This is the seventh of these writing bureaux I've made. The first,in 1982, was in English oak. Next came a cherry and elm burr one; then two in English walnut, another in English burr oak and an English brown and brown burr oak one. The one above is in American black walnut. The drawers and fall are veneered with book-matched leaves sawn from interesting areas of the tree. The counter-veneering inside the fall is in sawn bird's-eye maple from the east of the US. The inlaid pieces on the front and below on the stretcher are sawn English walnut with eastern maple inlay. The handles and key-hole escutcheons are  sterling silver cast by a long-time jeweller colleague in England. They bear the hallmark of the Birmingham UK assay office.

The image above shows the interior of the bureau. Four book-matched pieces of sawn bird's-eye maple are used as a counter-veneer to balance the walnut veneers on the outer side of the fall. the internal small drawers and door are also veneered with sawn bird's-eye maple.

Above: The third and fourth leaves of sawn walnut veneer are added to the bureau fall-front. They are laid on a ground of solid oak. After 24 hours in the press they will be hand-dressed with the Norris bench finishing plane.

The brass fall hinges and the fall lock are heavy, drawn brass made in England. The small cast silver roundel just in front of the hinge-line bear's my initials -- 'IL' . The Birmingham hallmark bears a date-letter and the jeweller's identifying stamp.

The image above shows a mitre-dovetail, used to join the top of the bureau to the main carcase sides. It is a long mitre with a row of dovetails inside. It is found in the best quality work, can only be done by hand and requires complete accuracy. Each side represents a full day's work on the bench.

Drawers are hand-dovetailed and cockbeaded in the traditional way to protect the edges of the veneer.

The back of the bureau is solid oak, made of five-sixteenths-inch jointed boards. The bureau is made throughout of solid wood and sawn veneers. Composite materials (fine though they may be outside traditional furnituremaking) are never used in my workshop, except  in pattern-making.

Finally, the bureau was finished with several coats of raw linseed oil. The oil was allowed to oxidise and harden over several weeks. The bureau was then given a finishing polish with my own recipe of beeswax, carnauba wax and natural turpentine.

In all, six weeks of patient labour are most what are needed to make one of these bureaux. Saving material, since materials are much the smaller part of the final cost, is not a consideration. Time and meticulous patience are the chief ingredients.

 
Enthusiasm: All the best tools and equipment in the world would be useless without it. It's making music with wood --creating shape, harmony and symmetry; rearranging the trees we take for granted and pass by every day to appeal to the visual senses, and to our emotional sense of social and environmental history.

Patience: As the song says, you can't hurry love. Looking back over my career it seems the first ten years were spent learning basic stuff, immersed in trees and sawdust, sweating with tractor, chainsaw and old, second-hand workshop equipment before the new arrived, making mistakes galore. Learning self-criticism. Forty years on, I'm still learning -- though experiencing more often the satisfaction of things clicking accurately into place first time. In a 2010 economy it's hardly a career advocated by accountants. But who would not make music?

Wood: really understanding what it is, where in the tree the right piece comes from and how it behaves in furniture. All the best equipment and tools in the world are useless without a thorough understanding of this amazing, diverse material. What makes individual trees different; how they're sawn and processed.

Tools: the best you can get your hands on -- literally. As my dad used to admonish me, 90 degrees is 90 degrees. 89-and-a-half or 90-and-a-half degrees is unacceptable.