>Pikes were made of specially grown trees (mostly ash, IIRC) which were
>COPPICED, a method which seems to have been overlooked so far in this
thread.
Not quite, someone mentioned it a while back, sorry I cannot remember who and may have misunderstood what they were saying. From memory they were talking of growing on a coppice basis and planting a new tree when ever there was a birth and at other times. It was the need to plant new trees so frequently that I found a little difficult to swallow. The big advantage of the coppice method is that when you cut down the one tree, several new trunks grow from the original root stock. You can then harvest these at a time appropriate to their desired use.
Now, I'm not suggesting that IS how the shafts are produced, but just adding a little more info to the pool.
Cheers
Daren
dclark_at_ndirect.co.uk
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