Truly sustainable, ethical, environmentally conscious furniture. Our dining tables do have soul.
Many furniture manufacturers out there shout about being sustainable or the use of reclaimed materials, which on the face of it is great and to be applauded. But, it may pay to check the small print before making that purchase if these things are important to you.
Most sustainably source timber is harvested on an industrial scale where forests are subsequently replenished with new growth. That's it. It's all really about basic, responsible industry standards and not some sort of altruistic choice made by the end maker who is just buying what's available in virtually every timber yard. You may also see makers and sellers use the words 'locally sourced timber' which implies the origin tree was just up the road and sounds all cuddly, crafty and small scale. After doing some totally unscientific, random research what this can actually mean is using intensively forested virgin timber, imported from overseas on a huge scale. Its just being sold 'locally'. This doesn't make it fundamentally wrong, we just think the way some people use these words is a little bit... thought provoking.
So what about all those lovely 'reclaimed' bits of furniture we see on 3rd party selling platforms? Ok. There are some amazing makers out there who diligently search for high quality, genuinely reclaimed wood and make absolutely fabulous things (I personally know one very, very well) but the simple truth is, it's a scarce, finite resource and as such, is hard to source and does not come cheap. This does begger the question: how can anyone source, make, sell, and deliver a large, well made piece of furniture out of 'reclaimed' wood, all for £400-500 a pop? As someone who understands what it takes to make something from scratch, and make it well, I'd humbly suggest something doesn't quite add up....
Does any of this matter?
To be honest, that's up to you, the customer. We don't presume to impose our way of thinking on others. At Yaffle & Bosk we can though, if asked, trace the timber used to build your dining table back to the origin tree. That tree won't have been felled without a license or relevant local authority permissions. Generally it's wind blown, unsafe, diseased or just come to the end of its natural life. Often there is a matter of a few miles between that tree and your finished table with a lengthy pit stop along the way in an independent, environmentally conscious Devon sawmill. We're talking about individuals dealing with individual trees, not the global forestry/timber industry.
So, why buy from us?
As a business, we cant compete with high volume, low quality products when it comes to price. But what we can offer is integrity, genuine quality, and a unique piece of furniture with yes, a little bit of soul. As the old saying goes, 'you get what you pay for'! Right, that's enough of the soap box stuff. Back to the workshop....