weaving hazelnut

[GlisGlis]

hello
yesterday i tried hazel weaving by splitting a 1" sapling in strips.
I read the technique somewere and wanted to give it a try.
the basic is to cut the sapling.
make a cut around 4" from the previous cut as deep as the thikness of the strip should be.
bend the sapling on the knee on the opposite side of the cut to raise the splinter that start the strip.
keep bending to detach the strip.

Now i'd like to ask to give me more advice as my strips are very different in thickness even on the same strip.
it's true that i had only a little knife but i had the impression from my reading that almost no tools where required to obtain good strips
Picture speaks for itself. that work is quite primitive and not in the good sense of the word.
Could you share the tips to obtain homogeneus strips? is tool reworking necessary after splitting?

thankyou 

[Del the cat]

Hey, that's cool even if not perfect.
Hazel is one of my fave woods.
Sorry, no practical advice, except, practice generally reveals the best way to do stuff.
Del

[Pat B]

You should probably try to scrape the strips to a constant thickness and width. Have you soaked the strips to make them well hydrated? that will help them bend without splintering too much.

[GlisGlis]

Sorry, no practical advice, except, practice generally reveals the best way to do stuff.

yep you're right. but it's so good when you nail something the very first time you do it 
I like hazel too. Good bend, fast dry, light and fairly strong. Good for arrow, bow and weaving, easy to find... good wood

Have you soaked the strips to make them well hydrated?

No. it was a on the field test. Fresh cut sapling, no soaking.
In the reading there was a suggestion to use fresh cuts

[Dakota Kid]

I saw a guy removing strips of wood from a hefty log of green ash. He made two long cuts down the length of the log as wide as the strips he wanted to weave with. He then pounded the log all the way down the cut zone. Afterwards he was easily able to pull long thin strips of green wood that he immediately wove into a basket. He only removed one strip at a time as he needed them, to avoid having to keep them moist I'd imagine. You may want to hammer the sapling prior to peeling. It might help in the separation of the strips.

[GlisGlis]

thankyou Dakota
i also saw that technique for ash but I think is peculiar of that particular wood.

I made a new test and it seems things go better.
My strips are now longer and more uniform. minimal knife rework is needed (maybe nothing if i get better)
The trick seems to be to allways bend the sapling and the splinter togheter as if you would the strip do not detach. I also used a smaller sapling (2cm - 4/5 of inch) and pressed my weight on a log to induce the bend.
You bend and suddendly you feel the release of the two layers of fibers. this is the sign to move your bending area forward. try not to move alot for your next bend. maybe an inch
Never try to manually raise the strip as this lead to a thickness difference or a detachment

My weaving is still very far from perfection. 180 turn are not good as thickness is still high but i start to see the light.

[YosemiteBen]

Hey Glis -
Here in California we used mostly whole shoot on whole shoot young whips for bird traps, fish traps and work baskets. Women used larger shoots for rim sticks on other types of baskets.

[GlisGlis]

thanks Ben
is the vision of so many beatiful baskets and use of hazel that encourage me to try
Now i'd really like to know how to produce very thin strips
I saw many baskets made of very thin hazel strips. Maybe 1 or 2mm in thickness but i dont know how to obtain them yet.
There is a men who make them who lives not too far from me. I have to get in touch with him.
I will share my discoverys

[Dakota Kid]

Have you made any new breakthroughs lately? I wonder if there's a preparation of the shoot that may be helpful. Have you tried soaking it in water for a few hours before pulling strips? In general wet is good when weaving natural fibers. It may apply here as well.

[Pappy]

That looks pretty good to me, very time consuming I would bet.
 Pappy

[riverrat]

i think its awesome. like anything else the more you do it the better youll get at it. with that said i think that basket is just fine. Tony

[GlisGlis]

Have you made any new breakthroughs lately? I wonder if there's a preparation of the shoot that may be helpful. Have you tried soaking it in water for a few hours before pulling strips?

No sorry. no news. too busy working in this period.
I havent tried soaking but I'm pretty sure too it would be a good preparation before weaving.
I'm not too sure it would help detaching the strips. 

very time consuming I would bet

Not that much. the making of good strips is the part that takes more time.
I bet that with the right thecnic it could be much faster.

That looks pretty good to me..
 ....with that said i think that basket is just fine.

You are very kind or very good liars 
I've made baskets from olive, cane, willow, brambles and other species and the trick is allways to know the material
I'm starting to understand hazel but the strips are still too crude to obtain a good result

[GlisGlis]

Here the link to a youtube vid very interesting.
I cannott understand what he says but google translation of the title says he is using maple wood to make the strips
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aleSqLM63JQ
The old man puts a lot of care in the preparation of the strips and uses many interesting tecniques that should be applied to any wood
Have to try again

[Zuma]

Just wanted to say--
I appreciate shared info that enhances
all of our ammo belts. Whether we ever
 lock and load or  not.
Like a feather in the cap.
Thanks you-all
Zuma