What kind of furniture do you hate???

[Lons]

It never ceases to amaze me how many compliments I receive from guests for our kitchen table, the top of which is made from shuttering ply, roughly cut to an ellipse. It's full of life from children writing on it, and one night, rather tipsy, I drilled a hole into one end of it because the base of a wine glass fell off so I just stuck the stem of the glass into the hole!!! I regret hugely throwing the base-less glass away the next day. It was fun sticking it in the hole. The table is good enough furniture, and I love it for that. It seems a pity we have to over-complicate things.

Love to see a photo of that table Nick

Bob

 

[Jelly]

For me it's furniture that uses timber from overseas when there's perfectly good British wood available. I find that very dispiriting. If we want thriving woodlands we need to be using as many native species as possible.

There's some merit to that thought but its down to what you want aesthetically to some extent... I prefer darker woods for some things, so I often use tropical hardwoods.
But some of the figuring is impossible to ignore in british timber, I have a small offcut of english oak that I bought for a couple of quid on impulse because it has the most distinct "fiddleback" figuring I've ever seen, whoever got the boards from that tree was very lucky!

It's a shame that it's hard to source really high quality european softwoods now, as some of the old pieces show just how good they can look, but these days most furniture in them is mass produced from cheap knotty material, the kind of stuff that you'd complain about if it came in a pack of fifths.

 

[Nick Gibbs]

I don't think it's that difficult to find British hardwoods, though it does depend on the quantities you need, and if you're willing to cope with waney edges etc... If you're looking for something dark why not brown oak, walnut or laburnum? I think that the timber trade has survived on imported timber for too long because it has been convenient (it is supplied straight-edged to reduce shipping costs) and good value (because we've been exploiting primary growth forest), and because neglect of our own woodlands has led to poor supply of British hardwoods. We need to change that to reduce illegal logging in the rainforests and to promote our own forests, and make them viable again. Our sister magazine, Living Woods, has a directory of mobile sawmillers on their website (www.living-woods.com), and a local one might well be able to supply you with locally-sourced British timber.

Nick

 

[Jelly]

I don't think it's that difficult to find British hardwoods, though it does depend on the quantities you need, and if you're willing to cope with waney edges etc... If you're looking for something dark why not brown oak, walnut or laburnum? I think that the timber trade has survived on imported timber for too long because it has been convenient (it is supplied straight-edged to reduce shipping costs) and good value (because we've been exploiting primary growth forest), and because neglect of our own woodlands has led to poor supply of British hardwoods. We need to change that to reduce illegal logging in the rainforests and to promote our own forests, and make them viable again. Our sister magazine, Living Woods, has a directory of mobile sawmillers on their website (http://www.living-woods.com), and a local one might well be able to supply you with locally-sourced British timber.

Nick

Hardwood in general has died a bit of a death commercially, It would be a challenge to ring up even the biggest merchants and order hardwoods imported or indigenous in a straightforward way; once upon a time, they were just as important a product as softwoods. Only high-class joinery, cabinetry and other niche woodworking fields really use hardwoods now and when you make a premium product, then taking the time to source the perfect raw materials is part of the job, so much so that some people and businesses will buy particularly interesting timber in the round, or even before it's felled and oversee primary conversion and seasoning to get exactly what they want; Something I've been experimenting with myself.

I would agree that we don't use our deciduous forests as a resource, and it's a bit of a chicken and egg situation... in order to excite demand, you need reliable supply; and to warrant investment in supply, you need demand. Quite aside from that, I think it would be very hard to get the average bloke on the street to understand that harvesting timber (especially in old-growth woodlands) is a sustainable, agricultural (well silvicultural) process, not the elimination of a public good.
Doubly so when a tree takes upwards of 150 years to maturity; speaking as a young man, an investment in planting now will see a resource available for use by my great grandchildren or even great-great grandchildren (unless I wanted to make birch ply!) no other industry has to contend with a timescale which is on the very edge of our temporal comprehension...

Aside from that, demand for timber products has decreased somewhat, people have been brainwashed into thinking that it's somehow either prohibitively expensive and decadent or produces an ephemeral, inferior product... Windows are a good example here!
I don't know what can be done to change that, I've been aware of "Wood For Good" for a number of years (indeed, I have an "I ♥ Wood" promotional t-shirt, which always gets a good laugh) but despite being funded by major players like the TTF and ConFor it still lacks the ambition or punch (I can't say which as I don't know them that well) to get through to the end consumer, though educating a new generation of architects, engineers and buyers about timber, will hopefully see some change for the better in the construction sector at least!

I don't really know what the hell I intended to say when I started typing anymore; Still I hope it strikes a chord!

 

[Nick Gibbs]

It does strike a cord, and I think you'll find that despite the economic times, the native hardwood market has been a bit better recently. People are beginning to wise up to buying locally (for food and other things), and realising that we can't rely on imported materials and products for ever. It takes each and every one of us to take some responsibility and ask for British wood. Obviously this won't be from the large companies, but hunt out the smaller mills and suppliers and you can find great species. Customers will be asking for locally-sourced materials in the future. We have to have the trees to supply that wood. Fortunately the firewood market is relatively buoyant, and this is bringing money to woodlands for better management. We also have a fantastic stock of softwood in Britain, coming to maturity now. It just takes more of us to ask for it. Education is an issue, but it's a case of those that care must set an example.

 

[Jelly]

I've just been looking at various hardwood suppliers, and even if you're buying by the pack or the cube, most only offer clears or "prime grade"*, what happens to all the other material? I don't believe for a minute that their suppliers are that good at selecting trees as to get each and every one providing only straight grained, defect free timber...

*What this actually means I don't know, as it's not from EN975-1 or the FC's alternative grading system... I am in any case, from a softwoods background, so I'm still learning.

 

[Nick Gibbs]

Somebody asked to see a photo of my rough kitchen table. It really is a piece of shuttering ply, cut to something approximating an ellipse. You can just see the hole about 10in from the left-hand end, which I drilled for a wine glass after the base of the glass was knocked off!!! As I mentioned, it never ceases to amaze me how complimentary guests are about the table. I think perhaps we try too hard sometimes!

I hope the upload has worked. This is my first go!

Nick

 

[Lons]

Twas me who asked! Maybe you should market that Nick looks ok to me.

my wife wanted a largish coffee table in oak with a granite top so having bought the granite, I mocked up a table in chipboard with the top "frame" reinforced with highly visible re-iforcement plates, (the galv nail plates used to join timbers for roof trusses) and sat the granite into it.
I wanted to see how it looked and if we could live with it before using valuable oak. It sat there for 12 months - but that's another story :lol:

Anyway, it amazed me just how many times visitors admired this monstrosity and I was even asked to make another - I declined :lol:

I don't have any pics of the mock up but there's a pic of the finished article in my post on this thread american-white-oak-t53073.html?hilit

Bob

 

[Nick Gibbs]

It amazed me just how many times visitors admired this monstrosity and I was even asked to make another - I declined :lol: Bob

Haha. You've reminded me that mine was a mock-up too, I think, two years ago, for a solid sycamore affair. The sycamore has since been destroyed by woodworm! I may even have made the ply top as a template. I can't remember now! Most woodworkers must have items around the house that are works-in-progress that became permanent fixtures.

 

[Lons]

Most woodworkers must have items around the house that are works-in-progress that became permanent fixtures.

yebut.......... I'm a builder as well, so twice as much.
e.g. Took me 3 1/2 years to build an extension which would have taken a 6 or 7 weeks if for a customer. :roll:
Good job I have a patient wife though I did start out married life the way I meant to go on :wink:

Bob

 

[Jelly]

Most woodworkers must have items around the house that are works-in-progress that became permanent fixtures.

yebut.......... I'm a builder as well, so twice as much.
e.g. Took me 3 1/2 years to build an extension which would have taken a 6 or 7 weeks if for a customer. :roll:
Good job I have a patient wife though I did start out married life the way I meant to go on :wink:

Bob

That reminds me of a friends father who runs his own carpentry firm... He began building a house for the family when she was at primary school, and recently finished, just in time to attend her doctoral graduation!

 

[bugbear]

That reminds me of a friends father who runs his own carpentry firm... He began building a house for the family when she was at primary school, and recently finished, just in time to attend her doctoral graduation!

IIRC, on OLDTOOLS, someone started a crib for his imminent daughter, and finished it in time for her daughter.

BugBear

 

[RogerP]

Anything made with MDF.