Rake Maker

[81stBRAT]

Will take a few more images from other angles.
The rakes must have been used to gather, but so long ago no one I know has ever seen them in use, has anybody?
Must have been very hard work to drag them, for small areas a 3ft one perhaps would be better.
Richard

[81stBRAT]

Two more images of the Buck rake.
Holding the 70 year old handle up to mine it had a more pronounced curve at the bottom, need to steam a sharper curve next time, I think my handle did straighten up somewhat on release from jig.





Richard

[RichardLaw]

At Otley Show an old chap was talking to me about when the Irish workers used to come across and work at hay-time. He was saying how the drag rake was pulled by, I think he said, three people - it involved the use of ropes.

Off topic he also was telling me about the local N Yorks way of sharpening a scythe with a stick a bucket of grease and a bucket of sand. Apparently there is one of these sticks, whose peculiar name eludes me for now in Pateley Bridge Museum (N Yorks.)

[Tom B]

thanks for the photos.

I've heard the sharpening stick called a strickle- I was talking to an old farmer at Bentham Market who mentioned them. He was also quite disdainful of the curved 'yankee' snaths often now called english. He remembered the traditional, 6 foot straight snaths, with the strickle hung on the end for balance.

[RichardLaw]

Yes that was it,strickle - except the way he said it rhymed with treacle ( you know, what we call syrop sometimes). The grease and sand mixture does sound interesting, it would need to be pretty fine and though - like the burnt sand me dad used to mix with linseed oil to make mastic.

[Brian Williamson]

Re: Tapered bits?
by 81stBRAT » Sun Jun 16, 2013 9:39 pm

Also used in ladder making the holes for rungs on wooden ladders made from half round poles (42 rungs for a stack ladder)
also hay rake handles had tapered ends through the head.
have some rungs from such a ladder will try and post an image
Richard

I've copied your comments across from another thread, Richard. I thought that they might be worth developing here.

Tapered ended rake handles? I've not met these. Do you mean that both handle tenon and head mortice are tapered for an exact, socketed fit or that a straight handle tenon goes through a reverse tapered head mortice? If the second, it could then be wedged (like and axe handle), which sounds logical.

Brian

[tagnut69]

There is a chap, David Wheeler, up in Norfolk who runs courses in rake making. I took my dad on one in Bradfield woods a couple of months ago. Here is his website and facebook page. Website is School of Insprational Woodworking and his facebook is Endurance Rakes
http://www.woodworkschool.co.uk/SIW/Index.html
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Enduranc ... ref=stream

[tagnut69]

Thats me in the hat 3rd from left on his facebook page

[81stBRAT]

tagnut

Just a couple of questions on the Rake course.
Did you use rounders when shaping the handles?
Any discussion on angle of head when fitted to handle, in relation to angle of the teeth to the ground when in use?

[81stBRAT]

Brian.
I drill a 12mm hole at the correct angles in the head, then using the taper bit expand it so there is a taper right through.
The two handle ends I draw knife same taper, the head being willow when knocked on goes on tight, just use a nail then to hold in place. on the old rakes I have the nail was put through the end of the handle as it protruded and into one side of the head, maybe they new best in those days as this would make repairs easy as the nail can be taken out with little trouble.
Richard

[tagnut69]

The handle was just rounsed off with a drawknife, but the chap teaching us does use a stail engine for his production ones. Some teeth were run through a veritas 1/2'' dowel cutter others were done on a tine cutter. As to the angle of the handle it is a bit off 90* and the teeth are sharpened to about 45*, with the bevel away from the user. We used a board with the angle on one edge to run a chisel down to get the angle and length right for all the teeth

[tagnut69]

On our rakes we didnt taper the hole in the head we just tapered the tips on the handle with the veritas dowel cutter.