Dealing with timber is one of the most frustrating and yet can be one of the most enjoyable aspects of being a cabinetmaker. Were it not for the interest and excitement gained from the use of fine English hardwoods, I think that most of us would give up the struggle and go and make a living in a more lucrative and less demanding field of activity. I am occasionally asked by young designers fresh out of college why I restrict my design work to products very largely made just in timber, and I think my answer tends to be something along the lines that timber is one of those materials where one can acquire mastery, without ever being able to dominate the material. Working with wood is a little bit like owning a cat, you may think you own the cat and that you are master of the cat but you are not — the entire relationship is on the cats terms — she allows you to feed her, to house her, to keep her warm and occasionally she will show her appreciation but this is only ever on her terms. Of course timber is inanimate and not at all like a pussycat but it is quite singular. Each board of oak that we work may be similar but not exactly the same to another board of oak. We will infact never see exactly the same board of oak grain in the whole of our lives as woodworkers, so there is a certain responsibility upon us to do justice to this unique object. One can of course take this approach to rather foolish extremes where the creative cabinetmaker can be caricatured as "communing with his wood", but the pointI am making is that unlike other more inert materials such as glass, metal and plastic, wood is infinitely variable and for me infinitely fascinating. It is almost as if that the more knowledge one acquires about a material such as wood, the more one becomes aware of its subtle complexities. This time of year I quite enjoy going off to look around timber yards. It's not much fun in the Winter when the rain is hissing down and the yard is covered in ankle deep mud but in the Summer it is really quite pleasant to get out there and lift a few planks and nose around. I am usually looking to see what's available now and what's going to be dry in a years time. Most of the timber I buy is bought from two or three timber yards within a couple of hours drive of my workshop. These are almost invariably small timber yards maybe owned by one man and invariably specialising in native hardwoods. I like dealing with these guys — like their stock they are all individuals and sometimes quite tricky to deal with. You must remember that being a timber merchant can sometimes be like being a used car salesman in that you are constantly dealing with a product that is varying in quality and quantity, so these small one or two man timber yards are invariably run by "rugged individualists" and I will be talking more about them in next months Woodworker. However when I can't find what I want from these local yards there areseveral other names in my address book that I ring up to see what is available. Bob Brett who runs North Heigham Sawmills is one of these, I have only been to Bob's yard in Norwich two or three times in the last 20 years, but I have talked to him many times on the telephone. Bob runs a quite large timber yard with several staff, but he runs it like a one man firm, in that he knows his stock, he has a lifetimes experience with hardwoods. But as far as I am concerned he has one further quality that makes him a useful supplier — he has integrity. When Bob tells me that the pile of oak he is trying to sell me is alright, then I know that I can order it with confidence without having seen it. Of course seeing the timber first is always the best way to buy it, but Norwich is a long way from North Devon, so in those circumstances, it is helpful to know and trust the word of your supplier. This trust also works the other way around, because Bob is trusting my judgement as a professional to know that with timber you have to take the rough with the smooth. When Bob says this log is good he doesn't mean that it is perfect but in his long experience of seeing similar logs, he would judge this one as being acceptable. That however doesn't guarantee a complete absence of knots, shakes, twists, cups, bore holes, thunder shakes and all the other problems that can afflict out beloved material. So the professional supplier when he says that a log is good he is assuming that you know what he means. He would be well teed off by the novice who, having bought unseen this "good log" discovers that it has a fair percentage of defects within it, and complains bitterly about it. I think I have come to an understanding over the years that it is no use beinga miser with wood. If that job I had in mind only required 10 cubic feet, then I would buy 15 cubic feet and be prepared to waste some timber in order to get exactly what I wanted. This terrible extravagance gives me that safety margin which is essential when dealing with some of the problems that are associated with bespoke "high risk" cabinetmaking. Another character that I ring up when I'm short of something is Bill Ayres. Bill is based in Chinnor near High Wycombe and I think used some years ago to be a timber buyer for Ercol Furniture so you can be sure he knows his stuff. Bill could more accurately be described as timber dealer rather than a timber merchant. He is the kind of chap that has no yard but has quite large stocks of timber placed here and there in other peoples yards. He buys wood here and sells it there sometimes to the High Wycombe furniture trade, sometimes to other dealers. Bill's a brisk and efficient businessman who knows the beloved material inside out. Bill is used to dealing in quite large quantities of timber and he is not the kind of guy to mess around for a few feet of this or that. However Bill is a tolerant sort of bloke and being situated close to both Rycotewood and Bucks College, he is used to dealing with students who frequently don't know what they want. Tony Broughton—Head is another of my telephone contacts. I have been dealing with Tony for something like 12 years now. He did used to have a nice covered timber yard near his home just off the M4 near Swindon. I used to pop in and pick over his stacks on my way to and from clients. But he has now changed all of that and works in a similar way to Bill Ayers having stacks of wood here and there and dealing with Kitchen Manufacturers, Joiners and Furniture Makers like ourselves. It was Tony who supplied me a couple of years ago with a beautiful log of 3 inch walnut. The log was bought as "kiln dry" but it turned out to be pretty wet. Most of the real problems that I have encountered over the years has been caused by the drying process that wood must go through. I will talk about that later in greater length, but by and large you are relying upon your supplier to tell you exactly how the material has been dried, how long for, and under which conditions which is why integrity is so important in this business. Problems like this walnut log arise when the guy you are buying it from has had porky pies told to him by his supplier. In this case and at considerable inconvenience Tony, bless his heart, replaced the walnut without argument and we both put the whole thing down to experience. Another timber yard this time near the MS is Wessex Timber. I usually pop in and see them if I have time either on route to or back from a client in the Midlands. Wessex Timber is a very modern and well organised yard. Piles of timber are kept beautifully under cover and stacks can be moved easily in the comfort of a special side loading forklift truck. Buying wood here is always comfortable, well organised and a generally pleasurable experience. On first sight, Wessex Timbers prices appear to be quite high per cubic foot, but they would argue that they give what is called a generous measure. When they measure the cubic capacity of each board, they will allow for and measure out such defects as knots and shakes. The only way you can actually test this and see whether your supplier is actually giving fair value for money is to suck it and see. All I can say is that in my past dealings with Wessex Timber, they have always given me an honest measure and consequently a fair price. There are several other larger timber yards that we deal with for imported hardwoods, mostly American stuff but also occassionally for some of the exotics we use. All these yards suffer from the inevitable problems of being large organisations. They are impersonal and quite frequently staffed with people who have very little knowledge of the beloved material. I think Atkins and Cripps falls into this category though we have dealt with them successfully for a few years now. first published in The Woodworker Magazine by David Savage in the series CRAFT OF CABINETMAKING 26 go to part 2 of this article