Maintenance
Useful links
A list of Ropemakers, Notes on Importing Bell Ropes and Notes on Rope repairs may be found here.
Wood for Stays and Sliders (below)
Crafting a replacement slider (below)
CCCBR Belfry Maintenance information
Download a Belfry Maintenance Checklist (as per workshop run by Richard Offen June 2022)
Australian wood for Stays and Sliders
One of our ringers here in Perth, who is an engineer, did some research into a suitable native timber to use as a substitute for air-seasoned ash, which is the traditional timber used for stays and sliders in the UK. He came up with Tasmanian oak as having the nearest physical characteristics to ash.
Tasmanian oak, also referred to as Victorian Ash, is the name used for three almost identical species of eucalypt hardwoods, eucalyptus delegatensis (alpine ash), eucalyptus regnans (mountain ash) and eucalyptus obliqua (messmate), all of which are normally marketed collectively. The timber has a long-grain structure similar to ash and as a result has, like its English equivalent, a very good tensile strength.
Tasmanian oak has been in use as a stay material in Western Australia for at least 20 years and has proved itself to be a very good substitute for ash. Its one drawback is that not all timber merchants stock it, but we have found that the timber merchants who specialise in native timbers can easily supply it.
Richard Offen
ANZAB Towers and Bells Advisory Panel Coordinator
Replacing Sliders
Richard Offen's response to a question about replacing a broken slider (curved):
If we were in the UK, I would recommend buying a new slider from one of the bell hanging firms, but getting any wooden product into Australia from overseas is a nightmare, so the alternative is to get one made here.
In the UK, curved sliders are made by steam-bending Ash to the shape required. However steaming-bending hardwood is not an easy process, requiring a steam chamber in which to soften the timber.
A good alternative is to laminate a new slider from thinner strips of hardwood (approximately 5mm thick strips of Tasmanian/Victorian Ash, laminated horizontally and bonded together with PVA glue), using the broken slider as the pattern.
Warning: softwood will not last five minutes as a slider!
Richard Offen
ANZAB Towers and Bells Advisory Panel Coordinator
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Randwick, NSW