St Blaise’s joinery is renowned for its quality.
St Blaise invested in a joinery department when it was asked to repair the
William and Mary dry rot ridden panelling of Bettiscombe Manor in 1989.
The repair of the architectural carving and joinery of the state rooms (1755
et seq) at Uppark House (£1M & more) proved St Blaise’s competence.
There is little that our joiners cannot do, and what they can do, they do exceptionally
well.
The rods they draw are works of art in their own right V&A Period Rooms
and St Blaise is blessed in that some of the West Country’s best joiners
work for the company.
We work traditionally, and tend to confine our work to the home grown hardwoods,
Lime for carving, imported softwoods from the Baltic States and occasionally
from the Americas for Columbian, Oregon or Southern Yellow Pine, Douglas Fir,
Pitch Pine, and Honduran or Cuban Mahogany. These are the woods of British architectural
joinery. We always seize the opportunity to demonstrate our craft in any material
specified and have worked in most timber, even ebony. We never use unsustainable
wood unless it is strictly for the conservation of existing buildings in minute
quantities.
St Blaise has shown that it is still possible to obtain good quality, naturally
grown softwood (Pinus Sylvestris), but only by selection, from the Kara Sea/
Archangel areas of Russia, coded “star- crown-crown- star” and that
they are durable for external joinery if properly treated and painted.
Our joiners are familiar with all periods of British joinery. They can make,
repair and conserve “rough” medieval and sub-medieval joinery in
English oak. They understand the Caroline, William & Mary, and the Queen
Anne traditions of Renaissance and Baroque joinery, in the softwoods increasingly
imported. They are unsurprised by the “crudeness of eye and rawness of
mind” that hides behind the dignity of “smooth” Georgian and
Neo-Classical joinery. They admire the sophistication and inventiveness of “High
Victorian” and the ultimate perfection (sometimes in its blandness) of
Edwardian and immediate post war joinery.
Our joiners have worked in every tradition 29 The Mint The Merchant Taylor’s
Guild and continue to work in ever more demanding traditions.
WE ARE EXCELLENT JOINERS.