Reinventing Wood as a Material: Different Ways to Work With It

As a furniture maker, I often find that people think of wood as an aesthetically pleasing but quite limited material — boards go in, boxes come out. But one of the joys of handmade wooden furniture is the almost limitless range of ways wood can be manipulated, bent, shaped, joined, carved, and sculpted. With the right combination of tools, imagination, and time, timber becomes a highly expressive medium — capable of both delicate curves and architectural strength.

Here’s a quick look at some of the ways I use (and reinvent) wood in my bespoke furniture practice, from the most basic to the more sculptural or technically challenging approaches.

Starting with the Tree

It all begins with the tree itself. Wood is a natural material, full of variation and unpredictability. Part of the skill of custom furniture making is learning to read that — grain direction, movement, tension, and flaws all inform what a piece of timber wants to become. In my workshop, I use mostly solid hardwoods like oak, ash, and walnut, chosen as much for their character as for their durability. I also mill my own timber using a portable chainsaw mill, so that I can make use of wind-felled trees that would otherwise be cut up for firewood. Hazel watches on:

Cleft Wood (Split, Not Sawn)

Before milling came along, woodworkers split timber along the grain — a process known as cleaving. Cleft wood follows the natural fibres of the tree and is often stronger than sawn wood as a result. I don’t generally use cleft timber for modern freestanding furniture, but I have used it for traditional chair-making. I am also interested in using it to provide a raw and natural texture. This was beautifully done by Joseph Walsh in his DOMMUS Cleft Cabinet.

Planked and Planed

This is probably the most familiar stage: wood is milled into planks, then planed flat and square for joinery. Most bespoke furniture UK starts life as a pile of rough-sawn boards, but there’s still plenty of creative freedom here — bookmatching, continuous grain patterns, and clever use of figure all allow flat boards to become something much more refined. Shown below is the timber yard at Sykes where I sometimes buy my timber.

Turning

Taking wood from square to round, turning is one of the earliest ways to create shape and decoration. Table legs, lamp bases, bowls — all become possible on the lathe. Some clients looking for modern British furniture might associate turned details with tradition, but used sparingly they can add warmth and interest to otherwise minimal designs. Shown below are some turned legs on an ottoman that I was commissioned to make.

5. Carving and Texturing

This is where things get more sculptural. Carving can be fine and detailed or bold and expressive — a way of adding texture and tactility to a piece. I use angle grinders, gouges, rasps, and sometimes just a chisel and mallet to bring in a sense of movement or play with the light. It can be slow work, but it adds so much personality and tactility, which is central to what I do. If you’re commissioning custom wood furniture, this is often where you can get really individual with the finish. Shown below is a console table that I textured by hand. I was once going to calculate how many gouges were made but instead I will just have to guess – many 10s or 100s of thousands. I couldn’t feel the ends of my fingers for about a week after I finished.

Steam Bending

Steam bending softens the lignin in the wood fibres so the piece can be gently bent into curves — usually around a form or jig. I have previously used this technique for chair backs. It’s a bit of a balancing act: too much pressure and it’ll snap; too little and it’ll spring back. Success also depends a lot on the species — ash and oak are great for this, walnut not so much. Whilst it does certainly have a place in sculptural furniture (see the work of Petter Southall), it is not my favourite technique as once you remove it from the former it wants to spring back. For what I do it often isn’t stable enough.

The results, though, are beautiful and there’s something wonderful about bending wood in a way that retains its original character.

Lamination

Lamination works on a similar principle, but with much thinner pieces. By gluing several thin layers together and clamping them in a curved form, you get stable, repeatable curves that don’t rely on steam. This is how I make laminated shelving, sculptural chairs, and curved cabinet doors in my bespoke furniture design work. For more complicated shapes I then combine the formers with vacuum bags that allow the pieces to be effectively clamped while following their own path. This also allows for twisting that would be nearly impossible to create formers to do.

It’s more reliable than steam bending, especially with stubborn timbers like walnut, and opens up loads of possibilities for modern shapes and clean lines — perfect for modern furniture designers trying to push past the rectilinear.

Kerfing and Relief Cuts

Another way to make wood flexible is to cut it in just the right places. Kerfing involves cutting a series of slots (kerfs) partway through a board so that it can flex — useful for subtle curves or wrapping solid wood around a form. I’ve used this in custom made furniture to create curved plinths.

Veneers: Beyond the Surface

Veneers often get a bad name — maybe because we associate them with cheap flat-pack furniture — but in bespoke furniture making, they can be an incredibly valuable tool. A veneer is a thin slice of wood, usually around 0.6mm to 2mm thick, that’s applied to a substrate like birch ply or MDF. When done well, it allows access to rare and exotic grain patterns that would be prohibitively expensive or unstable in solid form.

I’ve used veneers in custom made furniture where grain continuity really matters — like applying a beautiful burr walnut across drawer fronts, or achieving a waterfall grain down the side of a cabinet. Veneers are also used for marquetry work which can be a beautiful form of expression. In the picture below I created a coffee table top using a variety of veneers to represent my ideas.

That said, I still prefer to work in solid wood wherever I can — in particular I use solid for its longevity. Although damage to a veneered surface can be repaired by a skilled restorer, too often it isn’t and the piece of furniture is instead wastefully thrown away. In contrast, solid wood ages gracefully, with dents and scratches adding to the patina of the piece over time and ensuring long-lasting use.

Shou Sugi Ban and Burnishing

Sometimes it’s not about shape, but surface. Burning wood (Shou Sugi Ban) creates a charred, textured surface that’s surprisingly durable and visually striking. I’ve used it on a table top that represented the ongoing wildfires and warming of our planet. It can be a bit messy though! Burnishing, on the other hand, compresses and polishes the surface, creating a sheen without finish. Both techniques offer unique visual effects for bespoke wooden furniture.

Conclusion: Wood is More Than a Board

As a bespoke furniture maker, I’m always trying to push wood to do something unexpected — to behave more like fabric or stone or metal, while still celebrating its nature as a living, breathing material. Whether I’m making a solid walnut desk, a flowing piece of organic furniture, or a precise record player cabinet, the tools and techniques I use help define the final piece.

That’s the joy of custom furniture — the freedom to start with an idea and shape the material around it, rather than settling for what's easy to mass-produce.

If you're looking for handmade furniture near me, or have an idea for a piece of furniture bespoke to your needs, I’d love to hear from you.