Costing a coppice product before you load the van

The most common mistake among coppice workers new to market trading is treating the wood as free. It isn't. That hazel rod cost you a day's cutting, a tank of fuel, a billhook sharpening and the rent on the woodland. Add the invisible costs, too: public liability insurance (usually £60–£120 a year for a small craftsman's policy), stall fees, card reader charges, packaging, and the unpaid hours you spend weaving and turning in the workshop.

Sit down with a notebook and work out a true break-even figure for one item. A three-foot hazel hurdle might take five hours to weave once the rods are cut, sorted and soaked. If your time is worth £15 an hour and materials and overheads add another £20, you are at £95 before you have earned a penny of profit. That is why a good hurdle sells for £90–£140 depending on size, species and the region you are in. If your local market won't bear that price, sell elsewhere or sell something else — do not simply shave your margin until the craft becomes a subsidy.

Price lists should be visible, simple and firmly held. Discounts for bulk orders are fine; haggling over a single turned bowl rarely is.

Choosing the right market for what you make

Different outlets suit different products, and travelling to the wrong one wastes a Saturday you could have spent in the woods.

• Farmers' markets — excellent for charcoal, kindling, bean poles, pea sticks, besom brooms and small garden items. Shoppers here understand provenance and will pay for British-grown.
• Craft fairs and artisan markets — the natural home for turned bowls, spoons, kuksas, willow baskets and gypsy flowers. Expect interest in the making as much as the object.
• Country shows and woodland fairs — good for hurdles, gates, stakes and binders, plus demonstration work. Buyers are often landowners and smallholders who come back year after year.
• Village halls and school fetes — low fees, low prices, but a lovely route to local reputation. Take affordable items: pegs, mushroom logs, small spoons.

Apply early. Many organisers book their craft stalls six months ahead, and a coppice worker demonstrating green woodwork is exactly the sort of trader they want.

Label materials honestly and let the wood speak

Customers trust clarity and they remember it. Every label should name the species, say where it grew, and state clearly whether the timber is coppiced, seasoned or green.

• Charcoal — say whether it is lumpwood from your own retort or a ring kiln, which species went in, and that it is British. That word alone sells bags at £8–£12 for 3–5kg.
• Turned bowls and spoons — say "green-turned sweet chestnut" or "seasoned ash" and explain that a green bowl will move and settle as it dries. Honesty here prevents unhappy returns.
• Hurdles and garden ware — name the hazel, note whether it is woven with a woven top or bound with tarred string, and give the dimensions in metric with imperial in brackets if you like.

Avoid vague claims. If a product contains imported willow or bamboo, say so plainly. Coppice buyers are a knowledgeable crowd and they will spot it anyway.

Setting out a stall that works

You are competing with everything else in the aisle, so make the display legible from ten paces. Hurdles lean beautifully against a simple frame and show off the weave. Bowls sit on a cloth at eye level, not on the ground. Charcoal sacks stack at the front, open one so people can feel the lumps and smell the smoke.

Bring a card reader — most markets now take more contactless than cash — plus a tin for notes and a float. Carry a mailing list sheet and a jar of pencils; a paper sign-up converts far better than a QR code nobody scans. Pack the van the night before and take more stock than you think you need, especially of the £5–£15 items that carry the day.

Talking, demonstrating and building repeat custom

The thing that separates a coppice stall from a stall selling imported garden ware is you. Shave a spoon at the front of the table. Let a child hold a hazel rod. Explain what coppicing is in two sentences: cutting a tree to the stump so it regrows, giving a crop every seven to fifteen years and letting light into the woodland floor.

Then close the sale. Offer to hold a hurdle until the end of the day, take a deposit on a bespoke order, and write the customer's name and number in your book. Follow up within a week. Half your future income comes from people who have already bought from you once.

Smoothing the seasonal gaps

Coppice income swings with the year. Charcoal sells in summer, kindling and logs in autumn, bean poles and pea sticks in spring, and bowls and baskets all year round if you have indoor workshop time in winter.

Fill the gaps by supplying two or three local shops on a sale-or-return basis, taking on hedge-laying and stake contracts between November and March, and selling gift-boxed sets in December. A modest, steady mix — markets, wholesale and contract work — keeps the woodland in rotation and the van on the road. That is what sustainable coppicing has always looked like: a crop, a craft and a community that keeps coming back.