TRADITIONAL HANDMADE OAK KITCHENS A SPECIALITY
There are three qualities of oak wood used in furniture making in the UK: rustic, character and prime. Character oak is the most used in making kitchens. It shows all the grain, has 'sound knots'. and no sap. Pippy Oak is a particularly decorative version of Character Oak with small clusters of 'cats paw' knots - see picture left . It is greatly valued for its decorative qualities by master craftsmen. "Pippy tends to be a wild hedgerow tree rather than a straight, clean, commercially grown oak. The outside of the log will have the most “pips”; the closer to the heart of the tree the plainer the wood" - Source the Armstrong Blog

THE HANDMADE KITCHENS MENU - SOME COMMENTS
Oak handmade kitchens may be painted or unpainted. The paint colours generally used are cream, ivory white, pale blue and pink. and may be sprayed on or hand painted. HM6 the modern Shaker handmade kitchen is pink, whereas HM3, another Shaker kitchen is pale blue. In some cases a patina is applied to the natural oak as in HM4 which has a light oak patina. Every kitchen is beautifully completed by craftsmen employing time honoured techniques.

You'll note that handmade traditional kitchens have a mantelpiece with decorative corbels and a shelf. These classic features originated in Georgian times and were carried forward into Victorian and Edwardian kitchens. This picture of a hand built original kitchen with a large mantel from the 18th century is from Georgian House, Bristol, now a museum. You can just see the kitchen hearth with pots and pans . Other features from this period which crop up in today's handmade traditional oak kitchens include the rail for hanging up ladles and other utensils. - a feature also found in the original Shaker kitchens.

Most traditional handmade kitchens have a range cooker or Aga and the term 'farmhouse' or 'country' is often used to describe them. Also contemporary oak kitchens may have worktops made of granite or composite materials For more comments read HANDMADE KITCHENS.

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