The Edward Barnsley Workshop

Pippy Yew Desk

White and Brown Oak Coffee Table

Bog Oak Reading Stand

Rippled Sycamore Computer Cabinet

Burr Walnut Console Table

A successful high quality, bespoke piece of furniture depends to a large degree on the choice and quality of the timber used in the making.

Some of the most highly prized and rare native timbers are difficult or impossible to source when required. For this reason the workshop tries to maintain a supply of these rare timbers for future use.

In practical terms the workshop cultivates sources of raw timber i.e. forest managers, timber yards and dealers, and they are made aware of our policy of buying interesting or unusual logs.

The advantage of this approach is that we can oversee the conversion or cutting of the log and specify how we would like it cut and at which thickness. The former is important as trees of the same species might differ in colour and grain figuring dependant on the soil conditions under which they have been grown. When making a piece of furniture e.g. a chest of drawers, one might require thin boards for the carcase and thicker boards for the plinth or base. By cutting a combination of thicknesses from one tree it ensures that all the grain figuring, shade and colour will match.

We have on occasion made furniture out of a client's own timber. Obviously this approach requires some forward planning as ideally the workshop can help advise on the conversion of the raw timber with the future use in mind.

The actual drying or seasoning of all our timbers tends to be air drying in our external timber sheds. As a general rule all boards irrespective of thickness require 1 initial year with an additional year per inch of thickness, e.g.
a 1" thick board = 1 year + 1 year = 2 years
a 3" thick board = 1year + 3 years = 4 years.

Air drying in our sheds reduces the moisture level in a slow and controlled manner. Then the timber can be brought inside the workshop for final conditioning.

Some of the most prized native timbers are listed below.

Quarter cut oak displays medullary rays, and quarter cutting whilst more expensive displays this attribute to best advantage and just as importantly yields a more dimensionally stable board.

Brown oak has been attacked by a "beef steak" fungus causing sometimes the entire tree to be a streaky or completely brown colour.

English walnut is one of the most highly prized native timbers, very hard to obtain now.

Rippled sycamore displays an attractive striped figure. No one quite knows why the ripple occurs in the timber. It is visible on the bark of the tree as an undulating, closely spaced "washboard" effect.

Bog oak is a tree preserved in a peat bog which causes changes in the timber. It can be thought of as buried treasure. It can vary in colour from dark brown to black. The small quantity we have at present is at least 3,000 years old.