. The property has lots of old apple trees that need pruning too, so I see lots of apple wood in my future too.
I've just been watching, an introduction to green woodworking, and this came up. I've been following Rex for a few years now and become a patron recently. I'm fortunate in that I've just moved to the USA and have 3 acres of woodland. When I moved in there were several trees that had been taken down for cosmetic reasons and a few that storms had brought down, some in quite a dramatic fashion. I'm still in the process of setting up a workshop in my two-car garage. And have made a few mallets from the rounds piled just adjacent to the garage. I intend to work more green wood and in the woods once I establish an area where I can set up. I may decide to move around to where the larger piles of wood are 🤔
Very informative! My grandfather has a large plot of land in Mexico and next time I visit I'll have to go out and have some fun fantasizing about starting a shop in the woods!
Guerrilla woodworking sounds way more exciting than it really is. I used to do that in university. To practice i eventually started to secretly refurbish and repair the furniture that was used in campus. Try to hide clamps and wood finishes in a bookbag :) Edit: to clarify: i studied in what used to be a huge Austrian-built 19th century sanatorium complex. It's crazy how few people i actually had around after classes.
My school had an explicit policy that unauthorized repair was vandalism. Turned us good kids into a bunch of vandals that never got caught. Although it is a somewhat necessary thing to have on the books at an engineering school, limited the scope of our work to unnoticeable things.
Hey Rex, just saw Steve Ramsey’s newest video and I saw a familiar face, it was so nice to see you being highlighted that way, it shows people all around see the good work you are doing
This was a very pleasing video brings me back to when I was a kid building forts in the wood now that I’m in my 70s it only seems like yesterday I was in my woods
I'm surprised nobody commented on how...brilliant... the thumbnail is. Thought-provoking video, especially hit close to home on the daydreaming/romanticizing part. I have the luck of living in Scotland which is very green and has amazing nature, but I also have the misfortune of living right in the city centre, so the idea of doing pretty much anything out there is very appealing. If only it weren't raining 6 days out of 7... Makes me actually wonder how the bodgers dealt with the endless rain.
I LOVE tree talk and identification so it was super cool to learn new things such as the tension that builds in an incline-growing tree. Thanks for all the new information, Rex!
Great show Rex. I grew up in KY, lived a while in GA, currently live in NC; and the area you show here is familiar to so many of us from Maine to Minnesota to Louisiana to Florida. We’ve lost a lot of our craft culture and art since the start of the 20th century, and episodes like this are a giant leap for humanity on the road to meaning and fulfillment. There is romance and rigor in knowing the lay of the land, and appreciating the resources of its bounty, and I think you put that on display here.
I got into greenwood working when I lived in northern Canada with unlimited woodland. I especially loved working with diamond willow. I now live in southern Saskatchewan but I carry on as best I can. I use unwanted wood like large saplings, tree limbs, and the rare tree. My projects are limited to the wood I can get. At the very least I can make walking sticks, canes, and simple chairs and tables. For city folk, check around, people may have large limbs or small trees may need removal. Check for woodworking clubs, tree surgeons, and parks and recreation folks. Thanks for the video.
I don't have a ton of land but I have hickory, cherry, oak, persimmon, sasafras and others all with my shop (an actual shop, with power, water etc) right in the middle. Moving out of the city has been one of my best life choices.
Rex, get out of my head! I start a shave horse project and before I'm done, you've got one made. Then I am resolving to use the woods I've got (hey, I've got forested land) to start a project, and here you are talking about sites. But seriously, thanks for all you do: you have the right combination of education and entertainment that makes all your videos a treat.
Fun video! St. Roy had a few episodes in the field, splitting timbers and bringing them back to the shop. I like how you've made it realistic for city and suburbans.
This is how I always walk around, wherever I am. Been doing it since childhood. In this way I find hidden spots and useful stuff, like a bicycle wheel to drive my lathe, nice pieces of wood to work with, corrugated iron to make a roof for my chicken coop and so on. I guess I am a scavenger by and in nature.
Thanks for ALL your videos Rex. I don’t know about setting up a shop on public forest but I do collect wood in my local forest with the permission of the forester ( just fallen trees and no chainsaws allowed). I love visiting the forest, getting my ( hidden) saw and hand sawing for hours. I’ve been using the wood as firewood but would love to do more greenwood processing.....looking forward to your future greenwood videos.
Living in Ohio, I whole heartedly agree that woodworking outside gives much needed refreshment after a long winter, and Covid isolation. I prefer 75-85 degree weather over the 65 deg in my basement shop and working in sunlight gives my body a chance to make some sorely needed vitamin D! This weekend I finally finished my chopping block from an old fallen hickory tree. I must admit that I used a chainsaw for most of the cutting and I used only 2x4 blocks to keep the 30 inch long, 12 inch diameter log off the ground. I did bore several holes by hand-quite a good workout with a 4 inch brace. Also, I cut(chainsawed) a ledge on one side to hold boards upright for tenons/dovetails if the need arises outside. Next project for outside work: shaving horse(and I see Rex posted that video just 3 weeks ago) Thanks!
My city supports the preservation of green spaces and people's access to them. There is a municipality-supported volunteer organization that maintains small woods for their owners, keeping them from becoming garbage dumps, cleaning up storm-damage, felling unhealthy trees, etc. I'm starting doing some green woodworking there. (This is in the Tokyo-side urbanized area of Chiba, Japan).
I was in Columbus a month ago for a cousin's wedding and I couldn't help thinking about you, but also noticing the thickness of the woods! Growing up in southern California it's quite the difference! Also the "no mow, protected area" signs are hilarious
That's also something i've noticed. We often don't know our imediate enviroment and often just walking a couple of meters into a different directions makes it seem like you're in another world. So over the last years i made it a habit to explore every corner of my imediate enviroment. It's really astonishing how many beautifull places one can find nearby. Some time ago i found a beever in the middle of the city! The beever lives in a small river there. Who would have thought that?!
There is a couple acres of woodland a half block from my house. It is a city wetland area and does flood occasionally. The neighbor's son did some fort building in this woodland and borrowed an old handsaw from me to cut up stuff for his fort. Interesting concept having a woodland shop.
Finding those forts in the woods was quite the nice find. Good memories no doubt, it'd be a wild coincidence if the builder of said fort stumbles on this video eventually
now check the land maps with the county and see who actually owns that land, as it can't be built on there might be a small corner someone wants to sell.
When you talk of the old badgers in England it is worth noting that they rented a wood on contract with the landowner and those woods were not wild woods but had been managed for hundreds of years with most bodging done in coppiced woods where they were harvesting coppiced saplings not felling individual trees. Charcoal makers worked similarly. A disappeared side income of the old boys was selling the bark to tanners or working the bark into baskets etc. It was a complex economic environment that they worked in and woods were harvested on a multi year cycle (@8 year cycle IIRC) and they were committed to maintaining the management of the woods by traditional restrictive practices. Broom making was another woodland product.
The walk in the woods is a great idea. I knew I was going to like it right from the beginning. Keep tracking your interests. I'll bet many of us will follow you.
Great place to bring a hatchet, sloyd knife, find or bring a nice stump, have a seat and carve a spoon or something while enjoying the “quiet majesty” of the woods. A lap vise is very portable. So is a rope vise that simply loops over a stump on legs
Knockdown benches etc and a bag with your tools to carry in and out is a good set up for a woodland shop, keep the benches tucked in a brush pile and carry your tools to and from the site.
The Shakers will be glad to have you working along Doan Brook ! What a great way to uphold their traditions! Just be careful when crossing Fairmount Blvd ! 😉
What a different video. How great that you have this within walking distance of your home. We are moving next year, hopefully there is a little spot there... See any mountain bike trails in there?
Really enjoyed this video. Myself and a friend used to spend weekends in the woods with our dogs and a couple of knives. We used to make basic shelters like the ones you saw. You basically make them more and more dense with lighter and lighter branches and then eventually throw leaf litter over until you can't see any light. Infact, I spent my stag do doing the same 🤣
Man you're making me really want to finally build a little work station in the woods. Great video just might of force my hand on a little peaceful work place.
Living, as I do near the New Forest in southern England, I found this video amazing! Your woodland looks so similar to parts of the Forest near me where the English bodgers actually worked. Thanks for the informative departure 👍
I will watch anything you make 👍 I actually enjoy the occasional randomness and forays into more "theoretical" aspects of woodworking on this channel. Breaks the monotony of the "watch me build a thing" model.
Ah Rex, brilliant! to do this in the UK would be very tricky as every corner of land is owned by someone, however you have given me some great ideas, thanks, Some years ago I did a chair making (bodgers) course in the woods, all with hand tools and loved it, thanks for another great vid, stay safe
I am blessed to live on a 2-acre wooded lot that I own. It's mostly red maple, red & white oak, and eastern white pine. Last year I cut down several dead standing pines and made them into a Roubo bench - with only hand tools. I cut the trees with an axe & bow saw, flattened them by cutting kerfs and then hacking off the joggles with a machete (yeah, not the standard way, but it's what I had). Then I planed them down and glued them into a 4" thick bench top, set that on a pair of saw horses and used it to build the frame. I did all of that outside. I ended up pitching a garage-type canopy to work under when it was raining. What a blast. This year I'm working on a timber framed shop. I don't know if I'll finish, but I don't care. I like doing more than having.
This looks like a great new direction to explore. Don't ignore the sycamore! If you split it you can get perfectly quartersawn surfaces, and in sycamore that can compete with any exotic for beauty.
I might be the only person who wants this, but a Woodwright's Shop style intro with you haring off into the woods by your house to a temporary (even outdoor) woodshop with your green woodworking tools and benches set up would, I think, be awesome.
great video Rex, I do mostly green wood work it's really enjoyable and a great way to kill some time. I would like to point out though that as much as I would encourage others to get out and enjoy nature, randomly wandering off into the woods can be dangerous and at times easy to get lost. so if you plan to do it please be smart about it, a small pack with a pocket knife, matches, bottle of water, protein bar and a cheap compass could save your life.
I thought it was an interesting video style. Very relaxing on a Thursday morning with coffee. I wouldn't want to change ALL the videos to this style, but every few videos it would be neat. Also would love to see green woodworking videos!
I have absolutely no use for this information... but still enjoyed watching it. I'm glad you do topics like this, even if they're not for everyone - it adds a little something to the channel as a whole.
I was very glad, when you, finally, got to the point, about this not being a good idea, in populated ares. At the beginning, I thought, for sure, your next video would be a friend filming you through bars. 😱😰😳
@Aleph Leonine: In the US, we have laws about taking trees, and even fallen logs, from public property, whether it be local state or federal. If you are too far from home (even 300m), in a wooded area, you could be subject to some Serious questioning. We have a lot of bad things happening in wooded areas, local to populated areas.
Just taking up green woodworking in England Kent. So as I’m severely visually impaired would love to listen to more of American the way you do it over there.. Sure you could talk to your local council or whoever owns the land you might be able to take Deadwood from there as it would help them as well and could set up a group to start clearing it to open it up to your neighbourhood and let them know what’s a beautiful thing around you, You might be able to teach more people in your local area all about the woods win-win for everyone then
This is a cool video because it opens up a whole different side of wood working that is lost to many of us. I would appreciate some more reviews or diy videos on some of the specific tools (like finding a good draw knife) that pertains to green wood working.
Love this approach and the fascinating information that comes from RK, whom I’ve enjoyed for years now. Even if I only work in my shop, I can feel what early chair makers must have felt out in the woods. Many years ago we lived in Westlake, OH, and had a little patch of woodlands and a stream in the backyard. Sadly, I wasn’t woodworking back then and I do miss the Cleveland area. Utah, with its scenery and good people, make a fine substitute however. And I just cut down a fine maple tree for; you guessed it.
Great video, this is something I've been thinking about for a while now and if the economy gets any worse I might have to build a shop in the woods to live in, that's not a joke.
Rex, I adored this video. I love bushcraft videos, and I love your woodworking, especially the woodwork for Humans type stuff, and this is both of those things blended together. It would be so much fun to see you take a backpack of tools: slojd knife, saw, drawknife, hatchet, brace and bit, maybe a ratchet strap to use as an improvised shave horse, and go out to this spot you found, and make something. Perhaps a half a log version of the low, Roman workbench, and leave it out there and see what happens. Come back and make a spoon or a chair part or two. A backpack size woodworking kit, used in the woods like some sort of modern bodger would be fantastic. Also, thanks for your commentary about choosing a spot, and what to look for in trees for woodworking. That kind of information is invaluable. Love your videos so much, and this is my favorite so far. Awesome work.
I see a project in the future, a portable shave horse that straps on your back or has wheels (big ones) You could make the legs so they can be driven in then out. All you need is a drawknife, a chisel, a mallet, and a saw (and you could use a folding pruning saw). and a hatchet.
well that was a nice break from the usual (but still great) videos at the very least it reminds me to look at my surroundings, also inspires me to go out more while I wait for your newest book to be delivered ( Amazon delayed it again ). Nice Job :) keep up the excellent work
I *loved* this video and would be really happy to see more of this type of thing- as long as you don't stop doing the woodworking/ tool videos as well :-)
That woodland/wetlands spot near your place is very similar to the area adjacent to my neighborhood. I’ve only used it as a shortcut hike to my nearby old town area, but maybe there are new things to be discovered… :)
Hi rex iam from the county of Buckinghamshire UK where the boggers and chair makers were from they sold most of the stuff they made to the furniture factories in high wycombe. Beach, ash,oak and box tree wood are some of the most common trees growing in the hills around because they grow well in the acidic chalky soil in south of England near by is the chalk cutting of white leaf cross is so called because the shade of leafs of the tree that grew on it the tree were all cut down by the boggers who planted new trees so now the forest is green not white beach leafs. Told to me by an old craftsman who still lives in site of the chalk cutting
North American woods are different to northern European ones. Consider this for your next horror film frightfest: American woods are really open on the forest floor - you can see such a long way. Unmanaged European ones have dense plants with huge thorns that can rip chunks out of your face and are impassable without a machete or a saw. You can't actually run safely, and you certainly can't see through all the low-level foliage.
It’s good to open your eyes. I search the creek and it’s banks around my house for wood that’s been pushed down in floods. I also gorilla plant fruit trees in land I don’t own for curious people to discover. I look inside every skip I come across in an effort to save something from landfill.
I know that in Minnesota you can get harvest permits if you want to bring a tree down in a public forest. It may not be impossible for you to set up in that woodland. You should inquire at city hall about the regulations in your area.
I love how apparent Rex's ADHD is once he's out of his shop. He can't keep eye contact with the camera because he's just so damn excited to be outside and take everything in. It's just so nice to watch :)
@@nofanealbni I mean... It looks like it. He can't stay focused on the camera and his eyes are darting around. Also - a lot of creative people tend to have ADHD. but I'm obviously making assumptions here.
@@nofanealbni Welcome to the club! Remember that's it's not merely an attention *deficit*. It's a shift of the mind's focus. ADHD brings with it struggles, for sure. But if you're ready to be a little creative - it can bring a lot of good to your life :)
Hey Rex I. Would love to see more videos like this it would be super cool also waiting for when u make that pole lathe watching every video as always thanks see u next week
How can anyone NOT like this video? Or do they just mark it just to mark it negatively? In any case I really liked this one, I have always enjoyed a good wander through the woods, even if there was no purpose to it.
Huh. Living in Sweden, apart from the city centres of our largest cities there’s woods within walking distance pretty much everywhere. To the point it’s possible to get lost in the woods while still technically being in a city.
Awesome Rex, would love to hear more about the history of woodland furniture - perhaps you could tie it in with some furniture investigation, like you did with the country carpenter table? Maybe you could find some samples in museums? Love your work, cheers
I wonder if any of the local historical societies have any woodworking projects or initiatives you might take advantage of or participate in? Living history museums are a good place to start, getting time to work and occasionally do demonstrations for museum patrons.
Hey Rex, Love your stuff. If you ever want a forest to do green woodworking in, I have one in Austin Texas you can use. About 6 acres, with a stream. I know that's a long trip from Ohio, but maybe for a quick video series you could take a trip. I'd hate to have it available and not to say anything.
Made me homesick for the family home back in Missouri. 150 acres of beautiful wooded valley, with deer, turkey, a flowing river nearby... and lots of tourists that like to steal your dogs.
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I'm all for guerrilla style, I've been making outdoor furniture and leaving it out for people to interact with. Some were stolen right away, but after time it's created a few new public areas that a lot of people are using. It's pretty fulfilling to see people you never meet get enjoyment from your work.
Even if they get stolen, at least someone benefits from it!
I like making ephemera and just putting it out in the world.
That's absolutely adorable - and a hell of a community service!
I’m thinking you should be signing or marking up your stuff as “Whimbles of Wombledom “. UK joke, but meant in the nicest possible way. Let me know if you don’t get it.
@@3232groundhog I don't, I'm in the US so I'm missing context. I like the sound of it.
Educator. Full stop.
Your conversation with James W the other day was great, but you seemed unsure of how to describe your profession. I know your background is in education and I believe you have simply traded the traditional classroom for one with a wider reach, engaged students, and an endless “lesson plan” that encourages creativity and self expression.
You are an educator sir, and a damn good one at that.
Make cool stuff right now with what you have. Rex will help you find a way to do just that with an old screw driver, an empty sweet n sour sauce container, and last year’s tax return. I exaggerate, but you get the point that you encourage resourcefulness and productivity. It’s seriously necessary for us to live those principles.
Thank you Rex.
-Castor
You're in no way exaggerating.
And old screwdriver can become a chisel, soak things like bark and/or used coffee grounds in mineral spirits in the sweet 'n sour bottle to make woodstain, and use the tax return as a daubber for applying the stain.
@@taitano12 You Nailed It! Creative as all get out and a damn good idea for a carving/etching lesson! Sharpening the driver and using it to carve, gouge, or scratch a decorative design or signature into your workpiece. Then apply homemade organic stain from the Mc-litter you’ve repurposed using a crumpled wad of paper (taxes). I bet you could get some pretty incredible results if taken seriously considering the contrasts that appear from preparation with normal stains and finishes.
Hot damn! Another interesting and productive woodworking conversation inspired by the master!
Thank you!
-Castor
“Small houses on little plots of land” - shows scene of (by UK standards) large detached houses on plots that our developers would be building apartment blocks on.
All it takes is a little perspective. When I lived in Georgia & Alabama I thought our little 2 or 5 acre lots were tiny, and a 45 minute drive to the grocery store was normal. Now in Arizona 1/8 acre lots and zero lot lines are the norm and I feel like I could hand my neighbor the shampoo when he’s in his shower and I’m in my bedroom. I didn’t appreciate at the time how awesome it was to not hear my neighbors every move. A few apartments and tiny houses later, now I appreciate it.
Cheers!
@@0ddSavant Amen. Round here has to be more than 10 to count as acreage. I've enough forest to cut for my needs forever. No more city for me.
Rex, Thanks for this different kind of video. I’m just a teenager working out of a very, very small corner of the garage and this is giving me some big ideas. Thank you!
I love the idea of taking a log through milling, to stock prep, finally to furniture making. This video really piqued my interest as it's something I think about at the moment. Would definitely watch a series of videos along these lines. Great job :)
Check out Matt Cremona. Lots of milling there.
Also look at Peter Follansbee from log to furniture with only hand tools.
The old craft used no milling. Riving and hewing were how they reduced log timber into staves and planks. Riving does it without removing wood, hewing with an axe can remove wood at a rate that rivals milling.
I'm lucky enough to have a friend with 10 acres of land, so I spent the weekend turning a log into a stool, and a small plank for another project. I really have you to thank for all I've learned about working with wood!
Even tho' you can't legally cut down a tree, keep an eye on that lot. I'm pretty sure that the city would allow you to pack out some wood from a tree that falls due to natural causes. In old editions of the Boy Scout Fieldbook, there are plans for a pack frame that would allow you to haul out 2-4' sections (depending on diameter and species). If I can find my copy, I'll send you the plans. BTW, I'm lucky in that I have a park on the other side of my back fence. A rather large Black Cottonwood fell in just the past month. It doesn't make the best furniture. I hear it works and looks similar to poplar, But there are a bunch of smaller branches that I plan on hauling home to use for spoon making. I may try and haul back some bigger pieces once the wet weather comes back and we can use chainsaws again.
Fallen trees are some of the best habitat for massive volumes of insects and organisms, they are a hugely important part of forests. If you can, try to leave some for nature!
One of the most beautiful pieces of wood I carved a spoon from, was compression wood from a Cottonwood.
It depends on the city, county, and even the individual lot and tree. You may want to contact the City/County to consult first. A lot of times you can get a permit for one or two trees a year on a lot as large as this one.
Most of my shop is outdoors, but then, I'm building our house and live on 20 acres of woodland adjacent to a wildlife preserve ad within a state game land ;) I've got an area where I'm gradually organizing the space to be our outdoor classroom and teaching shop. It's really nice when the weather cooperates, but there can be some mad dashes to put things away when it goes wrong, and Michigan winters aren't much for working outdoors ;)
Instead of stealth camping, it's stealth woodworking
Camping with Steve fan?
@@jacobfisher8030no way another camping with steve fan in the wild
Rex Figures it Out? Nononono, Rex Goes Hiking 🤣 good video man. I like the exploration side. I have found myself engrossed in examining trees and wondering about them as I take walks with my family. Always interesting to think through how the wood lives and grows into what we love to do every day. The info about flat ground vs slope is super interesting, and I never even thought about that! Thanks for all the insights
Im a green wood worker, and I'm just about to move into a new house with 3 acres of forest. Can't wait to set up my outdoor shop. I already source all my materials from the forest.
Nice, just make sure you don't run out of trees too fast! :)
@@linusyootasteisking I try to avoid cutting down trees. I use wood that comes down after a storm, or I find trees with multiple leader trunks and remove the smaller one.
The property has lots of old apple trees that need pruning too, so I see lots of apple wood in my future too.
I've just been watching, an introduction to green woodworking, and this came up. I've been following Rex for a few years now and become a patron recently. I'm fortunate in that I've just moved to the USA and have 3 acres of woodland. When I moved in there were several trees that had been taken down for cosmetic reasons and a few that storms had brought down, some in quite a dramatic fashion. I'm still in the process of setting up a workshop in my two-car garage. And have made a few mallets from the rounds piled just adjacent to the garage. I intend to work more green wood and in the woods once I establish an area where I can set up. I may decide to move around to where the larger piles of wood are 🤔
Very informative!
My grandfather has a large plot of land in Mexico and next time I visit I'll have to go out and have some fun fantasizing about starting a shop in the woods!
Guerrilla woodworking sounds way more exciting than it really is. I used to do that in university. To practice i eventually started to secretly refurbish and repair the furniture that was used in campus. Try to hide clamps and wood finishes in a bookbag :)
Edit: to clarify: i studied in what used to be a huge Austrian-built 19th century sanatorium complex. It's crazy how few people i actually had around after classes.
My school had an explicit policy that unauthorized repair was vandalism. Turned us good kids into a bunch of vandals that never got caught. Although it is a somewhat necessary thing to have on the books at an engineering school, limited the scope of our work to unnoticeable things.
Hey Rex, just saw Steve Ramsey’s newest video and I saw a familiar face, it was so nice to see you being highlighted that way, it shows people all around see the good work you are doing
This was a very pleasing video brings me back to when I was a kid building forts in the wood now that I’m in my 70s it only seems like yesterday I was in my woods
I'm surprised nobody commented on how...brilliant... the thumbnail is. Thought-provoking video, especially hit close to home on the daydreaming/romanticizing part. I have the luck of living in Scotland which is very green and has amazing nature, but I also have the misfortune of living right in the city centre, so the idea of doing pretty much anything out there is very appealing. If only it weren't raining 6 days out of 7... Makes me actually wonder how the bodgers dealt with the endless rain.
Our trees and landscape are really so beautiful out here. 😊🌎❤️
I LOVE tree talk and identification so it was super cool to learn new things such as the tension that builds in an incline-growing tree. Thanks for all the new information, Rex!
Great show Rex. I grew up in KY, lived a while in GA, currently live in NC; and the area you show here is familiar to so many of us from Maine to Minnesota to Louisiana to Florida. We’ve lost a lot of our craft culture and art since the start of the 20th century, and episodes like this are a giant leap for humanity on the road to meaning and fulfillment. There is romance and rigor in knowing the lay of the land, and appreciating the resources of its bounty, and I think you put that on display here.
I got into greenwood working when I lived in northern Canada with unlimited woodland. I especially loved working with diamond willow. I now live in southern Saskatchewan but I carry on as best I can. I use unwanted wood like large saplings, tree limbs, and the rare tree. My projects are limited to the wood I can get. At the very least I can make walking sticks, canes, and simple chairs and tables. For city folk, check around, people may have large limbs or small trees may need removal. Check for woodworking clubs, tree surgeons, and parks and recreation folks. Thanks for the video.
I don't have a ton of land but I have hickory, cherry, oak, persimmon, sasafras and others all with my shop (an actual shop, with power, water etc) right in the middle. Moving out of the city has been one of my best life choices.
Rex, get out of my head! I start a shave horse project and before I'm done, you've got one made. Then I am resolving to use the woods I've got (hey, I've got forested land) to start a project, and here you are talking about sites.
But seriously, thanks for all you do: you have the right combination of education and entertainment that makes all your videos a treat.
Fun video! St. Roy had a few episodes in the field, splitting timbers and bringing them back to the shop. I like how you've made it realistic for city and suburbans.
Ah, the beauty of natu.. thuck, thuck, thuck, thuck. Oh there's Rex hammering again. Great.
This is how I always walk around, wherever I am. Been doing it since childhood. In this way I find hidden spots and useful stuff, like a bicycle wheel to drive my lathe, nice pieces of wood to work with, corrugated iron to make a roof for my chicken coop and so on. I guess I am a scavenger by and in nature.
Thanks for ALL your videos Rex. I don’t know about setting up a shop on public forest but I do collect wood in my local forest with the permission of the forester ( just fallen trees and no chainsaws allowed). I love visiting the forest, getting my ( hidden) saw and hand sawing for hours. I’ve been using the wood as firewood but would love to do more greenwood processing.....looking forward to your future greenwood videos.
Omg, I didn't know you had legs Rex?!?!
Living in Ohio, I whole heartedly agree that woodworking outside gives much needed refreshment after a long winter, and Covid isolation. I prefer 75-85 degree weather over the 65 deg in my basement shop and working in sunlight gives my body a chance to make some sorely needed vitamin D! This weekend I finally finished my chopping block from an old fallen hickory tree. I must admit that I used a chainsaw for most of the cutting and I used only 2x4 blocks to keep the 30 inch long, 12 inch diameter log off the ground. I did bore several holes by hand-quite a good workout with a 4 inch brace. Also, I cut(chainsawed) a ledge on one side to hold boards upright for tenons/dovetails if the need arises outside. Next project for outside work: shaving horse(and I see Rex posted that video just 3 weeks ago) Thanks!
As always I liked the video. I am blessed to live on 113 acres about 40% woodland. Mostly oak hickory and dead ash. Thanks to the emerald ash Beatles.
My city supports the preservation of green spaces and people's access to them. There is a municipality-supported volunteer organization that maintains small woods for their owners, keeping them from becoming garbage dumps, cleaning up storm-damage, felling unhealthy trees, etc. I'm starting doing some green woodworking there. (This is in the Tokyo-side urbanized area of Chiba, Japan).
I was in Columbus a month ago for a cousin's wedding and I couldn't help thinking about you, but also noticing the thickness of the woods! Growing up in southern California it's quite the difference! Also the "no mow, protected area" signs are hilarious
That's also something i've noticed. We often don't know our imediate enviroment and often just walking a couple of meters into a different directions makes it seem like you're in another world. So over the last years i made it a habit to explore every corner of my imediate enviroment.
It's really astonishing how many beautifull places one can find nearby. Some time ago i found a beever in the middle of the city! The beever lives in a small river there. Who would have thought that?!
Green woodworking is a topic that needs more coverage. Thanks for putting this out there.
Really keen to see Rex doing bushcraft. That subject is huge. Please Rex. More of this🤠🇦🇺
There is a couple acres of woodland a half block from my house. It is a
city wetland area and does flood occasionally. The neighbor's son did
some fort building in this woodland and borrowed an old handsaw from me
to cut up stuff for his fort. Interesting concept having a woodland
shop.
Finding those forts in the woods was quite the nice find. Good memories no doubt, it'd be a wild coincidence if the builder of said fort stumbles on this video eventually
now check the land maps with the county and see who actually owns that land, as it can't be built on there might be a small corner someone wants to sell.
When you talk of the old badgers in England it is worth noting that they rented a wood on contract with the landowner and those woods were not wild woods but had been managed for hundreds of years with most bodging done in coppiced woods where they were harvesting coppiced saplings not felling individual trees. Charcoal makers worked similarly. A disappeared side income of the old boys was selling the bark to tanners or working the bark into baskets etc. It was a complex economic environment that they worked in and woods were harvested on a multi year cycle (@8 year cycle IIRC) and they were committed to maintaining the management of the woods by traditional restrictive practices. Broom making was another woodland product.
The walk in the woods is a great idea. I knew I was going to like it right from the beginning. Keep tracking your interests. I'll bet many of us will follow you.
Great place to bring a hatchet, sloyd knife, find or bring a nice stump, have a seat and carve a spoon or something while enjoying the “quiet majesty” of the woods. A lap vise is very portable. So is a rope vise that simply loops over a stump on legs
Knockdown benches etc and a bag with your tools to carry in and out is a good set up for a woodland shop, keep the benches tucked in a brush pile and carry your tools to and from the site.
The Shakers will be glad to have you working along Doan Brook ! What a great way to uphold their traditions! Just be careful when crossing Fairmount Blvd ! 😉
What a different video. How great that you have this within walking distance of your home. We are moving next year, hopefully there is a little spot there...
See any mountain bike trails in there?
Really enjoyed this video. Myself and a friend used to spend weekends in the woods with our dogs and a couple of knives. We used to make basic shelters like the ones you saw. You basically make them more and more dense with lighter and lighter branches and then eventually throw leaf litter over until you can't see any light. Infact, I spent my stag do doing the same 🤣
Man you're making me really want to finally build a little work station in the woods. Great video just might of force my hand on a little peaceful work place.
Living, as I do near the New Forest in southern England, I found this video amazing! Your woodland looks so similar to parts of the Forest near me where the English bodgers actually worked. Thanks for the informative departure 👍
I will watch anything you make 👍 I actually enjoy the occasional randomness and forays into more "theoretical" aspects of woodworking on this channel. Breaks the monotony of the "watch me build a thing" model.
Ah Rex, brilliant! to do this in the UK would be very tricky as every corner of land is owned by someone, however you have given me some great ideas, thanks, Some years ago I did a chair making (bodgers) course in the woods, all with hand tools and loved it, thanks for another great vid, stay safe
Loved it, please do a series, Rex :)
I am blessed to live on a 2-acre wooded lot that I own. It's mostly red maple, red & white oak, and eastern white pine. Last year I cut down several dead standing pines and made them into a Roubo bench - with only hand tools. I cut the trees with an axe & bow saw, flattened them by cutting kerfs and then hacking off the joggles with a machete (yeah, not the standard way, but it's what I had). Then I planed them down and glued them into a 4" thick bench top, set that on a pair of saw horses and used it to build the frame. I did all of that outside. I ended up pitching a garage-type canopy to work under when it was raining. What a blast. This year I'm working on a timber framed shop. I don't know if I'll finish, but I don't care. I like doing more than having.
This looks like a great new direction to explore.
Don't ignore the sycamore! If you split it you can get perfectly quartersawn surfaces, and in sycamore that can compete with any exotic for beauty.
I love Sycamore for carving. And sometimes you can find a piece of it will look like Chestnut.
I might be the only person who wants this, but a Woodwright's Shop style intro with you haring off into the woods by your house to a temporary (even outdoor) woodshop with your green woodworking tools and benches set up would, I think, be awesome.
great video Rex, I do mostly green wood work it's really enjoyable and a great way to kill some time.
I would like to point out though that as much as I would encourage others to get out and enjoy nature, randomly wandering off into the woods can be dangerous and at times easy to get lost. so if you plan to do it please be smart about it, a small pack with a pocket knife, matches, bottle of water, protein bar and a cheap compass could save your life.
This was just good, clean fun. Thanks for taking the time to do this.
Really good to work in the woods. Fell the sun bathing your face and the fresh breeze do some good to your spirit
I thought it was an interesting video style. Very relaxing on a Thursday morning with coffee. I wouldn't want to change ALL the videos to this style, but every few videos it would be neat.
Also would love to see green woodworking videos!
Do this more, it was very entertaining and informative. I enjoyed it greatly.
Thanks for the video. I had fun imagining dope stuff like bridging the creek
I have absolutely no use for this information... but still enjoyed watching it. I'm glad you do topics like this, even if they're not for everyone - it adds a little something to the channel as a whole.
Walking through the woods reminded me of the woodwrights shop intro with Roy Underhill
I was very glad, when you, finally, got to the point, about this not being a good idea, in populated ares.
At the beginning, I thought, for sure, your next video would be a friend filming you through bars. 😱😰😳
@Aleph Leonine:
In the US, we have laws about taking trees, and even fallen logs, from public property, whether it be local state or federal.
If you are too far from home (even 300m), in a wooded area, you could be subject to some Serious questioning. We have a lot of bad things happening in wooded areas, local to populated areas.
Just taking up green woodworking in England Kent. So as I’m severely visually impaired would love to listen to more of American the way you do it over there.. Sure you could talk to your local council or whoever owns the land you might be able to take Deadwood from there as it would help them as well and could set up a group to start clearing it to open it up to your neighbourhood and let them know what’s a beautiful thing around you, You might be able to teach more people in your local area all about the woods win-win for everyone then
Hey Rex I just had to fall two 90ft pines and I will be slabbing soon, so definitely interested here!
For a man, who had run more then 30 years into the forests, making fire-wood, this little video was a memory-switch.
Great video! I live in a 250 acre farm. I never thought bout an outside workshop.
Beautiful video!! love it!! Greetings from Norway!!
This is a cool video because it opens up a whole different side of wood working that is lost to many of us. I would appreciate some more reviews or diy videos on some of the specific tools (like finding a good draw knife) that pertains to green wood working.
I have a 2 acres of woods on my property. I might be a fun experiment to take my basic tool kit out and build stuff on the spot.
Thoreau in suburbia
I’d be happy to see more!
That's funny.
Love this approach and the fascinating information that comes from RK, whom I’ve enjoyed for years now. Even if I only work in my shop, I can feel what early chair makers must have felt out in the woods. Many years ago we lived in Westlake, OH, and had a little patch of woodlands and a stream in the backyard. Sadly, I wasn’t woodworking back then and I do miss the Cleveland area. Utah, with its scenery and good people, make a fine substitute however. And I just cut down a fine maple tree for; you guessed it.
Wood love to see a whole series of these videos 🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲
SO fun to have flashbacks of "the woods" when I was a kid. Makes me want to go find a patch of woods to work in. 😊
Great video, this is something I've been thinking about for a while now and if the economy gets any worse I might have to build a shop in the woods to live in, that's not a joke.
This was beautiful.
That was cool, Rex. A little trip down memory lane too.
Love it! More green woodworking please!
Rex, I adored this video.
I love bushcraft videos, and I love your woodworking, especially the woodwork for Humans type stuff, and this is both of those things blended together.
It would be so much fun to see you take a backpack of tools: slojd knife, saw, drawknife, hatchet, brace and bit, maybe a ratchet strap to use as an improvised shave horse, and go out to this spot you found, and make something. Perhaps a half a log version of the low, Roman workbench, and leave it out there and see what happens. Come back and make a spoon or a chair part or two.
A backpack size woodworking kit, used in the woods like some sort of modern bodger would be fantastic. Also, thanks for your commentary about choosing a spot, and what to look for in trees for woodworking. That kind of information is invaluable.
Love your videos so much, and this is my favorite so far. Awesome work.
Great video Rex and what I lovely woods with a ton load of free wood just laying around all over the place .
I see a project in the future, a portable shave horse that straps on your back or has wheels (big ones) You could make the legs so they can be driven in then out. All you need is a drawknife, a chisel, a mallet, and a saw (and you could use a folding pruning saw). and a hatchet.
well that was a nice break from the usual (but still great) videos at the very least it reminds me to look at my surroundings, also inspires me to go out more while I wait for your newest book to be delivered ( Amazon delayed it again ). Nice Job :) keep up the excellent work
I *loved* this video and would be really happy to see more of this type of thing- as long as you don't stop doing the woodworking/ tool videos as well :-)
That woodland/wetlands spot near your place is very similar to the area adjacent to my neighborhood. I’ve only used it as a shortcut hike to my nearby old town area, but maybe there are new things to be discovered… :)
Hi rex iam from the county of Buckinghamshire UK where the boggers and chair makers were from they sold most of the stuff they made to the furniture factories in high wycombe. Beach, ash,oak and box tree wood are some of the most common trees growing in the hills around because they grow well in the acidic chalky soil in south of England near by is the chalk cutting of white leaf cross is so called because the shade of leafs of the tree that grew on it the tree were all cut down by the boggers who planted new trees so now the forest is green not white beach leafs. Told to me by an old craftsman who still lives in site of the chalk cutting
North American woods are different to northern European ones. Consider this for your next horror film frightfest: American woods are really open on the forest floor - you can see such a long way. Unmanaged European ones have dense plants with huge thorns that can rip chunks out of your face and are impassable without a machete or a saw. You can't actually run safely, and you certainly can't see through all the low-level foliage.
It’s good to open your eyes. I search the creek and it’s banks around my house for wood that’s been pushed down in floods. I also gorilla plant fruit trees in land I don’t own for curious people to discover. I look inside every skip I come across in an effort to save something from landfill.
Truly love this
I know that in Minnesota you can get harvest permits if you want to bring a tree down in a public forest. It may not be impossible for you to set up in that woodland. You should inquire at city hall about the regulations in your area.
I love how apparent Rex's ADHD is once he's out of his shop. He can't keep eye contact with the camera because he's just so damn excited to be outside and take everything in. It's just so nice to watch :)
He has adhd?
@@nofanealbni
I mean... It looks like it.
He can't stay focused on the camera and his eyes are darting around.
Also - a lot of creative people tend to have ADHD.
but I'm obviously making assumptions here.
@@yotamgosh Just curious because I have adhd myself
@@nofanealbni Welcome to the club!
Remember that's it's not merely an attention *deficit*. It's a shift of the mind's focus. ADHD brings with it struggles, for sure. But if you're ready to be a little creative - it can bring a lot of good to your life :)
This reminded me of the intro for the wood wright shop
Legend has it, if you listen close enough, you can still hear Rex wandering around your local wilderness looking for a spot to set up a shavehorse at
Hey Rex I. Would love to see more videos like this it would be super cool also waiting for when u make that pole lathe watching every video as always thanks see u next week
How can anyone NOT like this video? Or do they just mark it just to mark it negatively? In any case I really liked this one, I have always enjoyed a good wander through the woods, even if there was no purpose to it.
Woodland woodwork rocks.
Huh. Living in Sweden, apart from the city centres of our largest cities there’s woods within walking distance pretty much everywhere. To the point it’s possible to get lost in the woods while still technically being in a city.
Awesome Rex, would love to hear more about the history of woodland furniture - perhaps you could tie it in with some furniture investigation, like you did with the country carpenter table? Maybe you could find some samples in museums? Love your work, cheers
I wonder if any of the local historical societies have any woodworking projects or initiatives you might take advantage of or participate in? Living history museums are a good place to start, getting time to work and occasionally do demonstrations for museum patrons.
Hey Rex, Love your stuff.
If you ever want a forest to do green woodworking in, I have one in Austin Texas you can use. About 6 acres, with a stream. I know that's a long trip from Ohio, but maybe for a quick video series you could take a trip. I'd hate to have it available and not to say anything.
Made me homesick for the family home back in Missouri. 150 acres of beautiful wooded valley, with deer, turkey, a flowing river nearby... and lots of tourists that like to steal your dogs.
Great video Rex 😊