February 2010 the new website is finally conceived and went on line in March.

The Stickmakers Committee continue you work hard on your behalf and planning for the "Dorset Do" 2010 is well in hand. This year we will have many demonstrations going on, some of your old favourites but a lot of new items as well. We have several well know speakers from the stickmaking world this year.

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Working day on May 16th, bring your natural one-piece sticks (not thumbsticks) starts 10-00am

Jig & Tool afternoon on July 18th, come along with your gadgets, tips & tricks and share them with others, starts 1-30pm

AGM September 26th

"The Great Dorset Do" October 3rd

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OUR MEMBERS HELP THE SCOUTS

Two of our members, Mike Passfield and Paul Humphriss, were asked to go along to the hut of the 5th New Forest (east) Marchwood scouts on two consecutive Tuesday evenings in March to give a teach-in to the boys (and girls) of the troop on basic stick-dressing. This is Paul's account:

Gone are the days when the long stick or stave was part of the boy scout uniform, but nevertheless kids today still like to have a stick and to use a knife to decorate it, so we were pleasantly surprised to find that despite the recent bad publicity surrounding knives and children, they all had their own knives of various designs which were all reasonably sharp and well looked after.

We turned up on the first evening not really knowing what to expect, but Mark the scout leader soon got things organised and divided the children, who were aged around 11 to 13, up into two groups of about twelve so that we could take one group each. Thanks to the stick-cutting day at Fordingbridge on the 24th January, Mike was able to provide each of them with a hazel stick which although not straight, was green enough for the bark to be easily removed.        

We began with basic safety tips in the hope that they would finish the evening with the same number of fingers that they started with and then showed them how to use masking tape to form a straight line around the stick which they could use as a starting point for removing the bark. Then they were shown how to form a domed end to the stick using files and rasps while the work was held in a workmate. We also showed them how to form a vee-shaped notch around the stick and how to produce a flat on which they could burn their name at a later stage.

As you are well aware, kids today are a noisy lot and the racket in the hall was something to behold but they were all very eager, enthusiastic and keen to learn – even if some of them were determined to use the sticks as weapons against one another! The time passed surprisingly quickly and after about an hour and a half, they had all achieved something they could be proud of.

Knowing what to expect, we turned up the second week and carried on with some refinements. We used masking tape to form a spiral around a section of the stick so that they could achieve a barley-sugar effect, we showed them how to use surforms and half-round files to form finger-holds and we had a couple of pyrography machines so that they could write their names on the aforementioned flats.

At the end of the session, despite a few cuts and burns to their fingers, they all had something worthwhile to take home and show Mum and hopefully the skills to add to what they had already done. Mike and I then headed off to the pub for a well-earned drink and raised a glass to scout masters up and down the country who, in our opinion, deserve a medal for what they do.