A Hazel Bender

Well it's been a while since my last post! It's been a busy year so far, I've been able to get out to quite a few coppice and craft related events so I thought I'd write up a few posts to summarise the year so far.

The biggest project I've been involved in so far this year is the building of a traditional hazel 'bender'. Now, we've heard all the jokes.... a bender in this sense is a traditional, simple shelter made using flexible withies or rods; often of hazel.




Traditionally, hazel rods were stuck into the ground and bent over to meet in the middle, creating a dome shaped structure. A groundsheet of some sort could then be put down to stop the damp rising.The skeleton of the structure is then covered with a tarp of some sort, canvas or poly, and insulation can be added at this point too.

We made ours slightly differently, we knew that we wanted it to be standing for as long as possible and that it should be a warm, dry place to spend time whether it's summer or winter.

Naturally, the base was first. We wanted to raise it off the ground slightly so that air could circulate beneath the bender. A few posts were knocked into the ground and bearers were nailed between these posts. The tops of pallets were then nailed down onto this base. 

Next we added a plastic, waterproof membrane as well as a small amount of insulation and a thin layer of ply to top it all off. 

At this point I should point out that benders normally have a circular footprint, sometimes with a small porch to keep the wind out. We wanted to make the most efficient use of the space we had so our floor plan is slightly non traditional. This did create challenges but we were able to work around them all in the end.

Now that the base was done, we could start bending over the hazel rods. We drilled 35 mm holes in the base where the hazel rods went through the base. 

And then the rain arrived and soaked our base!! 

A LOT of knots were tied, we used square lashing knots to tie the rods together. 

Whilst building the bender structure with hazel rods we also fitted these window panels. Most benders don't have windows but we thought it would be nice to let a bit of light in. Besides, we needed some window sills for plants!

It took us a while to figure out how to join an inherently round structure onto square windows. We ended up using  the blue water pipe that you can see in the above photo. this was screwed onto the window panels and the hazel rods were then inserted into these sections of pipe. 

Unfortunately I don't have any photos of the next stage, basically we covered the structure with a series of layers; firstly hessian fabric, then sheeps wool underlay insulation and finally a cotton canvas. 

We used a series of screws and large washers to attach the canvas to the structure. 

Once the door was fitted and the canvas was on it started to feel really cosy. The next stage was to fit a stove. 

First fire in the stove!

So far, so good. We decided to start moving some stuff in. 

A rather long spell of wet weather then came in and we discovered that the cotton duck canvas we fitted was only water resistant. Our newly built bender was leaking like a sieve! Luckily we built the bender in the spring so we had the summer ahead of us to sort out the leaks. I tried a few different products to waterproof the canvas but unfortunately, in the end we had to give in and purchase a poly-cotton canvas. Whilst fitting the new poly-cotton canvas we also fitted an additional reflective layer between the hessian and the insulation. This helps to reflect radiant heat back into the bender. This extra layer seems to have worked incredibly well at preventing heat from escaping and I would definitely recommend it to anyone building a yurt or bender. Particularly if you want to spend time in it during the winter. 

We're really happy with the finished garden hide-away and learnt a lot during the building process. We will definitely by-pass the cotton canvas next time, which is a real shame as it's nice to be able to use a natural product that's breathable. The one thing which I think may have allowed us to stick with the cotton canvas is a product called Tyvek. Which is a man-made breathable / waterproof membrane used in the construction industry. a layer of this could have been fitted between the canvas and insulation. Perhaps next time! 

If anybody would like more information about this project or if you're thinking about building a bender of your own, get in touch. I'd be more than happy to share what I learnt throughout the build.