Commissioned as a gift to the Jan Nycek, Master of the SAJN knife system in Poland. The box consists of a sliding lid with black velvet cushioning inside. The actual cushion with the knife shape was CNC carved from a block of high-density foam. The box was carved from a solid piece of American walnut. We stained this a dark chocolate shade and then polished it with repeated coats of hard oil until the desired finish was obtained. The carved design on the lid is the copyright of Jan Nycek.

This beautiful piece, designed and made by Curtis O’dell was, like everything on this page (and indeed this site) made in-house from off-cuts of wood leftover from a large picture frame order.

We made the Dominos from African Wenge wood, which is a hard dark chocolate-brown wood with lighter almost golden stripes running through it. It is a difficult wood to work with, often full of worm holes and it splinters easily. We carved the Dominos pieces to the correct size and made cavities for the polished brass dots. The box that houses them was made from walnut with Wenge corner splines, which betray its picture frame pedigree. We finished the box with a polished Wenge lid.

Hand carved and again made from off-cuts of Wenge wood, itself left over from stock we bought many years ago from an FSC timber yard. We didn’t have much of this timber left from the original stock, not enough to make a frame with so when a client mentioned that they wanted to give a set to a partner Curtis obliged. The little stand was made from walnut using skills learned when making stands for our desktop double-sided frames.

We are often asked if we can make display stands or plinths for various objects and artworks and the answer is usually almost always, yes we can.

Everything can be customised to your exact taste, and you can also send in your own visuals or sketches for us to work from. A computer render of the finished design would always be supplied before we would actually begin making it. Some of these plinths can be seen here. Depending on the object or artwork, a plinth can either be made to stand on a horizontal surface or to hang on a wall. Firearms, both antique and contemporary are a popular wall plinth object.

Gymnast and Stunt Performer Alex Jerrom came to the workshop asking us to make some kind of device to help with the installation of new lightbulbs in the gym without having to hire a cherry picker. He supplied us with one of the lamps and Curtis designed and made this contraption. It worked brilliantly.

The gym photo shows the device on the end of a long pole with the newly installed LED lamp glowing above it.

This is how it works: The lamp pushes into the device and locks into place with a series of milled lugs, which allow it to be turned and when tightly fitted into the socket the device can be smoothly extracted leaving the lamp in place.

One small problem was that the pole was not quite long enough so Alex had to stand on top of that large blue training block to fit the bulb! Well he is a gymnast and stunt performer…

Here is the very talented Curtis making a client designed set of tables that we subsequently custom sprayed in a variety of colours.

A delightful tray for fruit, snacks, keys, loose change, made from off-cut pieces of walnut frame moulding that was then bonded together and then carved out of the resulting wooden block. It was then sealed and finished with food safe oil.

This gorgeous set of specially commissioned coasters were made from a selection of different woods. Some are deemed “exotic”, but all were bought in very small planks from a UK timber yard. The coaster at the front is Coconut, a “wood” that is both sustainable – the trees bear fruit for approximately 80 years and only then is the tree cut down.

The “wood” is very dense, very porous, and also, quite beautiful in our opinion. The finish is satin acrylic. The base was made from a particularly characterful piece of American Walnut. Curtis has also made these coasters from MDF, OSB (a building material) and pallet wood, yes, really. Why waste a pallet?! Coasters can be ordered, from a single coaster to an entire set in a wood or woods of your choice. Bases can be customised to suit your preference and we think they make for excellent gifts.

This delightful board was actually made from off-cuts of walnut picture frame moulding. Rather than throwing away, Curtis bonded the different pieces together into a board before cutting and finishing. The board was then sealed with food safe cutting-board lemon oil. You can design your own chopping board, which we can make from off-cuts or from plank or sheet material. Just let us know what you would like.

How best to display an antique set of snooker balls? This is how Curtis did it and we think the result is gorgeous. These shelves were made from Sapelie and finished with our own recipe of hard oils. We can of course make them from any wood and to display other kinds of objects. Just let us know what you would like.

This lovely food board was designed and milled by Alex Vintilescu from walnut frame off-cuts. The board was then sanded and finished with food safe lemon oil. It could of course be used as a chopping board too. We can make very customised food presentation boards and chopping boards. It all depends on your imagination.

Is it a chopping board or an artwork? This was also made and designed by Alex Vintilescu after a request from a scientific client. We made several of these, let’s call them artworks, in both sapelie and walnut. Interesting, unique and beautiful. Boards were finished with shellac and oil.