Making a simple bench from a fallen tree

By Identifying common UK woodland fungi safely
Comments 35
22 Jun 2026

Making a simple bench from a fallen tree

Choosing the right fallen tree

A fallen tree is already halfway to being a bench. Before you reach for a saw, though, take ten minutes to look properly at what you have. The best candidates are hardwoods with a bit of natural durability: oak, sweet chestnut, larch, ash or beech will all outlast you if kept off wet ground. Willow, poplar and most softwoods soak up moisture and go soft within a few seasons, so save those for firewood.

Tap the trunk with the back of an axe and listen. A dull thud suggests rot running up the middle; a ringing note tells you the heartwood is still sound. Look for fungal brackets, loose bark and soft patches where the tree has been resting on the ground. A trunk that has lain in wet grass for three years is usually hollow by the time you cut into it.

Check the wildlife angle too. Buried deadwood is prime stag beetle habitat in the south-east, and bats, dormice and nesting birds all use fallen timber. If the log is riddled with exit holes or has a bat roost underneath loose bark, leave it be and find another. And if the tree is not yours, get the landowner's permission in writing before you cut anything.

The kit you actually need

This is a low-tool project. You can build a perfectly good bench with a bow saw, an axe and a mallet.

A 600mm bow saw or a decent pruning saw for limbs up to 150mm
A felling axe or small hatchet, kept sharp
Two or three hardwood wedges and a sledge or mallet
A chalk line or length of string for marking straight cuts
A spirit level, 600mm is ideal
A 20mm auger bit and brace, plus seasoned oak dowel for pegs
An adze, drawknife or spokeshave for shaping the seat (optional but lovely)

If you are using a chainsaw, wear the full kit: helmet with visor and ear defenders, chainsaw trousers, gloves and steel-toed boots. Never work alone, and keep a phone in a pocket you can reach with either hand. A first-aid kit with a proper trauma dressing belongs in the van, not the kitchen.

Sawing safely: reading tension in the timber

Fallen trees store energy, and releasing it is the main way people get hurt. Work out how the log is supported before you cut. A trunk lying across two supports has compression on top and tension underneath, so cut from the top and let the kerf open. A trunk overhanging a bank or resting on one end is reversed: compress underneath, tension on top, so start with an upward cut.

Chock the log with wedges or stones so it cannot roll. Never stand downhill of a round trunk. On bigger sections, cut a shallow notch first, then work round with wedges rather than forcing the saw. Keep the bar or blade out of the soil — a mouthful of grit will blunt a chain instantly and ruin a bow saw's set.

Cut limbs flush but not below the branch collar, and clear brash as you go so you always have a clean escape route behind you.

Three logs, two notches

The simplest durable bench is a seat log resting on two stump legs. Cut a seat section of about 2 metres, then two legs of 400–450mm, which gives a finished seat height of roughly 450mm — the sweet spot for most adults.

Stand each leg upright on firm ground and cut a shallow saddle notch across the top, about 20mm deep and wide enough to cradle the seat log. A few passes with an axe and a tidy-up with a chisel is plenty. Drop the seat log into the notches and check it rocks nowhere. If you prefer a flatter seat, split the seat log lengthwise with wedges and plane or adze the top face; a 350–400mm wide slab is comfortable and sheds water better than a round log.

Chamfer the front edge of the seat with a drawknife so it does not cut into the backs of knees, and take a light backward tilt of about five degrees into the legs so rain runs off rather than pooling where you sit.

Levelling and fixing

Set the legs on a bed of compacted gravel or flat stones rather than bare soil. This one detail will add years to the bench by keeping the end grain out of the damp. Check the level across the seat and along it, adjusting by paring a little off the base of a leg rather than packing it with scraps.

For fixing, bore a 20mm hole down through the seat into each leg and drive in seasoned oak pegs, leaving 10mm proud to be trimmed flush. Offset the hole in the leg by 2mm towards the outside so the peg draws the joint tight as it goes home. Stainless steel screws work perfectly well too, but avoid mild steel near oak — the tannins will eat it.

Finishing and living with it

Do not varnish it. Bare timber silvers gracefully outdoors and needs almost nothing from you. A coat of raw linseed oil or a proprietary timber oil each autumn for the first two years will deepen the colour, but leave it untreated and it will simply weather.

Once a year, clear leaves and moss from around the legs, top up the gravel, and check the pegs. Look for soft patches at ground level and address them with a dab of preservative before they spread. Treated this way, an oak or chestnut bench will give you fifteen years of sitting, and the tree that fell in a winter gale gets a second life in the shade of its own woodland.

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5 Comments

Robert Sonny says Jul 21, 2024 at 10:00am

I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system
Reply
- John Abraham says Jul 21, 2024 at 10:00am
  
  I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system
  Reply
  - Robert Sonnysays Jul 21, 2024 at 10:00am
    
    I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system
    Reply
Robert Sonny says Jul 21, 2024 at 10:00am

I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system
Reply

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