Designing furniture the traditional way

04.08.11 - black decker cordless tools

'I have a chainsaw [for felling trees], but I don’t have cordless jigsaws. Otherwise you could easily sneak back into using power tools.’ Instead the designers were instructed how to cleave a log with an axe and mallet, use a bowsaw, operate a pole lathe and wield a range of draw knives for shaving and shaping the timber.

It was intriguing to witness how they dealt with such an alien working environment. While William Warren and Gareth Neal took to it instantly, jumping on their shave horses like old pros, others were rather more reticent. When I asked Rory Dodd how he felt about the challenge, he looked at me hollow-eyed for a moment before answering, 'A bit nervous.’

The result was a fascinating array of chairs and, for some, a new perspective on their work. 'What I’ve learnt is what a valuable commodity timber is because here every bit of timber you split is used,’ Neal said as he was finishing his piece. 'Whereas in the workshop I buy it in planks, here you split the timber and one bit becomes a rail and the next becomes a spindle. You get so much product out of a small bit of wood.’

More about black decker cordless tools on: Telegraph.co.uk