The timber I work comes from storm-felled or dying trees that have grown in and around Somerset and Dorset. The majority of these are from the Ernest Cook Trust estate in Trent, Dorset. Sustainable timber sourcing is an essential part of my approach to making traditional, bespoke furniture. There are four examples of currently available timbers at the end of the photo gallery below, which illustrates how local timber is sourced and milled before it is brought to the workshop to be seasoned.
- An oak large enough to swallow a man
- Moving large oak to the sawmill
- A storm-felled walnut
- Larger trees need to be halved lengthways before cutting for the mill
- Loading half a large walnut onto the sawmill
- An ash tree is turned on the wood miser mobile sawmill
- Freshly sawn ash planks
- Sticked up timber seasoning in an open barn
- An oak on the estate in its autumn glory
- New timber for 2015: Ash from Weston Bampfylde
- New timber for 2015: Walnut from Weston Bampfylde
- New timber for 2015: Ripple olive ash from Trent Hill
- New timber for 2015: Ripple olive ash from Trent Hill