Woven baskets are probably the thirdor fourth manufactured articles that

human beings learned to make. In justabout every culture that has ever been, bas-kets have played an important role in thelives of the people. Different basket-makingtraditions developed in different places,based on what materials were available andthe particular technologies that the peoplehad. The white oak basket-making tradi-tion started in the eastern part of NorthAmerican during the Colonial period whenthe metal tool technology of Europe camein contact with the white oak timber andthe indigenous basket-making traditions ofNorth American. Previous to this, NativeAmericans had made wooden baskets outof ash by pounding the logs to separate thegrowth rings. I don’t believe that a personcan make a basket out of white oak withoutmetal tools to split the grain of the wood.

I learned how to make baskets from aman named Wayman Evans. He was bornin 1913 in the hills of Northern Georgia,across the river from Copper Hill,Tennessee, and moved to Arkansas with his

wife Ruth in the 1930s. They worked a smallfarm outside of Batesville until he died in1993. Wayman learned to make basketsfrom his dad, who learned from his dad.Making a basket is the first thing Waymanremembered doing with his hands.

Originally, basket-making was a wayto supplement the income from farming,but when Wayman grew up, he and Ruthmade extra money working in the can-ning factories instead; for a long time,Wayman didn’t make any baskets. But inthe early 1970s, a growing interest in tra-ditional handcrafts created a demand forbaskets, so he started making them againand would teach anyone who was “stub-born enough” to try and learn.

BASIC FORMS

Most all white oak baskets belong toone of three groups:

1) Flat bottom baskets with squarebottoms and two sets of ribs, one set run-ning along the width of the bottom andone set running along the length. The ribsare woven in an over-under “checker-

board” pattern to form the bottom.When woven up, the sides can maintainthe square or rectangular shape of thebottom or they can gradually progress toa round, sometimes oval shape.

2) Round bottom baskets, usually hav-ing 16 ribs (small baskets may have 12 or 9)that are all the same. The ribs have a “pro-peller” shape with a narrow waist in thecenter where the ribs are woven together ina starburst pattern to form the bottom.

Both round bottom and flat bottombaskets have their handle and rims stitchedon to the top of the basket once the basicform has been woven. Round bottom bas-kets have a foot rim stitched to the baseand flat bottom baskets can wear “shoes.”

3) The gizzard basket, sometimesknown as the bow basket or egg basket.With these baskets, the handle and rimare made first, lashed together to form aframe. Into this lashing ribs are insertedwhich hold the weaving that forms theshell of the basket. Gizzard baskets arethe “Cadillac” of white oak baskets andare prized by collectors. They are hard to

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make and time-consuming. I don’t rec-ommend them for the beginner.

TOOLS

As far as the metal tools go, there aretwo basic groups: splitting and whittlingtools. The splitting tools have blunt edgesand include basic log splitting wedges, afroe, and a splitting knife. The wedges aredriven with a maul. A wooden club is usedto drive the froe. (Never use a metal maulor hammer to drive a froe. Doing this willmisshape the back of the blade and pre-vent the tool from sliding into the split.)The whittling tools include the drawknifeand the whittling knife. I also use a smallchip-carving knife to work in tight placesand trim the handles and rims. The whit-tling tools should be kept sharp.

Along with being sharp, the angle of thebevel on both the drawknife and whittlingknife is critical to the tool’s performance inbasket-making. I have never measured theangle of the bevels on my whittling knife. Isuppose the angle of my drawknife is lessthan 25°. Most store-bought knives need tohave their angle reduced.

As we will see later in this article, thedrawknife and the whittling knife aremeant to shave flat surfaces in greenwood following the grain. To fulfill thispurpose, a sharper, more acute angle isused when compared to the commonbench plane or chisel. A sharper anglegives up some control to the wood, mak-ing it easier to follow the grain. When theangle of the bevel is too low, the tool willdig into the wood too much. If the angleis too high, the blade won’t cut well, extraforce will be required, and the cut sur-faces will have a tendency to be bumpy.

Wayman used a Greenlee drawknifeand a Camilus folding pocketknife. I usea Marples drawknife and a Swedish carv-ing knife with a long blade. Wrapping thehandle of the whittling knife will makethe grip more comfortable.

In most every situation, the drawknifeis used with the bevel up.

A good drawhorse is essential to whiteoak basket-making. The one I use now ispatterned after a plan developed by JohnAlexander [Woodwork #52 , August1998]. Drawhorses don’t need to be fancyor take a lot of time to build. I have builta few for myself over the last 25 years.The best ones were simple and I usuallyfelt the need to make slight modifications

after working with them for a while.You will need a big saw to cut the tree

down, and a little saw to cut the notchesin the handle. An ax is used to cutthrough any connecting fibers whensplitting out the log. (Wayman used an axto fell his trees and was proud of it.) Also,you’ll need a piece of thick leather toplace over your knee when whittlingsplits and ribs.

PICKING OUT A TREE

The first and most critical step inmaking a basket is picking out the tree.The particular qualities of the wood in

any given tree make all the difference inthe world in terms of how well the rest ofthe work will go. Even though they maylook good, some trees will just not workfor baskets. Picking out a good tree is notan easy thing to learn to do if you haveno one to show you. It takes time andexperience to understand what to lookfor and where to find it.

This is what you want: a young whiteoak tree with a 6"-8" diameter at its base,tall and straight, with healthy growthrings (10-18 per inch), knot-free from theground up to at least four feet. The woodshould split straight and clean and be

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flexible. A little twist is okay, but followthe twist as you work.

Some of these qualities can easily beread from the outside. But qualities suchas the size of the growth rings and thedegree of flexibility are another matteraltogether. For these, I look to the grainand texture of the bark in relationship tomy past experience with that area of land.

Good trees grow in good places. I haveheard people say that good basket treesgrow on the north side of the hill.Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t.Good trees need good soil that doesn’t dryout too fast. They need enough competi-tion to grow tall and straight but not somuch so as to slow down their growth(slow-growth wood splits well but is weakand brittle). Too much exposure to windand sun doesn’t make for a good basket

tree. I look mostly near the bottom of thehill along the valleys, away from open fields.

It is wise to start with smaller trees andmake little baskets while learning the feelof the wood and the look of the trees.Trees can be cut any time of the year. Thewood needs to be worked while it is stillgreen, and felled timber will stay freshlonger in the winter. In the summer, woodstarts to get old in about three weeks.

Cut your tree close to the ground, aboveany pronounced flare at the butt thatwould just cause trouble later. Cut the topof the tree off the log before bumps andknots start to affect the straightness of thebark. Three feet is about the shortest prac-tical length, and logs more than five feetlong are better worked after gaining someexperience. The longest splits I ever madewere about ten feet long.

MAKING THE PIECESAlong with other forms of traditional

woodworking, white oak basket-makingis based on a working knowledge of theinternal structures and physical proper-ties of the wood. With this in mind, it isgood to review some basic tree anatomyfirst. In this type of work, the trees aretaken apart the way they are put together.

Looking at a cross-section of the log,the center of this circle is called the pith.Radiating out like the spokes of a wheelare the “rays.” The rays store nutrientsand connect the inside of the tree to theoutside. In concentric bands runningperpendicular to the rays are the growthrings. The rays and the growth rings arelike “dotted lines” along which the logwill be divided into pieces.

Each growth ring has two parts, a layerof vessels and a layer of solid wood. Thevessels are grown first in the spring; theyare hollow tubes that carry fluid up thetree from the ground. The vessels are notvery flexible and have little strength. Thisis why slow growth wood is weak and brit-tle; it has more vessels per inch of wood.The vessels are used in separating thestrong and flexible layers of solid woodthat makes good material for baskets.

The younger wood underneath thebark is called the sapwood. It is white incolor, tends to be more flexible than thedarker heartwood, and has fewer knots.This outer portion of sapwood, andmaybe a little of the heartwood, is wherethe best weavers and ribs come from.

As the trees age the chemical composi-tion of the sapwood changes. The wooddarkens, hardens, and becomes less flexi-ble. This heartwood is good for handlesand rims. In a felled log, the sapwood willspoil before the heartwood.

With a maul and wedges, split the login half, starting the split along a line thatpasses through the center (pith) of theendgrain (1,3). I usually split wood fromthe top down. Occasionally, a tree mightlike it better the other way around. Usethe ax to cut through connecting fibers inthe split if necessary.

Pick the best half and split it again,making quarters (2,4). Set the other halfin the shade bark side up. Take the bestquarter and split it once more intoeighths (5).

As the pieces of wood become smaller,the splitting process becomes easier to

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control. With finesse and the right touch,splits that are running off can be broughtback in line, pieces can be split off-centerand even split into thirds sometimes. Itall comes with practice, but there is onerule that is worth remembering: BENDthe BIG side. If a split is running off, holdstraight the side that is getting smallerand bend on the side that is getting big-ger, exerting leverage there to pull thesplit over to that side.

Up to this point, all the splits have beenin line with the rays. But now the heart-wood is split off with a wedge or froe inline with the growth rings, about halfwaybetween the pith and the bark (6,7). Theinside piece is set aside in the shade to beused later for handles and rims. The out-side portion, with the bark and the sap-wood, will be made into splits and ribs.

Continue splitting this outer portionalong the rays, splitting down to 16ths,32nds, or until an appropriate size pieceis reached for the size weaver you wish tomake (8-12). Finished weavers of 1/4" to3/8" wide are a good place to start.

This final split-out piece of wood I call a“bolt.” The bolt should follow the grain andhave absolutely no knots. Pieces with knotscan be cut into shorter sections for ribs later.

Holding the bolt in the drawhorse, usethe drawknife (13) to shave the roughsides smooth and parallel to each other,perpendicular to the growth rings. Thethickness of the bolt will determine howwide the finished weavers will be. The boltshould end up with the same thicknessthroughout its length and should followthe grain, even if there is a slight twist to it.A 3' section of 1x2 can be used to helpsupport the bolt in the drawhorse (14).

The finished bolt is split into weaversusing the splitting knife. Place the knifeover the center band of vessels (15), strik-ing the back of the blade with a stick ofwood or small mallet to start the split. Splitthe bolt in half and then quarters (16,17).Continue this halving process until all theindividual layers of the growth rings areseparated (18,19). Extra-thick growth rings(about 1/8" or greater) can be split in half.

(It should be noted that this step ofsplitting out the weavers from the bolt iswhere most of the cut fingers happen. Itis usually the index finger of the handthat is holding the end of the bolt. Neveruse the sharp whittling knife to split with.Don’t push, but drive the splitting knife

by tapping it with a stick or small malleton all but the smallest pieces. Keep plentyof band-aids on hand, and know whenit’s time to get stitches.)

With the bolt all split out, the nextstep is whittling the weavers. Working ina seated position with a thick piece ofleather placed over the right knee (leftknee for the left handed), pull theweavers under the whittling knife, whichis held still with the cutting edge facing

away (20). Work down the length of oneside, then flip the weaver over and workthe other side. The goal here is to smooththe faces, establish an even and correctthickness, and to shave off as much of thevessels as possible. Vessels are brittle andwill crack when bent (21).

This whittling takes practice to get goodat. The sharpness of the whittling knife andthe angle of its bevel really make a lot ofdifference as to how well the work goes.

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When the weavers are all whittled, bun-dle them up, saving the short pieces, and setthem aside to dry. Under normal condi-tions, weavers only take a day or two to dry.

I usually work up about a fourth of thelog into weavers of varying widths beforeI start making ribs.

Ribs are made in the same way as theweavers. These bolts will be shorter andtheir sides are drawknifed to specificdimensions, depending on what type ofbasket is to be made. Instead of being setaside to dry, ribs are used right after theyare all whittled. I only make enough ribsfor one basket at a time.

Good ribs are just a little thicker thanthe weavers that they will be use with.When whittling ribs, try to achieve aslight bevel to the outside edges.

In this whole process, very little mea-suring is done. While the length of ribsand handles are measured (sometimesjust with fingers), the rest of the shaping isdone by eye and feel. This is not to suggestthat specific measurements are unimpor-tant or arbitrary. What is important is theproportion or relationship between therelative size of the different pieces of abasket and how they work together.

The correct thickness is very importantand varies with the size of the basket andits pieces. If a handle is too thick, it will behard to bend, tend to crack at the bends,and push the sides out, misshaping thebaskets. If a handle is too thin, it will be

weak and, along with the sides of the bas-ket, will bend under a load. If weavers aretoo thick, they will be difficult to workwith, resist snugging down tight to theprevious run, and have a tendency to kinkthe ribs. Weavers that are too thin cancrumple in the weave and lack thestrength to hold the ribs in place. Whenribs are too thick they are hard to bend upand have a tendency to crack there. Theyignore the pull of the weavers, creatingweak points and lumpy weaving.

It take time and experience to under-stand and develop this sense of propor-tion. The best way to get it is to first findout what too thick is like. Then find outwhat too thin is like. Just right is inbetween the two.

MAKING A FLAT BOTTOM BASKET

Flat bottom baskets are the easiest forthe beginner to make. Also, they are theeasiest to explain in text and pictureswithout being there in person.

The measurements in the followingdirections where selected as a good workablesize for the beginner. The measurements canbe adjusted if it seems appropriate.Sometimes the position of a certain knot inthe log will determine the length of ribs.

For a flat bottom basket with a 10" x10" bottom and 5" sides, make about 25weavers 1/4" to 3/8" wide and about 45"long. Make two bolts for ribs 22" longand 3/4" wide. (For a basket with a rec-

tangular bottom, make one bolt longerthan the other).

When the ribs have all been whittled,weave them together in a simple over-one/under-one pattern to make the bottom(22). Keep everything square and straight.Even with the ribs pulled tight together,there will be a space between them of about1/4" square. This is as it should be, for thisspace between the ribs will accommodatethe weaving up the sides.

The size of the finished bottom doesn’thave to be exactly 10" x 10", but the portionof the ribs devoted for the sides will need tobe at least 1" longer than the intendedheight of the side (this is for the turn-over).Also, the two sides that will hold the handleneed to have an odd number of ribs, or elsethe handle will be off-center.

With the bottom completed, fold theribs up to form the sides of the basket (23).Fold and crease firmly each rib, pressing itflat against the bottom. The crease in eachrib should be in line with its neighbor andfollow a line along the outer perimeter ofthe bottom (24).

Set this work aside overnight to drybefore weaving the sides. It helps to setthe bottom in something like a cardboardbox that will hold the ribs upright in theircorrect position.

There are two methods for weaving upthe sides of the baskets. The coil methoduses a continuous spiral of weavers andworks well for baskets that have sides that

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curve, or when the available weaversaren’t the right length. This type of weav-ing requires an odd number of ribs tomake the spiral. This is accomplished bysplitting one of the ribs down the middle,making it into two ribs.

Layering is the other method. This is ahandy method when the weavers are longenough to go all the way around the bas-ket plus overlap about 3" at their ends.The sides are built one row at a time and,along with it being easier to achieve a lev-el top, there will be fewer complicationswhen stitching on the rims.

To start weaving the sides, select agood weaver and dip it in water. (This isnot to make the weaver more flexible;when the surfaces are wet the weaver willstay in place better.) If the weaver is a lit-tle rough it can be re-whittled at thispoint and then dipped in the water again.

Starting at any place away from thecorner, weave over one rib and under thenext. Continue like this all the wayaround the basket and overlap where youstarted by at least three ribs. The overlapshould be done so that both ends of theweaver fall over the center of a rib andthe weaver covers both of its ends (25).Start the next row at some place otherthan right above where the first row wasstarted. Weave around the basket, goingover ribs that on the previous row theweaver went under. Overlap as beforeand then start another row, each time

dipping the weaver in water first. The first couple of rows are the hard-

est to keep in place, but after weaving upthree or four rows, the sides will holdtheir own shape.

Weave the sides up as high as youwant, making sure to leave at least anextra 1" at the ends of the ribs for turningover. It doesn’t matter if the ends of theribs are uneven. Set the basket asideovernight to dry.

Before turning over the ends, snug theweavers down by working around thebasket, starting at the bottom, using theflat of the splitting knife blade. This willmake for a tighter basket by picking upthe slack from drying. Also, this proce-dure can be used to level the top.

With the weavers snugged down andthe top level, it is time to turn over theribs and lock in the top of the weaving.Every other rib end—the ones where thetop weaver falls on the inside of the bas-ket—is turned over. The other rib endsare cut off flush with the top of the side.

First, take one of the ribs to be turnedover and, using the tip of a sharp knife,lightly score across the face of the rib on theoutside of the basket in line with the top ofthe last weaver (26). Fold the rib end overthe top of the side and press it against theinside of the basket. Mark on the rib endwhere the bottom of the third weaver downfrom the top is. Cut the end of the rib offthere with a knife, a stout pair of scissors,

or a light tin snips. Tuck the end of the ribunder that third weaver down from thetop. Go around the top of the basket, doingthe same to every other rib end (27).Dipping the end to be worked in water firstwill make this job easier.

HANDLES, RIMS, AND SHOES

To make a handle, split out a piece ofheartwood about 1" to 1-1/2" wide (in linewith the growth rings) and about 3/8" to1/2" thick. To determine the length of thispiece, measure up the side of the basket,add about 3"-4", double that sum (for theother side), and then add the distanceacross the top of the basket.

Drawknife this stick even and flat onall four sides, straight with the grain. Ifthere is a slight twist to the grain, followthe twist while doing the drawknife work,and bend the stick straight afterwards.

The handle should be placed over thecenter rib on two opposite sides. Thesesides need to have an odd number of ribs.Place the stick over one of these centerribs on the inside of the basket with theend of the stick against the bottom of thebasket. Across the inside face of the stick,mark two lines that correspond to the topand bottom of the top weaver on thatside (28). If the weavers are very narrow,the notch can be as wide as the top twoweavers. Do the same thing on the otherside of the basket with the other end ofthe stick. These marks outline the notch

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that will hold the inside top rim.With a small saw, cut no more than

half way through the stick on thesemarks. After making the cuts, flip the sawover, insert the back of the saw into oneof the cuts, twist the handle of the saw,and snap the wood out from between thecuts to form the notch (29).

With both notches cut, go back to thedrawhorse and drawknife between thenotches, reducing the thickness of the stickthere by not quite one half. Taper the endsof the stick past the notches down to noth-ing (30). This trimming of the handle isone of the few places I might use thedrawknife with the bevel down.

On the ends of the stick, below thenotches, slightly taper the sides andround the ends so that they will slip nice-ly into the weave. Also, I like to lightlybevel the outside corners on the top ofthe handle between the notches.

Bend the handle into a U-shape that isas wide as the basket. Starting about threeor four weavers down from the top, slipone end of the handle down into theweave and push down until the notch is inline with the top weaver. Bend the handleand do the same on the other side.Holding the basket between the knees tokeep the handle bent, take a piece of stringand tie between the two sides of the handlejust above the notches to hold the bend.

Split out and whittle two rims, one forthe outside and one for the inside. Therims need to be long enough to go all theway around the top of the basket and over-lap their ends. The rims should be as wideas the notch and not more than a 1/4"thick (33). The outside corners should bewell-rounded. Bend the rims to fit the top ofthe basket, one facing in and one facing out.Trim the overlaps to lay flush. Set both rimsinside the top of the basket to dry.

Clothespins can be useful to hold the rimsin place.

This same procedure is used for makinghandles to go on round baskets. Roundbaskets have foot rims stitched to their bot-toms; flat bottom baskets have “shoes,” ascan be seen on the basket in the openingphotograph of this article.

Although they are seldom seen thesedays and could be considered optional,shoes are important. They support the bot-tom under load, protect the bottom edgesand corners against wear, and maintain aircirculation around the bottom to help pre-vent rot. Shoes are not any harder to makethan handles. Their tapered ends slip intothe weave from the bottom on the outsidecorners of the basket and fold over the top,just like the ribs. The middle point, wherethe two crosspieces intersect, should be thesame thickness as the side rail, so that thebasket will set level without rocking.

When the handle and rims are dry (about2-3 days), the rims are stitched to the top ofthe basket, locking the handle in place.

Select a good long weaver that is nottoo wide to slip through the weavebetween the ribs. Dip the weaver in waterand whittle it smooth and a bit thinnerthan usual. It is helpful to leave a few inch-es on one end thick for threading throughthe weave, and a few inches on the otherend extra thin for the starting lap.

Starting at a convenient place awayfrom the corners, slip the thin end behindthe outside rim, over the space betweenthe ribs, so that about 2" of the end sticksup above the rims. Fold this end over theinside rim, and poke the tip of the endthrough the space below the rim on theother side of the rib (31). Bring the longend that is on the outside of the basket upand over the thin end. From the inside,poke the thick end through the weave justunder the tip of the thin end. Pull theweaver through to the outside, tightening

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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP—

The author standing with a collection of the baskets

he has made. From the 6' tall fish trap to the small

pint-size round baskets, white oak baskets have been

made in a wide variety of shapes and sizes to help

make easier much of the work on rural homesteads.

A large round “Goose feather” basket with handle

and attached lid.

A gizzard basket made by the author.

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the loop around the rims made at thethin end. Bring the thick end up and overagain, and thread it through the weave onthe other side of the next rib. Continuethis way, stitching around the top of thebasket, pulling each stitch tight.

Cross over the handle on the outsideof the basket.

When close to the end of the weaver,thread the end down under three or fourrows of the weave on the outside of thebasket. Fold the weaver up and back-stitch under the weave. This secures theend of the weaver (32). Start again withanother weaver just like with the first.Continue stitching around the top.

When the circuit is complete, reversedirection and stitch the other way, creat-ing a criss-cross pattern over the previousstitches. Secure ends and add newweavers as needed. Secure the last endwhen the beginning place is reached (33).

The basket is finished. Flat bottom baskets can easily be made

to any given dimensions. The large babybasket has a 14" x 28" bottom with 12" sidesthat curve up to form an oval rim (34).

White oak baskets made with these tra-ditional methods are very strong. Evenwith daily use, they should last a lifetimeor more. The surfaces of the basket willdarken and polish with time and use. Theolder a basket gets, the darker it willbecome. But the darkening with age isalways a shade of brown, never of black orgray. Black or gray indicate the effects ofmildew, not age. A really old basket—say,100 years old—will be the color of coffee.

No special care or finish is needed.Water will not hurt a white oak basket if it isallowed to dry in the air. If a basket isallowed to remain wet for a long time, moldand mildew will start to grow and that willhurt the wood. (If used to catch fish, traps

should be left in the water where the lack ofoxygen will prevent rot from taking hold.)

POSTSCRIPTMost of the white oak baskets made for

sale today are not made with the tech-niques that I have described in this article.

These traditional techniques werepassed down from one generation to thenext for perhaps two hundred years with-out changing much. Then, during the1930s, the advancing industrial revolutionbrought new materials and a level of desta-bilization to the rural culture of America.Traditional crafts were abandoned forseemingly more practical methods.

About forty years ago, in an effort tohelp rural people earn extra income, theUnited States Extension Service promotedthrough pamphlets a technique for mak-ing white oak baskets that was much sim-pler and easier to learn than the traditional

methods. The process is similar down tothe making of the bolts, but there the boltis clamped into a long vise and the weaversor ribs are sliced off one at a time with ahomemade tool commonly called a “split-knife.” This technique is faster and doesn’trequire as much skill or practice.

When using a split-knife, the quality ofthe tree is not as important. Pieces madewith this more modern “cut-split” methodare not the same as pieces split out by hand,which always follow the grain. Cut-splitweavers and ribs will have one smooth side,but the other side will be rough. This rough-ness will split out if wrapped to the outside.

Cut-split baskets can easily break undera heavy load and will not last anywherenear as long or wear as nicely as an oakbasket made with the traditional methods.

Owen Rein is a basket-maker, a chairmaker,and a teacher in Mountain View, Arkansas.

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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP—

Ruth and Wayman Evans, who moved to the

Ozarks from northern Georgia in the 1930s,

brought with them the basket-making tradition of

Wayman’s family.

An old gizzard basket with some dyed splits.

An old gizzard basket the shape and size of a melon.

A gizzard basket well over 100 years old, as judged

by its color. Finely woven with very close ribs, it

represents at least a week’s work for its maker.

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