Elderflower

[DJL]

Does anyone know how to make clothes pegs out of elderflower trees?

[Andy Hamilton]

Does anyone know how to make clothes pegs out of elderflower trees?

I guess you just carve them, like the old style pegs that gypsys used to sell.

I had a quick look on the net and could not find much for you there.

[Silver Ether]

I quote

Clothes pegs can be made of wood or plastic. The wooden ones can be a primitive stick with a slit in the end which is pushed over the washing to fix it to the line, or are in two pieces with a spring, so that they open and then pinch the washing to the line. The plastic ones are of the latter design.

and here are some nice pics .. scroll down a little ...

http://www.designboom.com/contemporary/peg.html

[marshlander]

Do you remember when the real Romany Gypsies would come round at regular intervals to sharpen knives and scissors and with pegs & handmade baskets of primroses to sell? They still called at my parents house in Sussex up to the late 60's at least. The baskets were made from twigs which would be nailed together to make squares in decending sizes, then all the squares were stacked and nailed or wired together. The twig basket was lined with moss and planted with primroses.

Nowadays it wouldn't be done to take flowers from the wild of course!

I've fould a pic of the pegs from which you might be able to sus out how to make your own. They used old tin cans for the metal part.

Stripped willow was used for clothes pegs and the metal part would have been tightly wound on before the peg was split.

Thatching pegs for houses and haystacks or ricks were made from Elder for superstitious reasons. Though equally I would imagine that being easy to carve and freely available in the hedgerow was a factor too!

Ah! Silver Ether has pics of gypsy pegs too which she posted while I was still typing!