Learn how to sharpen and care for your countryside maintenance tools with Jeremy Weiss, a traditional rural services and training specialist.

Date: Friday 21st November 
Time: 9 – 4pm
Location: Botho at Geevor Tin Mine, Pendeen, Penzance

Please use the following Google Pin or What3Words for directions…

Google Pin:  https://maps.app.goo.gl/Z53dbrv8XZo1Vkka8 
What3Words: /// inventors.flash.allies

Price: £50 per person 

Places on this workshop have been subsidised thanks to funding from the Tanner Phoenix Trust.

During this workshop, attendees will learn how to profile and shape the blades of bill hooks or axes so that they will function at their best, cutting materials at the proper angle. A bill hook is a versatile cutting tool used widely in agriculture and forestry for cutting woody material such as shrubs and branches. This skill will allow attendees to restore old bill hooks or prepare new bill hooks for use. They will also learn how to hone the edge to ensure that tools are suitably sharp and ready for correct usage.

Once the tool is ready, attendees will be making brash bundles, known as faggots, which provide the ideal situation to practice basic bill hook cutting and trimming techniques and become familiar with this tool. 

Please bring your own axe or bill hook if you can. If you are not able to, tools will be available to borrow and work on. What to consider when buying a bill hook will be discussed during the course.

Please bring your own lunch and drinks, as well as ensuring that you wear weather-appropriate clothing.

About the instructor

Jeremy Weiss has been working with hedges for over 25 years. He is an experienced instructor having taught courses for the National Trust, Dartmoor Hill Farm Project, Devon Rural Skills Trust and for his own business, ‘Proper Edges’. He has a first-class honours degree in Environmental Science and a very keen interest in ecology, conservation and traditional countryside management. 

Plenty of parking is available at the front of Botho.

This event is in aid of Cornwall Heritage Trust.