BIRCH TAPPING
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I hope you enjoy the little video edit of this process. It was a huge success which Ralph and I had good fun doing until it got super windy and cold.
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The best time to tap a birch tree is now in the UK as April is the prime month. The process is to drill a small angled hole (just over an inch deep), slanting upwards about a meter up from the bottom of the tree. When finished you need to make sure you plug the hole up as it could damage the tree if left open or potentially kill it. You should also give it 2-3 years before tapping the same tree again. A good size tree could easily produce 5lt water.
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I made a simple auger using some old copper pipe (as seen in the video) and a drill bit which was within a box of old tools I recently picked up. Drilled a hole through the pipe then filed the hole square so the drill bit locked in place. 💧🎍🪵 You can buy tapping spires or other taps from eBay etc but I decided to try out my own technique I thought up by using a small bit of bamboo hollowed out and it worked really well. I also used some wooden dowels which fit into the bamboo perfectly to plug it when finished.
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One liter of birch sap is predicted to contain at least 150 mg of calcium, potassium, and magnesium. In one study, a liter of silver birch tree sap provided up to 40% of daily requirements for copper, 17% for zinc, 2% for calcium, 4% for magnesium, and 0.04% for sodium. Another study found birch tree sap concentrations of manganese, phosphorus, and zinc to exceed 1 mg per liter.
Music by Billion One - 'Giraffe' feat. Yorke
DRAWKNIFE RESTORATION
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Back to where it all began for me on this account restoring old vintage tools. In this video you'll find me going through the process of restoring an old vintage Drawknife with help from Mr Ralph. It's a tool I've wanted for a while but have been reluctant to buy brand new due to wanting to find an old one as they're hard to come by.
I would have liked to have seated the handles deeper however they were smaller than I thought and did not want to push it too hard in fear of them cracking. They do the job perfectly fine and are well and truly locked in place as seen at the end when using it.
I have never used a Drawknife before and it is very addictive and somewhat therapeutic stripping the bark from logs with such ease and I am sure I will find many uses for this as time goes on. The process has been really enjoyable and I'm really happy with the outcome. Hope you enjoy the vid!
Music by Himalia - 'Falling4You'
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WOODLAND ADVENTURES
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A day out in the forest with good friends and the kids. Great company building dens and eating popcorn...