There are many commercial uses for coppice products, and you will need to spend time developing your market and being innovative in developing and selling your products. There may be a local coppice association who can provide help, (see links) or you may be able to group together with other coppice workers for marketing purposes.
You may also be able to sell coppice material to other craftsmen, such as thatchers, woodturners, hurdle makers and others. Advertise locally, and through networks such as Ecolots and WoodLots.

The list of coppice products is possibly endless, and there are a great number of variations on which timber to use, how to prepare the product the the end result. The list below is not definitive, if you wish to add to it please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or use the discussion forum. 

Chestnut timber

Chestnut is often coppiced at about 15 - 20 years and has a variety of uses, for different parts of the tree. Chestnut timber is brownish yellow, coarse and straight grained, durable, hard, strong, light and used for fuel and charcoal, joinery, furniture, fencing, sleepers. As fencing, it is durable in the soil for 15 – 25 years and is not permeable to preservatives.  It has a narrow sapwood ring and is 20% lighter and weaker than oak. When grown for timber it is usually harvested at 50 – 70 years.

Chestnut post and rail.

Needs to be cleft from 8" +  clean chestnut or oak. Posts usually 6'6" and either half round rustic cleft or 6" x 4" x 6'6" sawn with angled top to shed water. Tops always treated with PVA glue to stop them splitting. Posts usually cleft from 6" +  butt diameter.

Photo and information: Tim Saunders Rother Forestry

Picket fencing

By Toby Allen

Chestnut paling

Chestnut palings are very popular with farmers and gardeners. Here is a video from woodlands TV on how the paling machine is used by Aly from sayitwithwood.

Bean poles

Clean rods 8ft long, 1" – 1.5" diameters at the butt end bundled in 10’s, 12’s or 20’s

Pea sticks

4 ft long fan shaped branches of hazel, birch, elm or lime. 1ft of clear growth at the bottom, with the butt cut at an angle. Stack off the ground with poles on top to flatten them.

Flower stakes

Cleaned straight rods of any species, about 1.2m (4') long and 25mm (1") top diameter. The butt is sharpened. Bundle in 10s or 20s.

Hedging Stakes

5.5ft long straight poles – butt 1" – 1.5" diameter
Any wood – bundles of 12

Photos and information: Phil Hopkinson, Malvern Coppicing

Tree stakes

6 – 7ft long sharpened poles, 1.5" – 2.5 " diameter

Fence Stakes

5.5 ft long round or cleft poles, 2.5 – 3" diameter oak or sweet chestnut, sharpened.

Rustic furniture

 Poles for garden use can be popular: including fencing, pergolas, arches, gazebos and other uses. Value can be added by designing such features, and supplying the materials in kit form or assembled on site.

Photo from Peplers in Rye blog

Photo: J Martin, Rustic furniture

Cordwood

Any wood over 2" in diameter cut to 4 ft lengths

Photo: Silver birch, split and striped, drying for firewood. 

Hurdles

Hazel is normally coppiced at 5 - 7 years. Weaving hazel to make fencing is a fun task but hard work to make! Toby Allen , has written a guide on how to weave a fence, which you can read here.

Thatching spars

A thatching spar is a straight, 30 inch strip of split hazel, pointed at one end. They are twisted and bent in two to make a large wooden pin to secure the thatch on a roof.

Etherings (binding rods) 

8ft long minimum cleaned rods, 1" butt diameter. Hazel, birch, willow or sweet chestnut. Preferred to use fresh or if kept damp under a cover.

Charcoal

Easy to make on a small scale in your wood, local charcoal is becoming more popular to buy. Mike Pepler uses two small oil drums to make his charcoal. There are a number of charcoal making courses around the country. Gervais Sawyer, wood scientist, has written an interesting comment for the Small Woodland Owners group (SWOG) on making charcoal on the small scale, and you can read the follow up comments including information on a retort kiln here.

Willow weaving

Making baskets

Various types of baskets, all made from coppiced woods (willow, sweet chestnut, ash, oak & hazel pictured) by Alan Sage. Many other coppiced species of wood can be used either in the round or split into skeins, splints, staves or boards depending on the design or diameter of available wood.

Woven products

You can weave as much as your imagination can do! 

These deer were created by Christine at Redstone Willow. 

These baskets and the reed chair were created by Christine Llewelln. 

Making shingles

Walking sticks by Jilly Snelson, Dorset Coppice group

We cut material for walking sticks whilst we are coppicing or hedgelaying during the autumn and winter months.  Most of what we use is hazel as that is what grows in the largest quantity and is very straight and durable with a very attractive bark.  Another sought after wood is blackthorn which will polish up well and has interesting knobbly finish where the shoots have been.   But straight blackthorn is hard to find and very much valued.   We also come across a lot of self-seeded sycamore which although grows very straight, tends to be too brittle for a good stick,but could be used to practice on.  Sadly oak doesn't grow straight enough to use for sticks, unless you cut down a young tree before it has time to branch out, but of course destroying young oak trees is not recommended, however some people do actually grow their own specifically for the purpose of creating a stick.
 
After we cut the 'shanks' they are stored in an open fronted barn to season for between 6 months and a year.  Anywhere under cover would do, but good air circulation is important.  We then take selected shanks to our workshop to begin working into whatever style of stick is required.  We probably have about a dozen on the go at any one time.
 
Many of the ancient coppice woodlands have become neglected and the hazel allowed to grow unchecked and become 'overstood'.  Much of this hazel may not be suitable to use as walking sticks because it may have grown crooked whilst trying to find light in an unmanaged woodland.  The need for good coppice management is essential if it is to produce wood that is suitable for many different uses.

Crotch sticks

Clothes line/ fruit tree props are easy to make – a straight pole with a strong fork can be used for clothes-line props, any species and height to suit the task

Fascines and faggots

Fascines or faggots are a traditional product made from the tops or brash from coppicing operations, tied tightly in bundles. Long bundles are used for riverbank revetment and stabilisation. Each bundle is normally 2m (7') long and 300-400mm (12-16") diameter, tied tightly in three places with baler twine or similar. Chestnut brash is particularly suitable as it is more durable in water than other hardwoods.

Horse jumps

Birch tops 1.5-2m (5-6') long, bundled in 20s, are used by race courses and hunts.
Straight poles, at least 2.4m (8') long and 75-100mm (3-4") diameter are suitable for jumps and trotting poles at riding schools and arenas.

Using ash trees

Phil from Malvern coppicing, uses every part of the ash tree. 

Nothing from an Ash tree of any size goes to waste.

Planks normally between 5 and 7ft long cut from logs at least 11" wide.
Logs from 9" to 12" in diameter for furniture and chair makers.
Logs about 5" in diameter cleaved, make excellent tent pegs.
I supply hedging stakes. Normally 5'6" but other sizes can be supplied. These are made predominantly from Ash.
Bean poles – clean rods 8ft long, 1.5" – 2" diameters at the butt end bundled in 10’s.
Flower stakes – 4 ft long straight rods 0.75 – 1.25 in diameter- sharpened
- bundles of 12.
Tree stakes – 6 – 7ft long sharpened poles, 1.5 – 2.5 butt diameter any wood.
Cordwood - Any wood over 2” in diameter cut to 4 ft lengths.
Stakes for dahlia and Chrysanthemums and small markers for your veg plot.
 
Any brash is turned into firewood, charcoal or made into dry hedges to keep the deer out of the freshly cut coppice.

Phil writes: In previous coppicing seasons I have been mainly cutting young Ash for use in my garden structures, Hedging stakes, bean poles and the like. Any large Ash that I have coppiced has been cut, split and sold as firewood. Although it made excellent quality firewood I have always thought that it was a waste of a fantastic resource.
I felled an Ash tree this September as part of my first order of Ash logs for a chair-maker from Warwickshire.
One of the logs was larger than requested, a nice log of about 13" in diameter and about 6 feet long. I got talking to my friend, Ron over a beer in the local pub, who was demonstrating his vintage sawmill at the Malvern Autumn show.
He offered to mill the log for me at the show as part of his demonstration. I watched with anticipation as the log was lowered onto the cutting bench by his vintage Matador crane.
After a couple of cuts I was handed a plank of white Ash. I had my first plank of top quality Ash. Within minutes people who had watched my log being converted into planks were giving my orders for Ash planks.
This weekend the chair maker collected his first order of Ash logs from me and once he examined the quality, made a repeat order. this is a great reward for the effort involved in felling and working the Ash from the wood.

Uses for willow

Previously used for Medicine (predecessor to Aspirin),

• Cricket Bats (Salix Alba Caerulea),
• Brooms, Bentwood Furniture (Larger rods of most willows),
• Baskets and Fish Traps: (Triandra, Purpurea, some Alba Varieties, some Daphnoides - tend to be a bit big but lovely rich red to black colours if you can find some finer rods for highlights)
• Hurdles: Depending on the look that you want you could use basketry willows or the finer viminalis rods. These are best done with hazel uprights as willow does not last in the ground. It is also advisable to use a preservative (e.g. 50/50 turps & linseed oil) on the willow hurdle.
• Plant supports: Combination of thicker rods for the uprights and finer flexible rods for the weaving.
• Sculptures: As basketry plus flexible Viminalis varieties
• Rooting liquid: from willow bark - any variety
• Bee Fodder: Salix Viminalis, Purpurea and Capreas
• Biomass:  Viminalis and some Triandra x Viminalis varieties. There are super willows available such as Tora, Torhild and Olof.
• Charcoal: Any variety. The larger the charcoal you want to make, the larger the willow you can use – Basketry type for Artists charcoal, Viminalis varieties for lump wood charcoal.
• Bio filtration in land reclamation projects:  Viminalis are the most suitable as they are hardy and fast growing.
• Riverbank reclamation & Soil Erosion Control: Most Viminalis, Tora and Torhild
• Shelter / windbreaks: All willows will provide shelter, especially if coppiced. There are some that branch out more than others and so are ideal as windbreaks, e.g. Salix Viminalis Reifenweide, Salix Viminalis, Readers Red and Salix Viminalis Irish Rods. Smaller branching decorative willows such as Salix Alba x fragilis Golden Willow, Salix Alba Chermesina Yelverton provide lovely winter colour.
• Tree bogs: Viminalis seem to be recommended for tree bogs due to their vigorous growth.
• Wildlife habitat: Willow provides a free food store for birds. Many insects like willow. The insects come, the birds follow. The sound of the birds in a willow bed in summer is almost rowdy!
• Wood chip, fuel wood for wood or multi-fuel burners, Fuel for Ceramic / masonry stoves: While biomass willows are best for any volume of production, waste, or willows of any sort that you do not have a use for can be used as fuel. It should not be used in an open fireplace due to concerns over the release of Salicylates. On a more practical level it does burn very quickly and takes a fair while to dry out. Sparks can also be quite a problem with open fires.
• Binders for hedgelaying: The long rods from Viminalis varieties are ideal for binders in hedgelaying. Any other variety that grows long enough would also serve the purpose.
• Whistles: Any willow of the right diameter – usually the taller varieties i.e. not basketry. These are best made when the sap has risen, as the bark is slightly loose at that time.

Thanks to Christine from Redstone willows for the information on wilows.

Further reading