Joiners and Furniture Makers - woods of distinction

Cutting an oak plank


British oak joinery


Traditional chair construction
Courtesy of The Real Wood Furniture Co.


Bob Mullis, Rocking Horse maker

As a family-owned business, Vastern Timber has been involved in the furniture industry for over one hundred years, since Leonard Barnes first started manufacturing reproduction furniture from his factories in High Wycombe.

Now, one hundred years later, Vastern continues to supply carefully produced and selected hardwoods and softwoods to joiners and furniture makers across the UK. Vastern remains a specialist in the conversion of British grown hardwood trees, particularly oak.

Often from within one hundred miles of the sawmill and from FSC certified forests (click on Environment for further information) Vastern’s British hardwoods offer an ecologically friendly option with a low carbon footprint.

Many joiners, kitchen manufacturers and furniture makers choose to use British hardwoods in their work because the timbers have a depth of character and colour that is unsurpassed.

For those wanting prime, defect free joinery oak, Vastern offers a range of European oak including waney edge French and German stock as well as square edge Croatian stock.

At Vastern Timber we offer

• one of the largest stocks of British air-dried and kiln-dried hardwoods in the UK including oak, elm, ash, chestnut, cherry and Sycamore.
• large and varied stocks of British and European oak including British, French and German waney edge boards as well as square edge Croatian stock, kiln-dried oak up to 100mm thick and air-dried oak up to 150mm thick.
• specialist British grown joinery softwoods including cedar of Lebanon, larch and clear pine.
• on-site sawing and kilning, giving us control over the entire production process.
• a flexible approach to grading. This enables us to offer prime quality stock as well as alternative grades to suit your needs and those of your clients.
• most stock with two waney edges; widths 200mm upwards; random lengths 1.8m to 4.2m. Extra widths and lengths are often available, but please check with us in advance.
• a cutting and planing service so you don’t need to worry about waste factors or lack of manpower.

In addition, we often have stocks of the following:

• Pippy Oak
• Character/rustic Oak
• Brown Oak
• Quarter sawn British Oak
• Rippled Sycamore
• Pippy/burr Elm
• Yew
• British Maple
• Olive Ash