Our primary timber is Camphor Laurel. This is considered a pest and is often removed, meaning we are not contributing to the pressure on native species for our main supply of wood. Most is sourced locally where possible, preventing it from becoming landfill or woodchip as this wood cannot be burnt as firewood.

Camphor Laurel has beautiful colours in its grains, with browns and greens prominent and even the odd hint of red and blue. It is a hardy timber, though it does like to split as it dries, and the camphor within the wood is a natural antiseptic making this a good timber to use where it will come into contact with food.

Other species are used where needed or when I find any other piece of beautiful timber.

For custom work we can work to any type of hardwood you have or that we can source for you. We only use reputable local timber merchants to ensure a sustainable source and ensuring exotic timbers are properly obtained.

Unless we are sourcing pre-dried wood, any wood we take from a log will need to be dried. Wood that is dried can lose 30-50% of its weight, it is a lot of moisture. A full log or even a piece may take years to dry and unless this is done carefully the wood will crack.

Our preferred approach is ‘Twice Turning’ and involves turning the wood to the approximate shape of the final product, but thicker. This is then dried by either immersing it in silica gel beads, heating repeatedly in the microwave, or just waiting - a bowl would take about 6 months to air dry.

Using silica beads give the best blend of speed without cracking or excessive warping. It will take 2-4 days to dry with the item in the beads for 24 hours at a time with a day to rest between dries.

Once dry the item is turned to its final shape and finished- hence ‘twice turned’ - which remove any warps that appeared in the drying leaving a stable piece.

For larger items or complex shapes, this can be repeated, drying and turning 3 or even 4 times to get to the final shape with even moisture throughout.

There are two types of finishes we use - penetrating and surface

Penetrating finishes flow into the wood and are in the form of an oil. The oil highlights the colour and grain of the wood and protect the wood from drying out. We use Organoil Danish Oil, which is a blend of 4 natural oils with no artificial thinners or drying agents. Oil will dry out eventually so to slow this, and to give a beautiful sheen, a layer or bees wax or carnuba wax is applied over the oil.

For pieces intended for heavy food contact we use natural mineral oil with no wax, which is the safest finish for food contact and is often used on wooden cutting boards. Without wax though this needs regular top ups of oil.

Surface finishes do not penetrate the wood and form a shell over the wood. We use shellac (from the lac beetle), which gives a harder, glossier and slightly darker coloured finish.

For custom work we can work to any finish product your prefer, but we always prefer to use natural based products - it is better for you and me!

Both finishes will need to be maintained, refer to the guide below.

Items using Danish Oil and Beeswax are food safe, though Mineral Oil is a better finish for heavy or wet food contact. With things like dry snacks, oil and wax are fine.

Wood is porous and the finishes are not water proof, so they cannot hold liquids. Liquids, particularly hot liquids can remove the finish and cause the wood to warp.

I hate wasting good wood! Maximising what we get from the wood we source means more pieces for you and more time at the lathe for me. A win win.

I prefer to breakdown timber myself so I can get the most of out of it ensuring the minimum of waste. Even cracked logs yield beautiful pieces though they may be quite small, but miniature bowls and boxes are often the most beautiful (and are a fun challenge to make). Even off-cuts can be kept to make handles or other parts of larger, assembled work.

When deciding how to breakdown a log the focus will always be on less wasteful designs. A platter or plate has much less waste than a huge, deep pot. A small bowl wastes less than a large bowl. By carefully planning how to obtain larger wood to turn, you ensure the wood around it is used also

No matter how well you plan, turning produces waste wood. Whether it be off cuts from the breakdown process, or shavings from the turning, there will be a significant amount of waste - but it shouldn’t be wasted! All timber waste is fed into a green recycling waste stream to ensure it is properly re-used. All other materials are sorted to maximise recycling.