Adrian McCurdy on your work

This chair is a good example of the reliability of 'quartered cleft oak'. It's strong even when thin, with no weakness of grain, meaning the back can be slightly flexible. The wood grain has beautiful figuring, responsive to lighting as is the carving. Hand-planed and carved with luxuriant medullary ray pattern. Three tightened wedges hold the back and accommodate any late shrinkage. Wedges are individually fitted with numbers or letter to be hidden when correctly assembled.

The design is robust. (Tap in wedges with normal ‘claw-hammer’ weight and wooden drift. Continue tapping wedges firmly until they are too tight to remove by hand. Keep wedges square and work around like wheel-nuts.) The carved Pictish Key Pattern is similar to those found on stones and the Book of Lindisfarne. There are no wooden artefacts from this period surviving, but the diagonal lines on wood suit the carving technique perfectly.