About 3 years ago I fitted a wood stove in our house and this has helped me be more realistic about  some of my stock of pipe making wood which I have been storing for well over 20 years.
Last month I spent a whole weekend sorting through my wood store.  This involved inspecting each plank and cutting out any bits that had cracks, knots or looked dodgy. Some of my large planks of yew looked wonderful, but when I cut into them I found that they were riddled with a maze of  ancient cracks.  I had bought some promising 2” planks in 1998 from a yew tree that grew at Dalkeith Palace and have been hoarding them ever since. Counting the growth rings I calculated that it was planted in about 1780. It was dispiriting to find that about 70 % of this tree was unusable for pipes, however it does make excellent fire wood.

But I was delighted to discover that I still had some planks of  gorgeous yew that grew in Leamington Spa and that I had cut into planks in 1990. Great! …..I thought I had used it all up years ago.  It is wonderful straight grained wood, with very few cracks or knots; dreamy creamy wood to turn.  This week I celebrated by starting to make 4 G Leicestershire smallpipe chanters out of it. This is a tricky chanter design as each one consists of 3 sections, so I am working with 12 pieces of wood (not including the stocks). I am happy to say that they are turning out (ha ha) really well

It is one of my more challenging design of chanters to turn and I have added to the challenge by experimenting with changing the angles on a couple of my wood turning tools.... I am always striving for the 'perfect' angle and I always like to think that I am getting nearer to it! Coupled with this I am also experimenting with my standing position at the lathe. I have Alexander Technique lessons once a week which I find enormously beneficial. Being quite tall I have developed a tendency to stoop over the lathe which puts an unnecessary amount of strain on my neck muscles and this can lead to back problems. I am now focusing on discovering new and less stressful ways of standing at the lathe. Noticing how much stress I tend to hold in my shoulder..... it's all new and exciting!