Ways of celebrating our ash trees
Chair maker Mike Abbott steps out of his Herefordshire cottage and sniffs the intoxicating autumn air. The heady mix of over-ripe apples, rotting leaves and late raspberries – a Proustian olfactory cosh that brings back childhood memories of bonfires, rustling leaf piles and sparklers – is why this is one of his favourite times of year. “The woodland is starting to go to bed for the winter, and it is wonderfully peaceful and still,” says Mike who makes ladderback, spindleback and lathback chairs from the tall, slender, pale poles of young ash trees that grow abundantly in this part of the world. “As well as being a beautiful wood, ash is very springy and you can make incredibly tight joints with it, so it is perfect for chairs.”
Mike has had a busy year making his own ash furniture as well as teaching enthusiastic amateurs on his furniture-making courses but he is well aware of the threat hanging over his favourite timber. “When you cleave the ash you are working in complete harmony with the raw material. You and the ash work together, neither party dominating the other.”
As autumn’s splendid colour symphony crescendos to a grand-finale, it is easy to forget that Britain’s woods are facing their toughest challenges in generations. A seemingly endless procession of beetles, fungi, larvae and caterpillars are infecting oak, ash, horse chestnut and larch. Forestry Commission estimates suggest that some six million larch trees are now infected with phytopthora ramorum an airborne spore responsible for vast swathes of forests in Wales being felled this year.
“Our trees aren’t cut out for globalisation,” says Sebastian Cox, another wood furniture maker who is enthusiastically backing the use of British-grown wood as one way of protecting our precious trees. “As if Chalara [Ash die-back] were not enough of a problem for our ash trees, Emerald Ash Borer, which has killed 10 million trees in the United States has spread through Russia and is now just west of Moscow and about to enter Europe,” he says, as if this jewel-like insect with its vivid green carapace were an army of Cossacks. Sebastian, whose furniture, sometimes rough and rustic, sometimes ethereally light and elegant, has won him many awards, says wood furniture makers need to be sure of the provenance of the timber they work with.
Importing timber and saplings from abroad is one way pernicious diseases spread which is why making better use of our own woodland, which covers 11,200 square miles can help. Roger Coppock, Head of Analysts at the Forestry Commission says sound woodland management, which includes thinning forests to allow better circulation of light and air, is a way to keep our woodlands healthy. “The British public needs to recognise that our forests are under huge threat. The way people can help is to make sure they know where their wood is coming from and only buy British wood products. We must protect our native species.”
He says ash timber from trees infected with Chalara is still fit for use in furniture. “It takes about five to six years from when an ash tree is infected, to the wood becoming so degraded it is unusable, so we have a time window to consider how to make use of this timber,” he says. “British wood craftsmen need to think coolly about how they can make use of it.”
One designer who loves working with ash is Edward Johnson, whose extraordinary ‘Ripple’ furniture in pale ash veneer has been shortlisted for this year’s annual Wood Awards, the ‘wood Oscars’. “Ash is a very pale wood and contrasts well with darker woods like walnut. I often like to work with woods that have some kind of imperfection like burr walnut or Olive Ash, so-called because a fungal infection has sent rich dark streaks into the wood creating dramatic contrasts of dark and light. Wood workers shouldn’t necessarily be afraid of using timber that has had some kind of disease.”
Wood Awards judge and head of Benchmark Furniture Sean Sutcliffe says that at present the British hardwood industry cannot provide enough walnut and cherry for the furniture trade as there are simply not enough well managed areas of hardwood. It makes perfect sense then, to use ash. “Ash is the champion of woods: strong, fine-grained and relatively cheap. We are about to lose the bulk of our ash trees, and unless the furniture trade decides to use it most of it will end up being burned, which would be a terrible waste.”
Wood Awards http://www.woodawards.com
The latest edition of Mike Abbott’s book, ‘Going With the Grain: Making chairs in the Twenty First Century’ is published this autumn, £15.00 including post and packing. For more details visit http://www.living-wood.co.uk
sarahjlonsdale 