Service Tray Made from Greenwood Hazel.

 The idea for this project came from some pyrography I did in Spain during the autumn of 2025. Amongst other things, I drew an elephant about to charge in a similar aspect to a painting we saw by David Shepherd in the 1970's in Loughborough. My drawing brought to mind an encounter with a bull elephant in 1970 in the Yankari Game Reserve in Nigeria during a vocation whilst doing VSO near Minna. Another A4 sheet was drawn with a giraffe eating from an acacia tree (this was a request from my granddaughter  Esmee).

I did the pyrography on a pieces of basswood A4 rectangle bought from "Turners Retreat" in the UK. This was made smooth with Abranet sheets using 240 to 600 grit to get a good surface ready for burning. The design was firstly drawn in pencil on a A4 sheet of paper. I found the most important parts of the elephant were the feet positions, eyes and the position of the tusks. The tusks had to be raised to get a convincing aspect of the elephant moving forward. This took several attempts with an eraser handy to get an image I was satisfied with. The bottom of the feet were places in grass/scrub and so their details were not specifically drawn. The giraffe was perhaps easier although the skin markings are intricate and took much time to get realistic. I wasn't very happy with the eye but pyrography is not very forgiving !The pyrography was completed with a "Preciva 939" (40 W, 250 - 750 C) unit with their nibs plus some thin standard loops from "Turners Retreat" which were ideal for the finer details.

The finished pyrography drawing of an African bull elephant which will form the base of the serving tray.

My idea was to mount the A4 basswood in narrow grooves (1/8 inch) cut into the sides and ends of a wooden tray. I wanted to make the tray from some locally grown wood from our hazel hedge at the bottom of the garden. A piece was selected for coppicing of about 6 inches diameter at the base and sawn down in the middle of November. This greenwood was heavy and full of sap but easy to cut and prepare rough blanks for the two long sides and the end pieces. The design was to incorporate handles cut in the end pieces for carrying the tray. Once the blanks are made, they will be left a couple of months to slowly dry before finally shaping and making the necessary joints and grooves for the base.

The freshly felled hazel ready for cleaving and carving the sides and end pieces.

The two sides were made first by cleaving a longer section of hazel into two using a froe and then each of them shaped to form two flat and straight sides (at right angles to each other). 

The hazel clearved ready for shaping.

One of the tray sides shaped for drying before finally shaping.

The flat sides made the inside edge and base of the side pieces. The outside and top of these pieces were irregular and followed the lines of the natural wood but with the bark removed. The bark was removed using a drawing knife and the rest of the shaping was made using a carving axe and then finished with a roughing plane and then a large spokeshave. The flat surfaces were made using a try-square, winding sticks, rule and smoothing plane adjusted to give a fine cut.

The two tray side pieces with flat sides on the bench and on the inside faces..

The end pieces were made as one piece to start with and drilled/chiselled to form hand-holds before sawing in half to make the two end pieces of the tray. So the hazel branch was firstly squared to about 2 x 2 inches using a froe and then axed to make reasonable parallel faces and making minor adjustment using a roughing plane. Again, two faces were made flat and at right angles to each other to make the inside and bottom faces of the ends.

The end piece (that will eventually be sawn in half to make the two end pieces) with the flat faces on the left and top.

The hand-hold was cut in the centre of the block to 10 cm in length and 1 inch wide.  This was done by drilling three parallel holes of 1 inch diameter using a hand auger and then chiselling out the waste. The final shaping will be done once the wood has dried. Finally the two end-pieces were made by sawing the block into two equal parts using a kerfing plane to make guiding grooves and then a rip-saw.

The blanks for the side and end pieces left to dry before final shaping and joining with the tray bottom.

These were left stored indoors until March the following year. The sides and ends were then planed flat so that the insides and bottoms were flat and at right angles to each other. The 1/8 inch grooves were cut on the inside of the sides and ends using a Record 050 combination plane. The curved surfaces were shaped with a small spokeshave and scraper. They were joined by a 1 cm deep housing joint with a dowel oak reinforcement inserted after glueing.

The other tray to house the giraffe pyrography, was made in a similar way.

The finished tray after treating with polyurethane.

The other tray (slightly larger) after joining and finished with polyurethane.

I found this a great project that benefited from the natural shape of the hazel wood. I know hazel is not thought of as a "furniture wood" maybe because of it's awkward grain and light colour, but it is a hard and durable wood. The secret here is to do the main shaping when it is wet and freshly felled,  allow some leeway for movement as the wood dries before finally shaping, joining and treating after several months drying, in this project about 5 months indoors.