“My current favourite tool is my carving axe. My parents bought the head of the axe only for my 40th birthday. It was designed by a fellow carver from Austria who has put a decade of thought and expertise into its design. I made the handle out of ash from a friend’s grounds and I also made the leather sheath. So a lot of different skills involved before I could even use it.

I solely use this for carving spoons and tool handles, it’s a very different tool to the hatchet you’d use to split firewood.

It’s an incredibly versatile tool. It removes large amounts of wood quickly with larger swings, yet can be used very precisely to carve or plane close to your desired shape. I can make something that closely resembles a spoon, from a log, in a short period of time with this axe.

I’ve been carving for almost 6 years and it’s recently becoming a significant part of my income. To use a tool such as this, designed for this exact purpose is an absolute joy. I also adapted my axe block with straps and pegs to accommodate my different tools during a working day.”