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Finishes

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The key to producing wonderful furniture is giving each individual piece an antique patina to simulate years of use. This is largely a hand process and down to the flair and imagination of the person doing the job; almost a quarter of our time is involved in this process.

 

Chairs are made in Ash and tables and cabinets are made in Oak. Batheaston offers a range of wood colours as standard and a colour matching service on request.

Main wood finishes

Painted wood finishes

Wood character detail

English forests produce the finest pippy oak in the world.

 

The open nature of our woodlands, hedgerows and parks allows easy light penetration which encourages ‘epicormic growth’ on the main trunks of the trees. These growths, which look like tumours on the outside, can sometimes consume the whole trunk, creating one big ball of burr. The growths penetrate deep into the heart wood of the tree and when cut perpendicularly to the direction of travel, they appear as cat’s paws or patches of burr on the board.

 

Appearance:-

Waney edge boards of English pippy oak will be supplied with wane (bark) on one or two edges.

 

Pippy oak, sometimes called ‘cat’s paw’ oak, is so named because of the frequent small knots and knot clusters which pepper the board. Large knot clusters are generally referred to as ‘burrs’ and boards with a high proportion of these large clusters are described as burr oak.

The heart wood of English pippy oak ranges in colour from pale straw to dark honey brown. The grain moves around the knots and clusters to create beautiful wild patterns and figures which are highly prized by fine furniture makers.

 

We cut English pippy oak to achieve as much interest and beauty as possible. The majority of the pippy logs will be ‘flat cut’ (parallel to the growth rings) so that the epicormic growths are presented as pips and burrs on the surface of the board and the growth rings patterns are also visible.

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