Making Hazel Hurdles
By woodlandstv
Slow connection? Watch in lower quality
At the Yorkshire Arboretum`s `Wild About Wood` fair Clive Smith gives us a step-by-step demonstration on how to produce hurdles from lengths of pliable hazel wood. Clive expertly shows us how the fibrous quality of hazel makes it the ideal wood to work with, as it can be rolled, bent and tucked into position to ensure a strong, secure hurdle.
www.yorkshirehurdles.com
www.woodlands.co.uk/tv
www.yorkshirearboretum.org
www.wildaboutwood.org
www.adliberate.co.uk
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9 comments so far
Moonessence1
October 2, 2013
Awesome! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
WoodlandsTV
October 2, 2013
Depending on exposure to the wind and if they are secured well these hurdles can last up to ten years! So the work will be worth it
Salvatore Shiggerino
August 8, 2014
I was about to go outside and chase the kids out of my garden before I realised it was in the video.
Michael Bennett
November 2, 2015
Sorry but that's not how to make a good quality wattle hurdle. Where are the spur rods? and why isn't he using any split rods in the middle of the hurdle? he's taught himself and isn't patient enough, therefore producing an inferior product. He needs to relearn his craft off someone who knows how to do it properly.There are plenty of much better hurdle makers in Hampshire, Dorset and Sussex who continue a proper craft tradition you could've filmed for this video.
Andrew Birnie
December 16, 2015
This is not hurdle making.
marie-gabrielle Rotie
March 18, 2017
really informative and one of the better videos on making hurdles. thanks.
Pasha Garanyan
April 6, 2017
I made it by myself. I used woodprix scripts for that.
Paul Matthews
April 30, 2017
There is no weave at the bottom of the hurdle?
maxdecphoenix
August 30, 2017
I don't have access to much Hazel where i live in the SE U.S., but I experimented making some of these years ago using ligustrum 'rods' (Privet). The wood twists well, but it takes some hand strength. This guy makes it look easy. I fashioned a compost bin and test hurdle, but they didn't last long. By the end of the second season they had pretty much degraded beyond use. Though that was a confluence of climate and not particularly ideally suited wood.
Ligustrum wood suffices, yet is still pretty shit for this application. Ligustrum seems to have all the bad qualities of willow and few of the good ones. Unlike hazel or willow which likes to grow long and straight, ligustrum will 'almost' do that but it seems that the shoots never get longer than a few feet before its terminal bud dies off and a lateral takes over and veers off in its own direction. I've don't think i've ever seen a rod stretch longer than 6 feet without a lateral junction. Usable, just not ideal for that scale.
They're also not native to the U.S. so i'm not interested in propagating them, which makes them useless as stakewood unless they're debarked because they have highly energetic adventitious rooting. Just like willow.