baskets old & new
Remember those ash splints I pounded out this season?
I’ve been little by little working some into baskets lately. But to do so, I have had to re-learn much of what I used to know in spades. In the mid-to-late 1980s I made lots and lots of baskets, but since then I have only made a few each year. And those were fairly simple examples. But lately I have a renewed interest in them, so decided to get more involved in them. First thing, that meant re-acquiring some reference books – I had kept a couple of these, but then went out and ordered replacements for Shaker Baskets by Wetherbee & Taylor and A Key into the Language of Woodsplint Baskets.
reference materials
In the short video that my friend Rick McKee shot, I pounded the growth rings apart, then showed how to peel them in half, leaving a smooth, shiny surface for weaving. You can peel these bit by bit with your fingers, holding the splint between your knees like I do in the video, but it’s faster if you make a device that I think of as a tiny riving brake. It’s two pieces of white pine, with a 2″ wide groove plowed in one, about 1/4″ deep. Then they are glued face-to-face, so the groove is now in the midst of the thickness.
Soak the splint in warm water for a few minutes. Then score the splint near the end to create a tab to begin pulling it apart. Slide it up through the slot in the pine boards. Now pull quickly, spreading your arms full-width. Presto!
peeling the splint apart at the tab
pull
pull quickly
Here’s a detail shot, showing the surface of the inside of the splint.
satiny finish
Here’s one of my old basket, showing a detail of the attachment for the swing handle. I learned this one from the book Legend of the Bushwhacker Basket, by Wetherbee & Taylor. I’m going to make a couple of these this winter…the basket is ash, the handle & “ears” are white oak. Lashing is hickory bark.
swing handle detail
A small favorite over the years – it’s made it on the blog before here & there. Ash, with hickory rims and bark lashing. So there will be more of this when I get a bit further along.
ash basket, 1989
December 22, 2012 at 6:52 pm
Is there such a thing as a basket made from inner bark only?
The McMullen book on New England Native American baskets is excellent, and so is the bushwhacker book.
I never saw anybody using a crooked knife so I don’t have a clue about them.
December 23, 2012 at 12:59 am
“the key to the language” is one of the best books on native splint work there is. it’s a good one.
December 23, 2012 at 9:46 am
I love the ash splints video. Is the timber green or dry?
PS: I live about 10 miles away from Marhamchurch Antiques!
December 23, 2012 at 5:10 pm
I remember that, back in the ’70s, UConn, in its School of Agriculture, had a basket-making course. At the time, it was the object of humor about “gut” courses; I wonder if that would happen now? I wonder if the course survived?
December 23, 2012 at 5:56 pm
Funny how things turn out – once the worst thing I could be was square and now it’s the thing I work for the hardest.
December 26, 2012 at 12:42 pm
Reblogged this on Traditional Skills and commented:
Peter had this blog article about ash splints and since my friend Monica and I were just talking about it I thought I would reblog it here for her to see.
Dave
December 26, 2012 at 4:30 pm
Fascinating. Is ash the wood of choice, or are others suitable? And the lashed loop at the top of the basket, it that also ash?