Start with the Cut, Not the Product

In a working coppice, the wood tells you what it wants to become. A straight hazel rod lifted from a stool in January is not simply “a pole”; it is a potential hurdle, a bean stick, a thatching spar or a bundle of kindling. The skill lies in sorting it before it becomes a nuisance. Cut cleanly with a sharp billhook or saw, leave the stool tidy, and grade the produce at the stump. That single habit reduces waste, saves handling and adds value to every length you cut.

Sort into rough grades as you work: firsts, seconds, thirds and odds. Firsts are straight, sound and long. Seconds have a slight bend or a small knot but remain useful. Thirds are short, twisted or knotty. Odds are brash, tops and diseased wood. Each grade has a market or a use, even if that use is keeping you warm next winter.

Grade by Species, Size and Straightness

Different species behave differently, and the best coppice workers match the wood to the job. Hazel is the traditional hurdle and spar wood: flexible, strong and willing to bend. Ash is tougher and springier, ideal for tool handles, bean sticks and gate hurdles. Willow is light and fast-growing, good for basketry, charcoal and pea sticks. Sweet chestnut lasts in the ground, so it becomes fence stakes, rails and post-and-rail fencing. Oak and alder make excellent charcoal, while birch and softwoods are best kept for kindling and firewood.

• Length: Sort into 1.8 m, 2.4 m and 3 m bundles. Hurdle rods are usually 1.8–2.4 m; bean sticks 1.8–2.4 m; charcoal wood 0.6–1 m.
• Diameter: Hurdle rods should be thumb-thick to wrist-thick at the butt, tapering gently. Charcoal wood is best at 2–8 cm. Firewood can be anything from 5 cm upwards.
• Straightness: Roll each pole on a flat surface. A rod that rolls true is a first. A rod with a gentle curve can become a spar or a peg. A sharp bend becomes firewood or charcoal.
• Condition: Reject wood with deep cracks, fungal staining or old borer holes for structural crafts. It still has a use in the kiln or the woodstack.

Hurdles and Spars from the Straightest Rods

Hurdles are the flagship product of British coppice crafts. Select hazel rods that are straight, knot-free and flexible. Cut them in winter, then weave them while still green and pliable. A traditional sheep hurdle uses about a dozen uprights and several weavers, finished with a sturdy end rod. Gate hurdles need stronger ash or chestnut frames. Thatching spars are shorter, split hazel rods, pointed at both ends and twisted to hold thatch. They are small, high-value items that use wood too short for anything else.

Season hurdles and spars slowly. Stack them off the ground in a dry, airy shed or under a lean-to, with spacers between layers. Air-dry for six to twelve months. Rushed drying causes splitting and warping, which destroys the value you have worked to create. Good hurdles can last decades if kept dry and repairable.

Bean Sticks, Pea Sticks and Garden Wood

Gardeners pay well for straight, clean sticks. Hazel, ash and willow all make excellent bean sticks. Cut them 1.8–2.4 m long, bundle in fifties, and tie with a flexible rod or twine. Pea sticks are shorter, 0.9–1.5 m, with side branches left on to give peas something to climb. Birch tops make decorative plant supports, while hazel “pea boughs” are a traditional favourite. Grade out anything too thick or too brittle for garden use and send it to the charcoal kiln or firewood stack.

Presentation matters. Neat bundles sell better at farmers’ markets, craft fairs and woodland shows. Label the species and length. Store bundles under cover, off the ground, and use them within a year or two before they become brittle.

Charcoal, Kindling and Firewood

Charcoal is the great rescuer of awkward coppice wood. Small, knotty, twisted and short lengths of hazel, willow, alder, oak and ash all burn well in a retort kiln or earth kiln. Cut the wood to uniform lengths, season it for several months, then char it slowly. Lumpwood charcoal from native coppice is a premium product for restaurants and barbecue cooks. Dust and small fragments can be mixed with sawdust and bound into briquettes, or returned to the woodland as biochar.

Firewood takes the final grade: anything too curved, too split or too large for crafts. Cut, split and stack in a criss-cross pattern in a sunny, windy spot. Cover the top, leave the sides open, and season for twelve to eighteen months until moisture is below twenty per cent. Birch and ash burn brightly; oak and beech give long, slow heat. Kindling comes from dry twigs, split offcuts and birch bark. Bundle it in paper or netting and sell it alongside your logs.

Make Every Length Pay — and Leave Room for Wildlife

Waste is usually a failure of sorting, not a lack of wood. Short straight pieces become dolly pegs, tool handles, walking sticks, besom brooms, thatching spars and hedge stakes. Twisted pieces become faggots for riverbank protection or garden obelisks. Bark, shavings and sawdust can be composted, used as mulch or burned in a rocket stove. Even the brash pile has a purpose: stacked loosely, it shelters beetles, frogs, hedgehogs and nesting wrens.

Wildlife and woodland management go hand in hand. Cut coppice between September and February, outside the main nesting season. Leave some stools to grow into standards for timber, and retain deadwood, hollow trees and ivy-covered trunks. Coppice in rotation — hazel every seven to ten years, willow every one to three, sweet chestnut every twelve to twenty — so there is always a mix of young growth, dense thicket and mature canopy. Dormice, nightingales, willow warblers and fritillary butterflies all depend on that variety.

By grading as you cut, you turn a woodland job into a range of useful products: hurdles, bean sticks, charcoal, kindling and firewood. You also reduce waste, improve habitat and add value to every pole. The coppice gives generously, but only if you sort it with care.