Oxfordshire Woodland Group

At the Queen's Diamond jubilee celebrations in Stratfield Saye, Hampshire we saw mummers (Morris men) in dancing action. As part of their dance they would whack each others sticks to make a loud clatter.

Later I noticed that a number of these sticks were showing signs of failure due to grain separation which on closer examination appear to be those made from ash which is a ring porous hardwood.

It might be better to make these sticks using diffuse porous hardwoods like beech, hornbeam, birch, etc. to help avoid this problem which results from compression of the large pores in the early wood causing separation of the annual growth rings. The resulting splinters could easily fly away during stick impact potentially causing eye injuries and hence care should be taken to select and fashion sticks from appropriate tree species.

Isla