furniture wood source low tables & stools benches boxes & chests chairs
"In most cases I use wood from trees that have come to the end of their life."
Usually they are storm damaged and felled by local saw-mills in the Scottish Borders. When a suitable log has caught my eye, I've had it cut to length and delivered to my work place to be split up with wedge-and-mallet and stored to 'air-dry'. Not shopping for 'planked-timber' means I can be resourceful with nail-impregnated hedge-trees or the occasional lightening struck park-tree.
Usually they are storm damaged and felled by local saw-mills in the Scottish Borders. When a suitable log has caught my eye, I've had it cut to length and delivered to my work place to be split up with wedge-and-mallet and stored to 'air-dry'. Not shopping for 'planked-timber' means I can be resourceful with nail-impregnated hedge-trees or the occasional lightening struck park-tree.
Gattonside in the Scottish Borders. 2011
This large oak had extensive centre-rot and would normally be earmarked for fire-wood. Cleaving around this area rescued the majority of timber... just wide enough for boxes and small tables.
Bigger trees offer greater possibilities and are generally less wasteful than smaller trees. Sections have proportionally less sap wood and closer resemblance to a board shape (rather than triangular).
I've always accepted that discovery of character within a log is part of the creative risk and occasional surprise. The gentle flow of grain might be interupted suddenly around a knot. It's probably why I've usually worked speculatively, rather than to commission.
Found on the outskirts of my village, these sections of a storm damaged oak measure about 1m in dia. and length. The wood is as good as I've found after some 30 years of cleaving oak. It's sinewy, strong and splits reliably along medullary rays.
My intention has been to display the beauty of the material and follow the grain. Leaving evidence of raw riven textures and a subtle pattern of hand-tool marks is an added feature when the wood grain allows.
This particular length (from the three above) indicates the scale and ambition necessary to produce wider sections. It's a 'risk and reward' endevour of daily discoveries. I've worked methodically in periods of weeks, bisecting the wood continually until each piece has a mental furniture tag for the years a head. Ajacent partners are similar, but never the same.
Some split easily and some don't. A certain amount can be guaged from the tree-bark appearance and end grain ... and upon that you choose and buy the log. Over many years my guessing game's improved. I now eye-scan most large oak trees I pass-by as to their potential. Are there buried knots deep within and how much spiral growth might need to be condended with.
The next stage of air-drying takes between 3 - 5 years. After that smaller components such as legs or box-parts need further drying in a kiln to make ready for a heated domestic interior. This is a material you are unlikely to find at a timber merchant.
Some split easily and some don't. A certain amount can be guaged from the tree-bark appearance and end grain ... and upon that you choose and buy the log. Over many years my guessing game's improved. I now eye-scan most large oak trees I pass-by as to their potential. Are there buried knots deep within and how much spiral growth might need to be condended with.
The next stage of air-drying takes between 3 - 5 years. After that smaller components such as legs or box-parts need further drying in a kiln to make ready for a heated domestic interior. This is a material you are unlikely to find at a timber merchant.