[Radio Wrangler]

There is a large country house to the south of me where all the timber in its stables and the frames of its greenhouses are in virtually indestructible wood.... teak.

It was the home of the family who owned the shipbreaking yard at St David's Bay and the wood was recycled deck planks.

I once holidayed in Somerset, hiring a holiday apartment from a retired chap who'd been a project manager building and rebuilding hospitals. He'd bought a lot of scrap timber from his employers, taken out in the refurbishment jobs. It seems that places like Rampton are supposed to avoid jail-like steel doors on psychological grounds, but still need doors and frames that can survive someone on the rampage, so that recycled timber was iroko. Next best thing to iron, hence its other name. He told me that carbide blades didn't last very long before needing reground.

Good wood is gorgeous and I've enjoyed the photos of David's refurbished case, and Retired's veneering work.

David