Traditional Wooden Rake

First rake -a garden rake 

I decided to have a go at making a traditional split handled garden rake using hand tools (see Ray Tabor, The Encyclopaedia of Green Woodworking, p127, for the different patterns). I recall my father making one for gardening with wooden tines that I used in my youth to rake but also using the back to beat out clumps of clay in the garden to get a fine tilth. The split handle was apparently the style that was most popular in the midlands and southern part of England. Although ash and willow were traditionally used to make rakes because of their strength and lightness, other woods such as birch, beech, alder and hazel have also been used depending on their availability. I have lots of hazel available locally and as it is also a strong hardwood, I decided to give this a go. My first job was to find wood for the shaft or stail, the tines and the head. I had some green hazel poles for the handle and seasoned hazel billets for the tines and head (this had been left after felling in an unheated workshop over the winter).

This is the finished garden rake made from seasoned hazel from Dartmoor.

Making the Stail

I used the adjustable rounding plane or stail engine to shape the shaft (the construction of the stail engine is described in another post on this blog:  Construction of a Stail Engine. This worked well with two main passes, the first removing most of the bark and the second to get the shaft to the size that I wanted. It made a slight taper as I wanted a thicker end to attach to the rake head.

Using the stail engine to plane the shaft or stail

Stail after planing. Length: 173 cm or 5 ft 8 inches, diameter tapered 3.01-3.54 cm (1 3/16 inches to 1 3/8 inches). It has a slight curvature that I could steam bend and clamp, but it is not really necessary. 

The split in the stail for mounting to the head was 17 inches and sawn with a rip saw down the centre. The split was stopped using some thin stainless-steel strip (about 1 inch wide and 4 1/2 inches long) and fixed with two 1-inch galvanised nails.  This left two halves of the stail that needed to be shaped to fit into the head so that they were about 4 inches apart and joined between tines. There are two options, a) make a tight-fitting rectangular mortice and tenon or b) shaping the ends to cylinders and drilling appropriate holes in the head. I decided to go with the later making the fits 5/8-inch diameter using a small spokeshave and scraper card (Information about scraper cards)

Split sawn and metal clamp fixed.

 

Shaping the cylindrical tenons. The pencil cross was the centre of the semi-circle marked after sawing. The spokshave and card scraper are also shown

Making the Tines 

I cleaved some 9-inch seasoned hazel billets and rounded these with a 1 inch and then a 3/4-inch rounding plane. Traditional these would also have been carved individually or passed through a tine cutter (basically a sharpened tube). This is when ash would have probably been easier as slow grown hazel tends to have a twisted grain that makes getting straight tines more challenging but possible!  The tines were longer than I needed but will be cut later to a reasonable length once inserted into the head. Once mounted, the bottoms of the tines were shaved to about 1/4-inch width and tapered.

Making the hazel tines with a 3/4-inch diameter rounding plane.

Making the Head.

 

This was also made of hazel, probable not the easiest wood to work with but nice to have a challenge!

Large hazel billet (about 4 x 4 inches and 2 foot long). This has a twist so needs quite a bit of work to get into shape. 

This was shaped by sawing two faces at right angles and then planing the other faces with a roughing plane, large spokeshave and smoothing plane. The final shape (18 inches long and approximately 2 by 2 inches) was slightly curved in one plane which was a shape I wanted but hadn't planned, but sometimes the wood points you in the right direction.

The finished head showing the curve in one plane. Because of the complex grain in the hazel, the surface was scraped after planing. The pencil crosses show the centres of the 13 tines

The centres for the tines were marked and the holes drilled with a 11/16 th  brace bit (1/16 th less in diameter than the tine size). These were carefully drilled perpendicular to the base (drilling from both sides) and then adjusted to obtain a tight fit. I decided to drill right through for strength and then use hardwood wedges in the top to prevent movement.

 

Before drilling the holes for the stail, I decided it would be better to fit five tines around the centre to prevent any tear-out in the tine holes. This was straight forward by checking the fitting of the tines and knocking them into place after sawing a slit for the wedges, sawing them to the correct length and finally hammering in some hardwood wedges and trimming. They were not glued. The ends of the tines were also shaped.

The stail was connected to the head by drilling two 5/8 th inch diameter holes right through the head. It is important to get two correct angles: a) the angle of the stail "prongs" going into the head. I calculated this as 7 degrees from the perpendicular, b) the angle to give the head a slight tilt forward so that the tines point backwards towards the user. Because the stail was already curved to the ground at the rake end, this angle (normally adjusted to about 75 degrees) was left at 80 degrees so 10 degrees off perpendicular. I think 75 degrees would be too steep an angle for a garden rake.

The stail and head joined with the tines in the centre in place. 

Finished rake after treating three times with linseed oil.

The tines were shaped ready for use.

As this was my first try at a rake, I'll make a few comments on the method and how it could be improved:

1. The teeth could be made slimmer so there is more leeway in fitting the stail to the head. However, they are going to get the brunt of the action in the garden and need to be a good size and held firmly. Some designs actually use nails as tines.

2.  My stail was slightly curved to start with and it would have been better to steam it and try and straighten it, However, as the wood was green, I clamped it straight whilst it dried and that worked well.

3. A rectangle mortice/tenon might be easier to do than a cylindrical one because of the complex angles involved. I found this stage the most difficult. 

Hopefully the rake will last a long time. I'll update after some use!

 Some notes on historical designs.

A good source of information on hay rakes is a chapter in the book by Drew Langsner "Country Woodcraft" Rodale Press, 1978. This chapter covers several designs including a rake design from Finland that is very different from the English design that I have been describing. He states that the best tines are from cleaved straight-grained hardwoods such as oak, ash, beech. hickory, locust or mulberry (author lives in the USA) and the Finns traditionally use lilac.

 

A hay rake displayed in Gimmelwald, Bernese Alps. This is a different design from those I have seen in UK. It has three bow stays to hold the head in place (some are broken) and it looks like the stail (shaft) has been attached to the head with a metal plate, probably as a repair measure. It also has about 24 teeth which is a lot for a hay rake (normally around 15 on a 28-inch head, Tabor, 2000).

Second rake - a hay rake.

Hay rakes are generally wider, have thinner tines and also a longer handle, I decided to have a go but this time using alder poles for the stail but sticking with hazel for the rest. Alder was used in the past I think and certainly for scythe handles.

I started by getting three poles from a sapling in a nearby coppice. I expected the upper portion would be too thin for a stail but would make a useful stake for the garden.

Coppice of alder and hazel.

One sapling but three 6 ft poles ready for debarking and shaping with the stail engine.

I used the draw knife to remove the bark and smooth knots. On the two wider poles it was possible to shape the poles to reduce any curvature. The use of the stail engine has been given in another BLOG post so I will not repeat that here: Construction of a Stail Engine. Basically, the more I use the stail engine, the more I get to know how to set it up and get good results; it is definitely a bit of an art to operate but it is good fun once mastered.

The poles drying after rounding and one of the poles was split ready for mounting on the head. The other one will be stored for now.

I chose the middle pole to split about 21'' inches from the bottom and put a thin stainless-steel strip around to prevent further splitting. The strip was held in place with two galvanised nails. The other pole will be dried and kept as a backup. Later, when bending the bow stay, I placed the stail inside the steam box for 1 hour and after steaming bent the rake end of the shaft to give it a curvature of about 20 degrees. This will allow the stail to be inserted into the head at right angles.

The 15 tines were made from seasoned hazel by chopping to size (about 7 '' long) and then using the rounding planes to get to 1/2'' diameter as described above.

The 1/2'' rotary plane in use cutting a tine for the rake head.  Larger diameter planes were used to reduce the size to get the 1/2'' plane to fit.

The rake head was made from a trunk of hazel that had fallen in a storm and was partially dry. 

The mixed woodland containing hazel, ash, pine and field maple where the hazel pole was obtained from a fallen trunk.

The 30'' hazel tree trunk used to make the rake head

The head was made by using the froe to cleave four sides to start shaping. Then a flat face was chosen and prepared by a combination of cutting with a draw knife, roughing plane and wooden fore plane. The surface was made flat and winding sticks used to ensure a minimum of twist. Once a good face had been prepared, this was used to mark a cutting line on the opposite face to give a width of 1 3/4'' and then sawn with a rip saw using the guidelines to keep the cut true.

Marking the rip-cut line with a kerfing plane.

The shape of the head was then finished by sawing and shaping with the fore plane and jointing plane. The head had a slight curvature, shaped with a large spokeshave, from about 4 cm at the ends to 5 cm width in the middle. The tine positions were then marked along a centre line and 2 inches apart giving a total of 15 tines. The holes for the tines were then drilled using a tradition auger 1/2 '' bit from the top of the head through and then finished by drilling from the bottom of the head.

It is important to get the right levels when drilling at right-angles to the head. I did this using a straight guide and small set square.

The rake head after shaping and drilling the holes for the 1/2'' tines.

Making the Bow Stay.

This rake was wider than the garden rake and so for added strength a bow stay was used to reduce the leverage on the central fork. Some hay rakes have the stail mounted directly into the head without splitting and use a bow stay to stabilise it. I think a more robust method is to retain the fork and split stail and add a bow stay (or even two). 

To prepare a bow stays I found ash and hazel saplings about 2 m in length and about 3/4 '' in diameter and rounded them down to 1/2'' diameter with the rounding plane and then left these to dry. I will choose one of them after I have tried bending. They were not supple enough to bend without breaking and would need to be steam bent into shape on a former. 

The ash and hazel bows ready for steam bending.

Steam box with saplings inside. The box is about 2 m long, made of pine and coated on the inside with polyester to help protect the wood from water. 

The steaming took 45 minutes with the steam fed in the middle on the top and two drain holes near the ends at the bottom.  The steam was generated using a standard wallpaper stripper.

 After steaming the saplings were bent on a former as shown.

The rods on a former after steaming and left to cool to get the correct shape.

The hazel rod worked best, mainly because it had fewer knots. The rod was obtained from a six-foot length of hazel (chosen with minimum knots!) about 1 inch in diameter and turned down to 1/2 '' for the stay before bending.  It was not dried but still green when it was bent. I did try shortening the steaming time to 20 minutes, but the wood was still too brittle to make a tight bend. I found that the green wood was not supple enough to make a tight bend and some steaming was needed. 

 Construction.

All that then remained was to shape the end of the stail to fit into the head, I did this with a spokeshave, knife, scraper and sandpaper to obtain two prongs of about 2 1/2'' long and 5/8 '' in diameter. The prongs were clamped in position on the head to mark the correct placement and angle before drilling the 5/8 '' diameter holes in the head.  The holes for the bow stay were then drilled (1/2'' diameter), two through the head at right angles to the head but inclined at the measured angle, and one through the stail above the metal ring. A temporary fix was made to measure the length of the bow stay and finally the cuts for the hardwood wedges were cut in the prongs and the ends of the bow stay.

The rake was put together and tightened using hardwood wedges (no glue was used) and joints finished by chiselling and sanding. The bow stay was fixed in the middle to the stail using a galvanised nail.  The rake was then given two coats of linseed oil.

Finished topside of the rake.

Underside of the rake showing the tines.