Craftsmanship (and womanship) and Green Oak

Green Timber Oak construction has been around for centuries and we use the same techniques in our workshops as the Tudors did when erecting those beautiful timber framed building that are still going strong today. People are exploring these techniques again as sustainable building techniques are becoming an important issue and green oak timber-framed houses are becoming more and more popular.

I should probably explain what green oak is. 'Green' is the term used to describe timber that has just been felled. It is much softer, full of sap (the food that feeds the tree), and can be cut and worked more easily. One of the down sides of using green oak is that it is incredibly heavy, much heavier than the dried versions, and don't we know it at the end of our working day!

In nature, timber takes a very long time to dry; one of the legs from a sofa for example would take over three years to air dry properly. Commercially timber is put in large drying ovens to speed up this process reducing the time to weeks rather than years. We only use green, un-dried oak in the construction of our sofas, therefore conserving the energy used in kilns.

Your sofa will slowly dry in your garden, conservatory or home (a bit quicker indoors maybe). As it does so, it will shrink, move, twist and even split slightly, making the odd noise as it does so, and will eventually settle into its own unique shape.

No two sofas will be the same.

Furniture made from green oak is easier on eye that machined, dry oak; the lines aren't exactly straight, they're softer and a bit more quirky, but have the ability to fit into any environment.

We've delivered sofas to ancient building originally constructed from green oak hundreds of years ago and conversely we've put them on the balconies of very contemporary loft apartments, where it's looked just as at home.

Accessories seem to alter the look of a sofa and we leave it to you to dress your sofa to put your own individual style on to it to make it truly yours. If you've ever heard of slow food, slow love or slow anything else for that matter, this is the equivalent 'slow furniture'. For those of you that haven't, 'slow' is the worldwide movement challenging the cult of 'speed'. The timber takes years, centuries even to grow, we cut and build it by hand while it's green using mostly hand tools and only ancient, traditional methods of construction. When you take it home, it will take years to dry out and age, and with little maintenance, it will be with you for the rest of your life. I don't think that's rushing things, do you?

Because the timber we work with is green, any metal fixings, such as screws or nails, will rust and fail to function very quickly, which is why green oak construction uses wooden pegs to secure all the joints (sometimes called treenails - pronounced 'trenals' in the trade). There is something nice about making a piece of furniture that contains absolutely nothing but wood, none of your modern fixings here! We only employ traditional carpentry skills such mortise and tenon joints, draw pins and treenails to ensure absolute strength and structural integrity.

Using the best quality timbers, good fixings and traditional techniques, we are genuinely happy that we produce a superior quality piece of furniture that is unique and should last you and your family for years to come.