Basket Making

Tools

basket shave
A wooden stock, 4.5" long and 1.5" square, with a loose steel sole hinged at one end. A small blade fixed in a slot in the middle of the sole or passing right across, bent around and screwed to the side, forms the cutter. The thickness of the cut is adjusted by a thumbscrew regulating the slope of the sole. The stock is held in a vice and skeins, cleft from the willow rods with a cleaver, are pulled through the shave. This reduces them to flat strips suitable for light baskets and for binding.
block
Two bars of wood, bolted together at their ends. Used for holding erect the bottom sticks when weaving the base of a square or rectangular basket. A single bar, in which holes are drilled at intervals to hold the sticks, is sometimes used instead. Also known as a cramp.
cleave
A small, egg-shaped piece of boxwood or horn about 4" long, cut away at the narrower end to form three or four straight vanes or wings with sharp edges, sometimes tipped with brass inserts. Used for splitting down willow rods to make the skeins which are used for light baskets and for binding handles etc.. Also known as a cleaver.
commander
A solid iron bar about 18" long overall, with a U-shaped piece fitted at right angles on one or both ends. The short arms are used for straightening stakes and rods.
draw knife
The draw knife has a long, if patchy, history. An example dating from AD100 was found in Sweden with a group of Viking shipwright's tools. Although tools of this type were widely used for working wood in Medieval Russia, there is no evidence of their existence in Western Europe at this period. The tool consists of a flat or curved metal blade, 20-45cm long and up to 6cm wide, which has been bevel-ground on its front edge. It has two wooden handles, one at each end of the blade, set at right angles to the cutting edge. Used for removing surplus wood, and for rounding and chamfering. When working wood using a drawing knife, the piece is held securely in a shave horse, and the knife is draw towards the user. Also known as a draw shave, draft shave or shaving knife.
froe
The tool has a blade about 6-12" long, wedge-shaped in cross-section provided with a round socket for the handle, which is set at right angles to the cutting edge. Though sometimes factory made, those found in country workshops and woodland trades are almost always blacksmith made. Used in many different trades for splitting timber into boards, segments or billets. This operation is also called cleaving, rending or riving. Cleaving is a much quicker method than sawing for producing lengths of wood for making chair legs, tent pegs, laths, hurdles and many other products of the woodland trades or country workshop. The froe is driven by striking the back of the blade with a mallet or club. When cleaving long lengths of timber for making hurdles, rake handles etc., the pole may be held horizontally in a brake. The froe is first driven into the end of the pole; the handle is then rocked from side to side while the blade is gently but firmly guided down the middle of the rod, sometimes helped with a mallet blow, until the two halves fall apart. This operation of "turning away" the wood may perhaps give a clue to one of the early names for this tool - "fromyard". Also known as a cleaving iron, flammard, frammer, fromward, frow, frummer, pole axe, reamer or riving axe.
hollow bodkin
A gouge-shaped blade, 4-8" long, pointed, and usually bent. Used on repair work to facilitate the insertion and weaving-in of new rods. The bent blade is passed under alternate stakes, and this provides a smooth channel along which the rod (which is pushed in towards the point of the bodkin) can be threaded under the stake. Also known as a bent bodkin, or shell bodkin.
kinking tongs
Iron tongs about 13" long , with one jaw provided with a sharp ridge and the other flat. Used for kinking stout canes or rods before bending. This is done, for instance, to the ends of stakes before turning them off at the top or bottom of the basket. Also known as a cane squeezer.
lap board
A board measuring about 4‘ by 2‘ and used as a bench by basket makers. The basket maker sits on the floor with the lap board across his knees and sloping away from him. Some makers keep the board propped up on a block between their outstretched legs. When a long run of baskets of the same type is required, a nail or spike is fitted in the middle in the middle of the board, which holds the basket but leaves it free to revolve. An old flat iron or stone is sometimes placed in the basket to keep it from slipping about.
maul
A iron bat-shaped tool, 7-10" long, with one edge thicker than the other, and tapering towards the eye or knob serving as a handle. Used for beating down the weave during the course of making a basket. When a ring is provided at the handle end, this can be used as a commander for straightening stakes. The tool appears on the arms of the Company of Basket Makers of London, established in 1569. Also known as a beating iron.
peeling brake
Although the tool may take several forms, it is essentially an iron fork mounted on a beam. The prongs are close together and spring apart if a rod is inserted at the top. Used for stripping the bark from the rods. The bark of the withy is first loosened at the butt end by pushing it between the prongs of the fork. The rod is then pulled through the brake, thus peeling off the rest of the bark. Also known as a stripping brake or a stripper.
picking knife
A knife with a stubby, pointed blade, about 3" long, known as a "goose wing" shaped blade. The tool appears on the arms of the Company of Basket Makers of London, established in 1569. It is used for trimming off the ends of the rods on the unfinished basket.
shave horse
A low bench, supported on splayed legs, astride which the operator sits at his work. The wood that he is working on lies in front of him, gripped at its farther end by a bar. This bar is set on a pivot jointed to a footrest, so that by moving his feet he may hold or release the section of wood that is being shaved. The quick grip and release are essential for speedy work There is a pedal-operated jaw which bears down on a sloping platform to hold the wood being worked, leaving the operator's hands free for shaping the work-piece, usually with a draw knife. Shaving horses, generally homemade, are used in many trades, including by coopers, chair-makers and woodland workers. Bodgers use it for roughly shaping legs and stretchers before turning on a pole lathe. Also known as a mare or shaving brake.
shears
A heavy pair of shears from 8-14" long, with curved jaws. Used for cutting rods to length.
shop knife
A knife with pointed blade, about 7" long. Used for pointing willow rods before insertion. Also known as an hand knife.
soaking trough
A strong wooden trough, measuring about 12‘ by 14" and 2‘ deep, used for soaking the willow rods to make them pliable and easier to handle.
solid bodkin
A round, tapering spike, 4-10" long, of polished iron with a wooden handle. It is generally used to open the weave to insert the rods, but has many other uses - for instance, it may be driven sideways with a small mallet to bring a stake into line or a handle rod into place.
staking bodkin
Like a solid bodkin, but much thicker, it is used for inserting upright rods or stakes.
upright shave
the stock is similar to the basket shave but with a fixed metal sole. Two upright blades, set at an angle, with sharp edges, project from the sole. These blades are the upturned ends of a U-shaped steel bow hidden beneath the sole plate. The distance between the blades can be reduced by a thumbscrew which forces the ends of the bow together. There is a hole in the stock behind the blades to release shavings. It is held in a vice like the basket shave and used for trimming skeins to the same width throughout their length.
willow knife
A knife with a curved, sickle-like blade about 9.5-10" long, with the tang of the blade riveted through the handle. Used for harvesting withies in the coppice.