Boxwood (Buxus is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae)
A slow growing evergreen shrub from which this fantastic, heavy, dense, butter coloured timber is obtained.
Today good quality Boxwood is used for instrument making, such as oboes, flutes and clarinets. We buy English boxwood from a gentleman called Huw Crompton. https://ebts.org/uk/ We were introduced to him after buying a lot on an internet auction site. A musician was selling some pieces he had intended to use to make himself an instrument. Huw specialises in boxwood, amongst other things, and is planting acres of new woodland.
If you require any cut boxwood contact Huw on 07973291654
The blanks requested by instrument makers have to be very uniform, no blemishes, colour or knots. This works great for us as we love the natural interest found in timber and therefore buy the logs that don’t make the grade.
Michael has also been inspired greatly by Bill Jones, who sadly passed away a few years ago. As well as loving the look of his workshop 🤣 Michael has used his techniques to help hone skills like thread chasing. Having served an apprenticeship with his father in the mid 1930s Bill worked with bone, boxwood and ivory making beautiful ornate pieces and thousands of plain items like catheter plugs. Thankfully we have now seen the error of our ways and ivory is no longer regarded as a suitable turning material, but we still have boxwood.
His 2 books are well worth buying and an interesting insight into the era of ivory and hardwood turners.
Michael uses the boxwood to make ‘Petropheres’, threaded boxes, maceheads, amulets and inlay decoration in pieces. He is able to get very intricate detail with this dense timber and it is great for thread chasing as it doesn’t crumble.
Threaded boxwood insert Boxwood teardrop ‘Petrosphere’ Boxwood inlayed studs Threaded box with barleycorn style detail on the lid Boxwood inlay ‘stitches’ amulet Macehead
Most of the pieces of boxwood we get are not a huge diameter, but in our last bundle purchased there was one large piece. Michael decided to make a bowl from it, a stunning piece with a good weight and extremely tactile.
This piece is currently for sale on our website https://michael-sinclair-woodturner.co.uk/product/english-boxwood/