Spalted beech box

Description

Stunning handmade wooden box made of beautifully figured Spalted Beech with a carved pivot hinge lid.

The box has 2 compartments which are lined with luxurious purple Harris Tweed.

Size to come……

Each box is lovingly handmade and finished with 5 coats of 100% pure Tung oil and then clear beeswax polish. I recommend only ‘dry dusting’ the box when required. Please do not to use any spray type or abrasive cleaners on the wood or interior linings. Please ask for advice if you are unsure.

Specific care instructions are sent out with each box.

Wood is a beautiful and natural product and as such will take time to settle in its new home. Please do not place the box near any sources of direct heat or moisture. Given the nature of today’s centrally heated houses, some movement in the timber may/will occur. This is perfectly normal and an indication that you own a 100% natural product.

Spalted Beech fagus sylvatica

Mature trees grow to a height of more than 40m and develop a huge domed crown. They can live for hundreds of years with coppiced stands living for more than a 1000 years.

Beech is associated with femininity and is often considered the queen of British trees.

Many timbers can spalt but Beech is one of the most common. Spalting is a term used to describe the process by which certain fungi grow on dead or fallen trees and after colonizing the wood via travelling up the wood cells from the ends or from broken off branches, leave a most attractive pattern. The process takes 2 to 3 years to reach the ideal stage to cut & season the timber.

The black lines are zone lines created by different species of fungi erecting barriers around their territory! There are primary colonizers who come first and establish territories and then have to defend them against secondary colonizers who are only able to colonize the wood because the primary colonizers have changed the ph of the wood & its structure. A microscopic army! If left unchecked eventually the whole tree is eaten & consumed, part of nature’s process of dealing with dead & fallen trees.