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Environmentally friendly products from trees

Willow Baskets Magic Goblets Martial Arts Equipment Other Things

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Hi, I'm Tony Morgan and I make things out of wood! I use mainly traditional methods and hand tools, and all the wood I use comes from local* woodlands, coppices and hedgerows. My arsenal of tools comprises of things such as shave horses, pole lathes and rounding planes - all powered by my hand or foot. I love trees and wood and can't think of a better thing to work with!

There are three things that I concentrate on:

Baskets

A willow bird house I started making baskets about 6 years ago from willow grown near Cockermouth after I attended one of Phil Bradley's Beginner's Basket Making courses at the Weekend in the Woods event (see the CANW website for info about this event). I found it one of the most enjoyable pastimes yet and still enjoy making them in all sorts of different sizes and styles.

See my baskets

Goblets

The Magic Goblet I spent a while making a few things on the pole lathe but didn't really get into making anything in earnest. Until I made my first goblet! (see the photo on the right) Sadly, 2 weeks later, and after a few goblets-full of wine I was sitting in front of the telly with my wife and 8 year old son watching Merlin, with my "Holy Grail" sitting on the table having just been emptied of its contents down my throat. I think Merlin was performing his usual magic on telly when there was an almighty CRACK!!! My goblet had ripped all the way down the cup creating a very neat 8mm crack! Freaky timing and I'd never experienced such a sudden and violent split happening like this. My 8 year-old son nearly jumped through the ceiling with shock! Then the miracle happened. The next morning the split had totally disappeared! A willow bird house

However since then I've worked out where the problem lay and have made many more goblets that have survived TV-magic!

See my goblets

Martial Arts Weapons

KSN Kevin Horner - a black belt instructor at my local club Myself and my son are martial artist students and there's a niche, I believe, for locally, hand-made, natural items for use in martial arts training. The form of martial art that we do is a South Korean system called Kuk Sool Hapkido and in it you learn some cool moves holding one or two "sticks" in your hand and "waving them about". (Sorry KJN John Ward!) Well actually, there's a bit more to it than that but essentially you just need sticks of varying lengths, some with string looped through one end.

I built a tool to do most of the work of peeling a hazel, ash or willow rod down to size that allows me to make and sell them to my fellow students for a realistic and competitive price. I'm hoping to sell them on to my wider circle of fellow martial-artists!

See my weapons! A Birch Bark Gift Box

Well, maybe four things

I also make other things too, such as spoons, bowls, shrink pots, rollers for old lawn mowers and desk-tidies. The items I mostly make to order but why not have a look at my pictures to get an idea.

See my other things



*Local for me means mostly in the Silverdale, Arnside and South Lakes areas of the North West of England. I live in Carnforth and have sometimes had to travel up to Cockermouth for willow and have had some delivered from Somerset.