Ray normally attends expeditions. Woodlore have a fully trained team of instructors for most UK courses. For a definitive answer please check our website for the relevant course. Course leaders for each workshop will be shown. If a course has TBA (to be announced) please call us for more information. Because of Ray's busy schedule, he does not lead all of the Woodlore courses.

We have a page that details all the courses that Ray leads.

Woodlore receive many hundreds of emails and letters each month asking to talk to Ray and ask his advice about a range of issues. Needless to say, Ray is often away leading expeditions or is busy researching other work. This means that Ray cannot answer every request. The Woodlore office will pass your requests to Ray, if he is available, so please visit our Contact Page to send your email in the first instance.

Nowadays, Ray is often too busy to fulfil the many autograph requests that he receives. However, at this time, all of the books written by Ray in our Online Shop come individually signed by Ray. Please visit the Books section of our shop to see the available titles. Please note that these exclusive signed copies are only available through Woodlore.

Depending on the payment card that you use, some banks require additional security information. This is because Woodlore have enrolled in the VISA™ and MasterCard™ Secure scheme. This system asks you for additional information at the time of payment, such as a special code which only you know and which will be known to you by an additional look-up card supplied by your bank. If you do not know this information, please contact your bank in the first instance. You can also make a manual order with us.

Remember, Woodlore want to make sure that your credit card is used only by you, and not by someone else.

No. If you wish, you can call us on 01580 819668 and place your order over the phone.

We ship worldwide. All available destinations can be found on the checkout page.

Postal tracking codes are provided for all UK orders over £10 and ALL overseas orders via email once your order has been dispatched with Royal Mail. This tracking number can also be viewed via the order status page.

UK orders £10 and under typically take two days to be delivered, and will not receive tracking information.

UK orders over 2.5Kg and International orders over 2Kg will receive an email from ParcelForce with tracking information enclosed.

If you have not received your tracking code, please get in touch with us via the contact us page, and we will be more than happy to provide this to you.

We mainly use Royal Mail; however for orders over 2.5Kg (UK ONLY) and over £600 (INTERNATIONAL) we will use ParcelForce. Some orders may require other freight companies; so please feel free to get in contact with us if you are unsure about how your order will be dispatched.

* All deliveries above £10 are registered and a tracking code may be available.

Both are calculated at the time of checkout based on the destination
country. The majority of overseas orders will not be charged UK VAT,
however customers will pay their local tax rate upon import into their
country.

Some of our items are already zero rated for VAT e.g. food/books.

Unfortunately we are unable to guarantee a delivery time as this depends on the stationing of your Unit. However, we expect this to take between 3-7 working days.

All BFPO mail must be marked as United Kingdom, regardless of the station location geographically.

Yes. However, for this to be processed, we require a letter from your CO
confirming your eligibility for VAT-free purchasing. In any case,
please call us in the office to place your order over the phone, or
email us once you have placed your order on our website.

We scan all incoming messages for spam, as well as other offensive content. Our filters may be isolating your message and rejecting it because a specific phrase in the body or subject of your message is also one of our filtered keywords.

Please also note that we prefer plain-text emails, as opposed to HTML-formatted emails, if at all possible. If you cannot get an email to be accepted, please telephone us.

Please understand that Woodlore in not informed to why an online transaction has failed; it is the acquiring bank (i.e. your bank) that are declining the transaction. Please check that all card details are correct and your name is spelt as printed on the card. If the transaction is declined again, please consider using another card, or attempting payment using PayPal.

Multiple failed purchase attempts will be automatically blocked by your bank, so please resist repeat orders after previous failed attempts. Should your card be rejected on multiple transactions, please consider contacting your bank.

A link to your Woodlore invoice is included with your email confirmation.

If you wish to return your purchase for any reason, please return it (along with a copy of your invoice and a covering note) to the following address:

Woodlore Limited
PO Box 3
Etchingham
East Sussex
TN19 7ZE
United Kingdom

A refund/exchange will only be provided if the items have not been worn and are un-used. The items must be returned to us within 30 days of receipt with all relevant tags and packaging intact. You (the customer) are fully responsible for the cost of return (+insurance relative to product value) of any products that are no longer required.

Yes. All pages of raymears.com are encrypted for maximum security,
ensuring that no information can be intercepted during transit. You can
verify our security certificate by clicking on the padlock icon in your
web browser, which indicates you are on a secure page. Furthermore, no
card details used for payment are stored on our servers.

Yes, we now have a small shop area open to the public in the beautiful
Sussex village of Etchingham, which is open Tuesday – Friday, 10am –
4pm. Our address is 3 New House Farmyard, Sheepstreet Lane, Etchingham,
East Sussex, TN19 7AY. W3W /// certainly.moons.melts

If your enquiry is regarding an order that has been successfully placed, please get in contact with our office by email/phone.

If your enquiring about a failed order, this is best handled by your bank, as we do not pass or fail orders (the acquiring bank is in
control of this).

Under UK law any person who places an order for knives, axes, saws and bladed products will require proof of age. Orders containing such items MUST be made by someone who is 18+. This is the law and we cannot make any exceptions to this under any circumstances.

Woodlore will check the open electoral-roll against the address provided (if the address you are registered to is different, please advise to avoid any delays). Alternatively, you can provide us with ID e.g. passport or drivers licence. Should Woodlore require any additional information, Woodlore will be in contact.

Yes. This is a prerequisite for attending the Journeyman. It is important you master all the bushcraft skills needed to survive in the
wilderness for three days with just your cooking pot and knife!

If you want to cancel your place, please email or phone us in the first instance. It would be helpful if you could provide your payment code (PaySafe code, or manual purchase code) to allow us to find your booking information more quickly.

Please bear in mind that there are strict cancellation rules in relation to customer refunds. Please read our Terms and Conditions for more information.

No. Please see our Terms and Conditions for more information. You may pass your course place to another person however. Please contact us directly in order to amend your booking information in such cases.

Yes, subject to availability of places. Please note that there is also a £25.00 administration charge to move course dates.

Woodlore hold courses in the United Kingdom and abroad (mainly for expeditions). A general area should be given on the course description page of our website, e.g. East Sussex. Once we have received your final payment for a course we will send out full joining instructions and directions to the course site.

For UK courses, your joining instruction paperwork will be emailed to you 9 weeks before you are due to join us.

For our overseas expeditions we usually look to send out joining instruction paperwork, including flight recommendations about 5-6 months before you are due to join us.

Yes, you can book multiple places on our course via the website.

The Alan Wood Woodlore Knife is no longer being made and orders are not being taken for this item. Occasionally a second-hand Woodlore knife will come up for sale on auction sites e.g. eBay™. We do now stock the Woodlore Knife Pro made by Emberleaf and the Ray Mears Bushcraft knife, also made by Emberleaf.

See the pre-course information page for detailed pre-course information for all of our courses. If your course is not listed it is because course requirements may change
last-minute, so please contact Woodlore directly in this case.

No. You don’t have to spend a great deal of money on new equipment, especially clothing. Many items can be found in any good Army Surplus store.

We do not permit our course places to be re-sold on auction sites, such as eBay™. The reason for this is that Woodlore have cancellation and waiting lists in place, and to circumvent these by offering places to bidders on an auction website would be unfair to other people who are waiting for a cancellation.