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Written by Jonathan Ridgeon
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Page 1 of 3
The content of this tutorial doesn't have to be followed precisely, its
just how i did things and it turned out well.
First you need to go gathering materials. I used Hazel wood. Choose the
thin long shoots of wood which i would think are a couple of years old.
You don't have to use hazel, There should be plenty of other wood types
you can use. I can imagine Willow would work well but you could even use
things like Alder whips.
Once you have got the wood you can strip the bark off and tie them
together into small bundles and let them dry. Hazel dried for me over
night on top of a hot radiator! The wood suffered no splitting.
Keep a hand full of wood fresh for the next stage though because its
easier to bend when fresh.
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Next you need to make some hoops which
will be part of the basic frame of your trap. With some wood that is still
fresh, gradually work it in your hands to make it more flexible, then
begin to shape into hoops. Like so:
Wrap string around them to hold them in place. Now leave them to dry and
when all the moisture in the wood is gone they should keep their shape.
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I used a total of 6 hoops in the frame of my
trap.
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Once they are dry and solid you can taper the
ends so that they fit together nicely. Then bind them to create a nice
hoop. I used Lime bark to bind mine.
Its easier said that done as you might find out!
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