Timber

I have an extensive range of locally grown timber from around the

Sherwood Forest and Dukeries area

All the timber I sell has been milled by me and comes from trees grown on local estates,

farm land and privately owned woodlands.

Ash - white

Plantation and wild grown Ash available in thicknesses of 1" - 3"
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Ash - olive

Olive Ash, so called because of the varing colours caused by defects in the timber.
Current stock limited - short boards only
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Ripple Sycamore

Ripple Scycamore - A beautiful figured timber, the grain has a slight hologram effect when moved in the light
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Brown Elm

Brown Elm.
These boards were cut from an Elm tree that grew in Sherwood Forest NNR
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Holly

Holly is a very hard, slow growing close grained timber.

Ideal for woodturning and fine detail carvings, often used in marquetry as once stained black the grain resembles that of Ebony also used as the black keys of some piano's for the same reason.
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London Plane

Beautiful timber used in selective cabinetry for its destinctive grain, quarter sawn boards often refered to as Lacewood.
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English Oak

All our Oak boards have been cut from trees that have grown within the boundaries of Sherwood Forest
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Sycamore

Beautiful timber white/cream in colour used extensively in the past for butter pats, milk churns etc as timber contains no tannins.
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Sweet Chestnut

A great all round timber be it for internal or external use, often referred to as poor mans oak, Sweet Chestnut has had a reveval in past years.
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Cat's Paw Sweet Chestnut
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English Walnut

A beautiful warm timber, lighter in colour than American Black Walnut and the darkest timber grown in the UK
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English Yew

A beautiful multi coloured timber, with fine grain, often difficult to finish due to the grains double direction.
Caution should be taken when machining Yew as the dust is highly toxic.

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I air dried my timber for a minimum of one year per inch of thickness with the

exception of Oak boards which are left for an extra year.

The boards are stacked on level surfaces with thin strips of wood (stickers)

between each layer to allow for the free flow of air throughout the stack.

The ends of the boards are sealed to stop moisture being drawn up,

timber takes on water through its end grain and releases it through its

long grain, so by sealing the end grain the drying process is controlled.

Once the drying timber has reached a desired moisture content (MC) the boards are moved under cover into

the wood barn, due to the climate humidity here in the UK air dried timber doesn't normally get below a MC of 15%.

Unlike many timber yards both large and small I keep the stickers between the boards once inside,

this allows for condensation caused by sweating during the summer months to dry at the same time

helps to keep the boards flat, according to my customers this is a key factor for their continued custom.

image showing stacks of dry timber in our wood barn

New stock

Large Ash and Locally grown Walnut

A first for me, I've bought in timber that has already been milled and dried by a local sawyer.

The boards are from a large Ash that grew on farmland close to the River Trent in Morton, Nottinghamshire.

Unfortunately due to how the tree grew the trunk had to be cut into 7'6" lengths but what they lack in

length is made up for in width, with many of the boards being 33" wide, all are either 1.5" or 1.75" thick.

Quite a few of the boards have flame grain as they've been cut near a union,

all have some olive in them, also some with spalter

Large width Ash board with rotted out branch hole
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Large width Ash board centre board with shrinkage crack along pith
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Large width Ash board with rotted out branch hole
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Large width Ash board
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The boards have been air dried under cover in an open barn for the last 3 years and are

ready to go to become something beautiful by your hands

With English Walnut now being on the IUCN red list for near threatened species, I suspect over the

coming years we will start to less timber hitting the market and what does will be at a high premium.

As such, I was delighted to be offered this Walnut tree for milling, locally grown on the

same farmland as the above Ash tree.

A pair of book matched crotch walnut boards.
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Detail of the flame grain pattern created in the crotch where two branches stem from.
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Flame grain pattern on a wider main trunk board
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Beautiful swirls and flame grain in the longer board
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Ash and the pole

I've had a short Ash trunk knocking around the yard for the last few months, it has a scaffolding pole sticking out of it. According to the farmer I bought the tree from the pole has a 6" square plate attached to the base and was bolted to the tree some time in the mid 1980's to support a child's swing

With not knowing how far in the base plate was I'd been reluctant to attempt to mill the log but a few days ago I bit the bullet and loaded it onto the mill.

Ash log loaded onto the mill, scaffolding pole can be seen sticking out.
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Once the pole was cut off closs to the side I was able to mill full width boards from both sides of the log.
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Knowing there was a substantial lump of metal somewhere in the tree, I stopped cutting full width boards and turned the remaining 11" thick block on end.

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As each plank was removed I checked the grain colour for signs of *tannin, the dark grey stain on the grain in this photo is a tannin stain.

* Tannin is a process when the acids within the wood cells come into contact with iron, it will turn timber grain around it dark
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Below are some of the beautiful figured grain planks I finally managed to mill from this difficult little section, well worth it in the end.

Single plank, size 2" x 25" x 60"
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Single plank, size 2" x 25" x 60"
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Single plank, size 2" x 25" x 60"
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Book matched pair of planks, each plank 1.5" x 11" x 60"
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Book matched pair of planks, each plank 1.5" x 11" x 60"
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Book matched pair of planks, each plank 1.5" x 11" x 60"
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Once everything that could be milled from the log was cut, the planks were sticked and stacked then taken to an area where they will remain for the next 12 months to air dry.

The boards are stacked with thin pieces of wood placed between them to allow for the flow of air.
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Stacking the boards is a tedious process and one that no one seems to volunteer for!
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Trends may change but timber infestation doesn't;

Over the last decade with the fashion for 'river table' increasing, people have moved away from the traditional craftsman hand made furniture towards the DIY rustic live edge look. Although this look maybe 'on trend' it brings with it certain problems that at first may not be apparent to the inexperienced woodworker.

Many of the timbers grown in the UK are susceptible to beetle damage, it's for this reason that I cut and stock very few waney or 'live' edged boards but prefer to stock square edged boards with the bark and soft outer wood removed.

Oak log loaded on the bandsaw mill awaiting milling into planks
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The log has been cut into square edge planks and an 8" square beam
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Moving the milled planks to the drying area has become easier since I purchased a little loader
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The planks are stacked out to dry in the open air.
They will stay here for a period of one year per inch of thickness plus an extra year.
Thin strips of wood known as stickers are placed at intervals along the boards on each row, this allows for an even flow of air between the boards.
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Timber

Ash - white

Ash - olive

Ripple Sycamore

Brown Elm

Holly

London Plane

English Oak

Sycamore

Sweet Chestnut

English Walnut

English Yew