Our Wood
Oak
The one most people picture when they think of solid timber. Hard, heavy and openly grained, pale straw when fresh and deepening to honey over the years. Quartersawn boards show silvery flecks where the medullary rays are cut across.
Where it lets you down: oak is full of tannin, so anything ferrous left damp against it leaves a black stain — that includes steel wool, some fixings, and wet iron. It also moves noticeably with the seasons, and the open pores hold onto dirt if the surface is left bare.
Ash
Pale, tough and springy. It has oak's bold ring-porous grain without the weight or the darkness, and it bends rather than snaps, which is why tool handles and sports gear have been made from it for centuries. It takes a finish evenly.
Where it lets you down: the grain is open, so it needs filling or oiling to stay clean. Colour can shift noticeably between boards, and it has no resistance to damp or insects — ash belongs indoors.
White beech
Beech in its natural, untreated state. A very fine, even texture flecked with tiny reddish rays, close to cream in colour. It machines and turns more cleanly than almost anything else, holds a crisp edge, and has no taste or smell — which is why it has always been the wood for kitchen things.
Where it lets you down: beech moves more with humidity than most hardwoods. A wide beech surface will cup or shrink if it goes from a damp kitchen to a dry room, and it has no durability outdoors at all.
Pink beech
The same tree as white beech, steamed before it is dried. Steaming pushes colour right through the board and evens it out, turning the cream to a warm pink-tan and softening the contrast between heart and sap. It works a little more easily than unsteamed beech.
Where it lets you down: the same movement problem — steaming changes the colour, not the behaviour. The colour itself comes from a process rather than the tree, so the exact shade varies from batch to batch.
Kiaat
Our local one, and the most stable timber on this page. Golden brown shot through with darker streaks, and it barely moves once it is dry — kiaat will sit flat through a Cape summer and a Cape winter without complaint. It works well and finishes beautifully under oil.
Where it lets you down: it is the most expensive thing we buy, and boards vary a lot in colour, so a piece made from two boards will rarely match exactly. Resin pockets turn up now and then. It mellows darker with light.
Walnut
Deep chocolate brown, sometimes with a purple cast, and figured in a way no other timber here matches. It is softer than oak and a pleasure to cut and carve, it stays put once dry, and it looks its best under nothing more than oil.
Where it lets you down: price, mostly. The pale sapwood sits right against the dark heartwood, so boards have to be picked carefully or the piece ends up two-tone. Unusually, walnut lightens in sunlight rather than darkening.
Maple
The palest thing we work in — close to white, with a grain so fine you have to look for it, and a faint silky lustre across the surface. It is hard, it sands to a genuinely smooth finish, and it keeps a room feeling light in a way the browner timbers cannot.
Where it lets you down: it blotches badly if you stain it, so we leave it clear. Being that pale, it shows every mark, and it warms towards yellow as it ages.