our woods

BOXWOOD.

Box , a slow growing shrub which can be found in large areas of Southern Europe, provides us with a suitable raw material to manufacture chessmen.

There is not such a thing as box groves , the shrub grows more or less scattered in rather abrupt places.

It is cut on occasion of undergrowth cleaning in the woods, when new roads are opened or to avoid its destruction by the felling of bigger trees. Only then is it carefully cut and bundled up by men who know the forest well or by nearby farmers.

The ideal season for "making box" as we call it, goes from November to March, but the period can be stretched on both ends when it is cut on high land or shady hillsides, as in those places autumn arrives earlier and box shrubs shout later in spring.

The boxwood we use comes almost entirely from Catalonia or nearly areas.

Ivory colour, high density, sleek grain and smooth touch are its most appreciated qualities.

Boxwood has been used and still is, in the making of musical instruments such as chirimias, shawms, mouthpieces for pipes etc.; chisels and certain knives sometimes display boxwood handles; in solid boxwood we have kitchen instruments like mortar pestles, spoons and forks. Some small pieces, for example balls, lace bobbins and buttons are usually made of boxwood. It is also used by inlayers in marketry.

And, of course, we use it to make chessmen. In all those applications its qualities of density, hardness, colour and smoothness are specially valued.

Producing different set sizes allows us to use the whole range of wood diameters.

OLIVE WOOD

Olive trees are slow growth Mediterranean trees planted by farmers to obtain their fruit, olives, and their main derivative, olive oil.

Its wood is not as dense as box's, its colour is darker with an uncommonly streaked vein. The remarkable pattern of the vein is what probably makes it so appreciated.

The olive wood we use comes from the renewal of plantations in Tarragona and Lleida.

Both boxwood and olive wood require that trees be cut in the right season and dried in a natural process, without accelerating it by artificial means.