The oak we use comes from two forests in the Ardennes, felled in winter when the sap is low. It is sawn, stacked and left outside for two years, then brought inside for another year before anyone is allowed to cut it.

This is slow, and it is expensive, and we have never found a way around it. Oak that is dried too quickly will move for the rest of its life. It will cup, split and pull joints apart. Oak that is given time will settle, and once it has settled it stays settled.

We leave most of our oak unfinished, or finish it with a single coat of oil. The wood is meant to darken. A Morrow chair that has been sat on for five years is a warmer colour than the day it left the workshop, and we think that is the better chair.

Patience, it turns out, is not a virtue we brought to the material. It is one the material insisted on.