Pimps, Faggots and Benders.
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Alan Waters guides us through the process of making Pimps, Faggots and Benders.
Transcript
Alan Waters: We're making pimps, which are 25 individual bundles of kindling. They used to be sent up to London by the [inaudible] or they went from the railway stations which used to be used. We've met many people who've made them. They were made in the Petworth area, Plaistow, North Chapel area.
I started to learn because one guy stopped, and he was the last one. He taught me, so I did it as a demonstration. Because we do farmer's markets, we found we could sell them, so we keep doing them.
The benders is just a cover we throw up in the woods to work under on wet days. The faggots was my first job in the woods in 1958. We used to tie them up, and that was my Saturday afternoon job. I used to earn more money tying them up on Saturday afternoon than I did all week, because it was quite profitable.
But today, we just make longer ones, which are for riverbanks, restoration, and all that sort of thing. So, we have each machine. This is called a pimp machine. This one's called the boy, because at some time a boy must have fed it down to the guy chopping.
Then we come to the table, which has your bits of kindling, your tarred string, and your woodsman's vise. Then you have your pimp cleaver, which we will need to do a quick demonstration at cleaving toenails and that sort of thing with.
Interviewer: How are the hazel faggots used for riverbanks?
Alan: They're laid in, pegged in, and wired in. What happens is the water goes through. The silt collects in them, and that builds the bank up. Then a couple years later, they do it again. That's enough to bring the riverbank up together.
Interviewer: I see. So, it helps to establish that the bank essentially is made up of silt and stones.
Alan: But, it's held together by the hazel.
Interviewer: What are gads?
Alan: Gads? Twenty-nine-inch lengths of wood. There're 50 in a bundle. That goes to the spar-maker, who will split them down and turn them into thatching spars. You need 10,000, per roof, per thatched house.
Interviewer: 10,000?
Alan: 10,000. And the guy we supply does 2000 spars a day, cut and pointed. They're not always twisted. We just twisted these up so you can see them.
Interviewer: And they practically... What [inaudible] those spars?
Alan: They're spars.
Then we point it, and the thatcher gets them like that, and then twists them and bangs them into a thatch. Just like a big hair-grip, really.
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9 comments so far
skiwintercampsummer
February 17, 2009
I wish i could make money tying up faggots.
strikingblack2
February 26, 2009
hahaha good point
tomfiss
September 22, 2009
Haha faggots.
DirTyOhGee
January 22, 2010
man he didn’t hardly say anything about the bender, I would have like top know how to make a fast east cover outside…oh well.
VeronicasMidget
February 15, 2010
Didn’t Boy George get arrested for that very same thing Skiwinter?
skiwintercampsummer
February 15, 2010
I’m pretty sure it is totally legal to tie piles of sticks up into bundles.
azyaninvasion
September 6, 2010
Hahaha , I need one of those Pimp cleavers .
Rhinoch8
February 2, 2011
What is the purpose of a stick bundle? What the heck?
gvenema
May 25, 2011
@Rhinoch8 @ 2:36