Hard as one might search, you won’t find many polymaths as polymathic as Robin Wood. Perhaps that’s why in 2014 he was awarded an MBE for his services to Heritage Crafts and Skills. After all, he has been, in vague chronological order, a forester, woodsman, spooncarver, an amateurtoolmaker, saviour of pole-lathe bowl-turning, event organiser, campaigner, award-winning artisan, TV gameshow winner and now a professional toolmaker working within the shadow of the mighty old Stanley Tools factory in Sheffield.
In 1993 Robin was working as a conservation forester for the National Trust when he decided to leave his daily work to embrace what he described as “mind, body and soul, close to nature”. He had been introduced to traditional woodland crafts, using the trees they felled to make stiles, fences and…
