Tea Tray 25 Oak and Ash Tree VH

42.3 x 21.5 x 2.2 cm

Oak wood has many unique properties. It is very tough, hard, water- and weather-proof thanks to the content of tannins. Their presence in oak wood is used by food industry − for making barriques. Tannins are also used for easy darkening of oak wood. Oak is quite hard to bend. Its wood is fibrous and porous. It has wide vessels – its capillaries, which supply nutrient solutions, are visible by the naked eye. Oak wood has typical medullary rays − lines or areas with very dense, hard and lustrous wood in the cross-section. The rays can be very decorative when the wood is cut correctly. I’ve met people who considered them a “flaw” of oak wood… quite the opposite! The rays stand out in radially cut wood − the highest quality material that can be obtained from a trunk. My trays are made of wood from trees that grew near Jindřichův Hradec.

Ash is a “sun tree”. It has a light, loose crown and its sapwood is light, whitish, and sometimes pink. The heartwood of old trees is beautifully dark. For carving, I prefer the parts where sapwood meets this dark heartwood. I enjoy the contrast. Ash wood is very tough, dense, hard and fibrous. It has distinctive annual rings and shiny wood in the cut. It is flexible, which is why it is used for the production of bows, skis, handles and sports equipment. It is flexible, and thus an ideal material for collars and bentwood furniture. Some ash trunks have wavy fibres − like the better-known undulating (streaky) maple, which is used for the production of musical instruments. My trays are made of ash wood, which grew in “Czech Canada” − near Nová Bystřice.