Oak Furniture Land - how's this for hype ?

[CHJ]

..But what tips it to one side for me is that emotionally I want furniture to be long lasting, passed down to the next generation, (especially if it's something I made.)...

But if you look a high proportion of 'good presentation wise' furniture in large historic houses you will see many examples of superb appearance that still have a basic material core. Not all high society households could afford the high end craftsmanship though-out versions .
If you come down a notch to the everyday vernacular stuff on display in period buildings several hundred years old the majority, although soundly constructed are only faced with the prime cabinet work.

I think longevity comes with the soundness of construction methods and fitness for use of the materials.
I suppose only time will tell if modern adhesives and cycling through various 'pass me down' scenarios of this constructed stuff will stand the test.

 

[custard]

An American woodworker spent several years photographing hundreds of antique dovetails and posted the results as a "dovetail compendium".

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mark_firl ... 404664767/

Having been around the UK antique market for many years I can't say British dovetails any different. In other words a few are exquisite, most are mediocre, and some are comically rough.

It didn't prevent these pieces from surviving for hundreds of years, and I suspect that a different design ethic prevailed in times past, where jointing wasn't particularly meant to be seen or commented upon, and so makers adopted a more utilitarian approach on everything apart from the major show components.

I'm currently digging through old cabinet maker's "books of prices", where the build times and prices for various items of furniture in the pre-industrial era were set down and agreed between journeymen furniture makers and the workshops that employed them. The blistering speed with which furniture was made in the 18th century takes your breath away.

But what all these old boys had, that OFL has evidently forgotten, is a sense of grace about their furniture. Effort was always taken to place boards where they would sit harmoniously, care was exercised to match grain as far as was possible. So even when they were chasing the clock they still evidently thought that worthwhile.

 

[rob.]

No veneer in er, Id rather spend the extra and get some nice furniture with veneer on it. Antiques for me are the way to go, pieces that have stood for hundreds of years, most of their lives in damp conditions cant really be faulted.

 

[lurker]

They are clever marketeers.
Folks want new these days and they want it cheap
And replaceable in a few years when the next fad comes along.
OFL will not exist in a few years and are making hay whilst the sun shines.

I walked around and what hit me was the appalling proportions of their designs not the quality of the materials.

When I got married 40 years ago all our furniture was what our older relatives were throwing out and we were really glad of it.
If I offered our decent but used stuff to my nephews and nieces they would be highly offended.

 

[rob.]

They are clever marketeers.
Folks want new these days and they want it cheap
And replaceable in a few years when the next fad comes along.
OFL will not exist in a few years and are making hay whilst the sun shines.

I walked around and what hit me was the appalling proportions of their designs not the quality of the materials.

When I got married 40 years ago all our furniture was what our older relatives were throwing out and we were really glad of it.
If I offered our decent but used stuff to my nephews and nieces they would be highly offended.

I couldn't agree more, it seems some furniture designers these days don't understand the same aspects of designing furniture that people of yesteryear did.
I have six kitchen chairs round my dining table, they date from early Georgian right through to present day. It seems Georgian chairs , at least Georgian country chairs had largish seats, then they got smaller throughout the years until the present day when they got bigger again, except the present day kitchen chair that I've got is bigger in every way, everything is scaled up. You would think in this day and age with the way we are raping our environment we should be taking a leaf out of furniture makers from years ago who knew the value of wood, unless they just had smaller bums way back in the day?

 

[thetyreman]

the oak VENEER on my parents coffee table bought from OFL is now peeling off several years later...they aren't built to last. Now I almost feel confident enough to build a new one, but from solid air dried oak with real joinery.

 

[RogerS]

the oak VENEER on my parents coffee table bought from OFL is now peeling off several years later...they aren't built to last. Now I almost feel confident enough to build a new one, but from solid air dried oak with real joinery.

There is NOTHING wrong with veneering. When done properly. All the real cabinetmakers in the past used veneer extensively.

 

[monkeybiter]

No veneer in er, Id rather spend the extra and get some nice furniture with veneer on it. Antiques for me are the way to go, pieces that have stood for hundreds of years, most of their lives in damp conditions cant really be faulted.

The only furniture we've bought in the last few years [because we've got everything we need] are some oldish bits of brown furniture that we've seen in a local Barnardo's for silly small amounts [~£6 !] that we like so much we have to find a home for it!

 

[LancsRick]

Throwing my 2p into the ring...

- They're recycling leftovers, that's brilliant, and if they can make a business out of it, good for them
- In terms of design, I'm not sure that's fair criticism as it's totally visible to the purchaser - either people like the designs and they buy them, or they don't. There's no deception in that to my mind.

- The manufacturing technique is where they make their money and make the most of people's ignorance. Clearly solid wood is more durable than synthetic/semi-hollow stuff from IKEA, so let's buy solid wood guys! Solid wood doesn't expand or distort, so all solid wood is equal, it'll be fine...

 

[wills-mill]

Well, they're sort of recycling leftovers....

It's not my side of the timber trade, but I've heard that most of the laminated Oak furniture out there is made from lower grade European logs that are rammed into shipping containers, then go for a trip to China and back. There are huge amounts of empty shipping containers that need to head east, so if a bargain basement material can be found to fill them, everyone's happy. It sounds like madness but it must have logistical and financial soundness.
The milling, drying and furniture construction is done across Asia with European Oak, then it heads back. There is definitely some grain selection going on- I've certainly looked at some furniture where the knottier sections are on show up front and the prime, boring, straight grained stuff is tucked around at the back and side. On some Pine furniture (probably Mexican), I've even spotted extra knottiness being added with the help of a Forstner drill and sections of dowel glued in to show end grain.

--------------
Oak for internal use has definitely headed the way of softwoods- in that many of the firms who use a lot of it in this country now buy it in as a ready machined and laminated commodity. The long stave laminate boards look relatively pricey, until you add up the hours, kit and space needed to machine, glue up and sand something to the same level of usability. Presumably the OFL type short stave material is available if you ask around.

http://www.gaimports.co.uk/oak-panels/
http://catalogue.chilterntimber.co.uk/p ... 00625.html
http://www.slhardwoods.co.uk/products/s ... ure-panels

 

[Jelly]

When I got married 40 years ago all our furniture was what our older relatives were throwing out and we were really glad of it.
If I offered our decent but used stuff to my nephews and nieces they would be highly offended.

I'm in my mid 20's, guess I'm part of the middle class "affluent young professional" cohort too, though it irks me to admit it... Most of my furniture is heirlooms that my parents, aunts, uncles grandparents and great grandparents had no room for, but didn't want to let go of, mostly vernacular pieces, and a couple of really nice 17th Century bits; wouldn't trade it for the world.
The funny thing is I have friends come round who really love their interior design etc. And they go nuts for it, but when I say that they'll have to go scouring the antique dealers for it, they balk at the idea, then go pay twice as much for a bit of that from IKEA.

 

[RogerS]

Delighted to say that OFL have now removed the egregious misleading statement, that I mentioned in the OP, from their website.

 

[doctor Bob]

I like IKEA, great designs, Oak furniture land is horrible.

 

[Racers]

Delighted to say that OFL have now removed the egregious misleading statement, that I mentioned in the OP, from their website.

But they say...

"All our drawers have dovetail joints, all drawer bases and backs are made with 100% solid hardwood with only the finest cuts of timber used in all our furniture"

Finest cuts?

Pete

 

[Woodchips2]

Delighted to say that OFL have now removed the egregious misleading statement, that I mentioned in the OP, from their website.

But they say...

"All our drawers have dovetail joints, all drawer bases and backs are made with 100% solid hardwood with only the finest cuts of timber used in all our furniture"

Finest cuts?

Pete

It's just that you don't expect to have 10,000 finest cuts in your piece of furniture (hammer)
Regards Keith

 

[No skills]

"only the finest cuts of timber used in all our furniture"

Pete

All the finest cuts of timber were used in all of THEIR furniture, WE get the bits that were left over

 

[Jake]

Finest as in smallest.

 

[transatlantic]

I really think you guys are being unrealistic and mostly just being picky.

 

[Racers]

Just give the stuff a few years of seasonal changes and see if it pulls itself apart.

Pete

 

[John15]

Finest offcuts maybe

John