Tag Archives: Devon

Mobile Sawmill at Buckland Filleigh, Devon

Mobile Sawmill

We’re now able to provide customers with locally sawn timber using our Peterson Winch Production Frame mobile sawmill, our goal is to help UK woodland growers get more of their  timber to local markets or to use in their own projects. Milling at or near where the timber is grown and harvested can add value, rather than selling and transporting roundwood to a fixed sawmill.  We specialise in providing softwood and hardwood sawn timber in non-standard sizes to customers from South West England woodlands.

Mobile sawmill

Mobile sawmill cutting Larch

Most types of timber can be sourced from woodlands that have Forestry Commission approved management plans in place, this includes Larch, Douglas Fir, Spruces, Western Red Cedar, Western Hemlock, Pines, Oak, Sweet Chestnut, Ash, Wild Cherry, Beech. Our mill is perfect for high quality “quarter sawn” cutting, without the need for turning the sawlogs.

Portable sawmill

Peterson WPF8 sawmill

Large sawlogs or residual stacks

There are times when an individual high value large tree, felled or fallen, is in a difficult location and not economical to extract. This is an ideal scenario to take a mobile sawmill into the woodland and mill the log in situ, or there could be a part load of roundwood on site after the timber haulage has finished. Our mobile sawmill can be used to turn the remaining roundwood into higher value sawn timber, rather than left to decay or sold as lower value firewood.

Larch sawlogs

Stack of Larch sawlogs ride side, Devon

We’ve just started a milling contract to saw these Larch sawlogs that have been sitting ride side for quite a while. The sawlogs have been setup next to the sawmill to provide the most efficient layout for milling.

Mobile saw mill

Peterson Mobile saw mill, Devon

The old stack of Larch that was left ride side is now being processed into sawn timber destined for a local Glulam factory in Crediton. The customer requires sawn boards that are dimensional correct end to end to process into high quality finger jointed and knot free timber.

Here are some images of the Larch timber we have sawn.

Sawn Larch timber stack

Sawn Larch Timber at woodland edge, North Devon

sawn Larch timber with mobile sawmill

Stacks of Larch timber milled at the woodland edge, North Devon

For further details about our sawmill please visit our dedicated website at www.sawmiller.co.uk or call (01409) 281549. We provide a friendly and affordable milling service.

Contemporary fence – Japanese garden

Bespoke Contemporary fence

This project involved designing a contemporary fence to replace a Leyland Cypress hedge that bordered a mature Japanese garden. It was important to create a stylish backdrop to this garden that allowed airflow through the fence. The design incorporated horizontal slats in the upper half of the frame and vertical “Hit and Miss” slats below.

Contemporary bespoke fence for Japanese garden

Bespoke fence for Japanese garden

The customer wanted a low maintenance fence that would age gradually by the weather. Western Red Cedar was selected as a suitable timber for this purpose. The wood was sourced locally from Devon. The timber was primarily milled using a mobile sawmill before finishing off the panels and slats in the workshop.

Preparation

Cleared conifer hedge

Leyland Cypress hedge removed and ready for bespoke fence to be erected on perimeter of Japanese garden

The hedge was removed including the stumps to leave a clear line before installing the post and rail frame.

Installation

Custom morticed posts were used, which enabled the rails to be slotted through the centre of the posts. This gives a much better finish compared to fitting the rails to the outside of the posts. The infill panels were made in advance and these slot into the upper bays of the frame.

Bespoke slatted fence build

Contemporary fence under construction for a Japanese garden

Finished Fence

Capping was used to add a stylish finish to the contemporary fence panels and vertical slats. This also provides added protection to the fence.

Contemporary bespoke fence for Japanese garden

Front inside view of bespoke fence for Japanese garden

Outside the Japanese garden the fence line continues with full height vertical “Hit and Miss” slats to the end of the run.

Western Red Cedar "Hit and miss" fence

Vertical “Hit and Miss” slatted fence in Western Red Cedar

The gate has a quality double rim cylinder lock fitted to enable it to be locked from either side.

Contemporary style fence in Western Red Cedar

Front view of bespoke fence in Western red cedar

To discuss your design requirements please call on 01409 281549 or email to info@wealdenheartwood.co.uk

Update – Garden Completed

Here are some photos of the completed Japanese garden.

Japanese garden

Japanese garden with contemporary slated fence

Japanese garden

Japanese garden with contemporary slated fence

Crafted Mini Yurts

In comparison with a large full sized yurt, a mini yurt is light weight, easy to assemble, highly portable and takes up less space when pitched. Crafted from hardwood timber locally sourced from Devon woods, these small yurts are designed for a variety of uses for both children and adults. A seven foot yurt can sleep two adults and are a great alternative to ordinary tents.

Mini yurt

Mini yurt by the estuary at Tregunna, Cornwall

Mini yurt

Our small yurt on show in the gardens at Coombe Trenchard

For more information please see website page about mini yurts.

Oak cleft gates

These Oak gates were designed and made for a customer using greenwood. The gates were styled to fit in with their surrounding environment. They also needed to be livestock and deer proof.

To make these gates the green Oak round wood was split into quarters using steel wedges. A froe was used to cleave these quarters into the thinner pieces used to make the individual gate components.

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The rough cleft Oak was smoothed and shaped further using a draw-knife. The greenwood was left to partially season for a number of weeks before the final cutting and assembly of the gates took place.

After the Oak had been rested, the next stage was to mark and cut all the tenons and mortices prior to assembly. The rails were carefully chosen in pairs to ensure a degree of continuity between both gates. This design uses five rails and these are fixed using stainless steel nails. Stainless steel nails are used to limit the chemical reaction of the tannic acid naturally present in Oak with the metal, this avoids dark stains appearing on the wood, which you would eventually get with galvanised or other non-stainless steels grades of nails.

Finally, the vertical pales and diagonal braces were cleft, cut, shaped and fitted to the gates.

All our rustic gates are individually designed and handmade for each customer in either Oak or Sweet Chestnut. For further details, please email info@wealdenheartwood.co.uk or phone (01409) 281549 to discuss your requirements.

Stairs and Fencing in Cleft Sweet Chestnut

Rustic Stairs

This project involved working jointly with another company Quay Carpentry. The brief for their customer was to craft components to meet their outdoor stairs design, which would link a terrace and have fencing along the top of the terrace. The timber suited for the rustic look was Sweet Chestnut. After discussing design options with Quay Carpentry the individual components were crafted for them.

Crafting the Components

We planked the stair strings by cleaving from large rounds of Sweet Chestnut rather than milling. This was important for the stair string turn because cleaving naturally follows the grain, compared to sawing that cuts through the fibres. This helped with the next stage of processing, which involved steam bending and setting on a former to obtain the desired shape. Also, the handrail for the stair turn was steam bent and set on a former after steaming for a couple of hours. This can seen in the preceding photo, which shows the handrail in the former after steaming.

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We crafted two individual rustic gates. One would be used for the top of the stairs and the other along the fence line. These are shown in the next two photos.

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Each of the stair treads were cleaved from large rounds, similar to how the stair strings were produced. We split the newel posts, fencing posts and rails etc. from smaller rounds of Sweet Chestnut. The hand tools used were axe, froe, splitting wedges, draw knife, spoke shave, bit and brace.

Installed Stairs, Gates and Fencing

After the components were delivered to the customer, Quay Carpentry completed the installation. The result of finished work can be seen in the last photo.

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Our customer was very pleased with the end result that produced a unique rustic look that is perfect for its function and rural setting.

Bespoke Cleft Chestnut Panels

This project involved making a number of bespoke Sweet Chestnut panel infills, which were installed in the upper area of a barn. Sweet Chestnut had been used for the roofing components, so the customer was looking for the same wood to be used. The stair ladder and upright pieces to hold the Chestnut panels were made by a carpenter using reclaimed Oak. Due to the variability of the Oak pieces, each Chestnut panel was different in size and was custom made to fit each section.

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The handrails of the stair ladder were made from Sweet Chestnut and contrast the darker reclaimed Oak frame and treads.

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The panel spindles were made from cleft Sweet Chestnut pales, which were installed into mortices made in the outer frame. A froe is used to split the wood down the grain and a drawknife used to smooth the surface of the pales. The panels have a unique handmade look that blends in with the stone, exposed beams wood and thatched roof of the barn.

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Greenwood was used for all the Sweet Chestnut components. The final piece was a bespoke gate made to fit at the top of the stair ladder.  This was designed so that the gate could only open inwards, which was achieved by extending the top left section of the gate.

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This a good example of using green Sweet Chestnut for various interior components.