Our classic ‘Rudd’s Rake’ handmade wooden hay rake isn’t just a piece of art, it’s a piece of history too.
At 6’ long and 2’ 6” wide rake has been made in the same workshop in Cumbria for nearly 400 years. Well, since 1632 to be precise.
King Charles had just been kicked out of Parliament, Galileo had just fallen out with the Pope (Urban VIII), Christopher Wren was born, Rembrandt was a young painter – and a craftsman set up shop in this little Cumbrian village.
Kings, Queens and Princesses may be fascinating but we find the thought of all those generations, all those children, that were provided for by craftsmen working hard long hours in this humble workshop really moving.
The handmade hay rake they still make to this day has been almost unchanged in those centuries as well. (In fact, apart from the ‘Bow’ being round not square or forked, it is unchanged in centuries.)
These rakes are handmade by the wonderful Rudds, who have been working in the workshop for four (soon to be five) generations. You may have seen John and his son Grame on BBC’s Countryfile – it was John’s grandfather who started the business in the 1890s but it was John’s father who made the biggest revolution in handcrafting these hay rakes around 80 years ago.
Not only did he introduce electricity into the workshop but he created the ‘Demon Dentist’ tooth filler too. This, over all these years, has been by far the biggest innovation. It makes the holes in the ‘heads’ and pushes in the ‘teeth’.
Can you imagine how long making 16 holes and filling them securely with the pointed teeth took before this ‘Mechanisation’? (Although, they are still ‘pointed’ by hand.)
Each handmade wooden hay rake goes through at least 20 hand operations before it’s completed.
One final test, to make sure the head has been put on the shaft squarely, is to put the shaft into a hole in the wall and spin it. If each side clears the mark on the bench, their years of experience have worked again, the rake is ‘Square’!
The head, which is about 2’ 6” wide, is made from Ash, as is the ‘Bow’ and shaft.
Although the shaft is about 6’ long, the whole hay rake weighs less 4 lb (1.5 Kg)
The teeth are made from silver birch, which they use for its strength.
The days of using these Wooden Rakes for hay and straw turning may have long gone but they still have loads of uses.
Raking gravel and leaves (and the grass when you’ve put off cutting it for too long) making a fine tilth, dredging duck weed from the pond, turning the compost or. pulling down apples.
Oh, and every golf bunker in the country probably has one.
