The raw material that comes for processing into chestnut paling at Torry Hill
Chestnut Fencing, is in the form of trimmed out
chestnut poles, on average around 8m long and with a diameter at the butt end of 15-20cm (thinning to 3-5cm at the tip). The chestnut fencing posts are first “lengthed up” or cut into usable lengths, removing crooked bits, bad knots, bends etc. This is a skilled job, which requires an understanding of how the wood will split. Good lengthening up is vital for maximising the amount of usable wood. Waste wood from this process is stored, air dried and chipped for wood fuel or sold as firewood for wood burning stoves.
Lengths destined for chestnut poles, for example 1.8m long will then be peeled to remove the bark, cleaved or sawn into two of sufficient diameter and pointed using a band saw.
Lengths to be cleaved into chestnut poles are also peeled and are then cleft by hand by Palemakers. This is a skilled job which looks easy, but in fact requires a long apprenticeship to do well, and which is a source of fascination to all visitors to the business. The round length of wood to be cleaved is placed into a “brake”, a kind of vice to hold it in place, and cleaved at first into two and then into chestnut pales about 3cm diameter, using a “froe” or “dole axe” - a flat blade set with the sharpened edge on top, set on a wooden handle that can then be used as a wedge to lever the length of wood apart.
The chestnut pales are then transferred to the fence making machines to be made into traditional rolls of chestnut fencing. These locally made machines, powered by compressed air, use counter-rotating heads to twist wire around the pales and roll up the fencing as it is made. Finally, the completed rolls of chestnut fencing are compressed and palletised for easy transportation and handling.