Woven Harvesting Basket: the Square Willow Basket with Bow Handle (Hasluck, 1903)

Wet the sticks an hour ahead. Cut six sticks 20 in long (3 in extra for the block), the two outside ones thicker. Set the outside pair 11 in apart in the screw-block, the four inside evenly between, thick and thin ends alternating (Fig. 33). Start with two osiers worked together, then weave one rod at a time, butts behind odd sticks, checking the 11 in width with a bent gauge rod and tapping the weave close with the iron, to 17 in long. Lock the end with one long rod (Fig. 34), take it out and pick off the ends.

Point seventeen pairs of stakes, about half as thick as the sticks: ten for each side, seven for each end. Push the end stakes in beside the sticks; for the sides open holes through the outside sticks with the bodkin. Bend each stake up with the picking knife and gather them in a small hoop (Fig. 35). Cut four corner sticks as thick as the outside bottom sticks, flat-cut at the foot (Fig. 37).

Upset with three rods (four if there will be no foot rim), working the corner sticks in at each corner (Figs. 38-39), and add a second round. Rand with rods drawn in their lengths, each butt one stake on from the last, to about 10 in deep, keeping the sides upright and true. Leave a space between the two middle stakes of each side the full depth for the handle. Put strainers across when the middle stakes come out of the hoop, and level the weaving at about 9 in.

Work a wale of four rods, each behind two stakes and in front of two (Fig. 43), using eight rods, to 11 in deep. Lay the stakes down into the border and finish by cramming (Figs. 45-47). Pick every butt and top inside and out so the outside is smooth.

Turn the basket over, push a rim stake in beside each stake and each corner stick, upset once round with six rods, tap down and border 'inside two and outside three' (Fig. 49).

Bend a thick, well-soaked stick into a bow (Fig. 48), push its ends down the handle spaces to the upsetting, about 8 to 9 in above the border (some 20 in from the bottom to the underside of the bow), and shoulder it with the knee. Wrap it with four long smooth osiers, each twisted rope-fashion and lapped round the bow and through under the wale (Figs. 50-51).