Wood Charm - Wooden furniture and wooden gifts handmade in the UK

Welcome to Wood Charm

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Hi, my name is Stephen Slack and for 25 years I worked as an aircraft engineer, until I turned 60 and decided life is too short and you should do what you love — now I’m a woodworker! Woodworking has always been a hobby of mine and now, instead of heading off to work every morning and working myself into the ground, I walk out to my shed and come back with a smile on my face. Quite simply wood is my passion.

A lot of wooden items you see for sale now are made from imported wood, chopped solely for commercial purposes. Also, with imported wooden items the source is rarely traceable meaning it is impossible to know whether it is sustainably and ethically sourced.

These are issues that I think are vitally important, which is where the values that make my company, Woodcharm, come in. Woodcharm uses only British wood, which is so beautiful, yet so overlooked. For example trees everybody knows such as elm, yew and sycamore. No piece of wood comes from outside the British Isles — most coming from places such as Holyrood Park near Edinburgh, or even closer to my Leicestershire home. All timber used comes from sustainable sources, mainly from tree surgeons where trees have been felled for legitimate reasons, not for commercial profit. Sometimes the wood comes to me ready to use but a lot of the time is comes as the whole tree. I treat every piece of wood individually. I try and look at that piece of wood, its feel and its character and then start to work.

Sometimes I don’t know what it’s going to be until I start working with it. All items are hand carved or worked by hand on the lathe. I make clock, bowls, stools, tables and other ornamental pieces. Every item is individual and unique —just like the wood I use. I prefer to retain the character of the wood and show its natural beauty rather than manipulate every aspect. I also take great pleasure in inlaying some pieces with turquoise, opal, lapis lazuli or abalone shells, often filling natural fissures, cracks or knots that appear in the wood, turning them into features rather than flaws. As you have probably gathered from reading this wood is my passion and my absolute love. Hopefully you feel this fledgling business stands for everything a natural product business should — it is ethical, sustainable, British and made with love —that’s what I’m aiming for anyway.