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As is often the case at this time of year, we have been very busy ensuring orders leave us in a timely manner. Consequently, we have been rather tardy in updating the website – there are never enough hours in the day! Below are the winners from the past three monthly prize draws, all of whom have received their prizes.
Laura in Birmingham – May draw, Tim in Barnsley – June draw, Suzanne in Exeter – July drawTheir names were the first pulled from the metaphorical hat in each of our monthly feedback prize draws. Each has received a beautiful personalised solid oak stash/keys bowl with a personalised inscription. Reviews and feedback on our website are anonymous.
If you were not the winner and would like to purchase a keys bowl you can order from our Oak and Personal website.
The prize for our next draw will be another keys/stash bowl, with the draw taking place on 21st August 2017. If you missed out this time, and have purchased from us recently please take a few minutes to email us your feedback – it costs nothing other than a minute or two of your time. Alternatively you can tweet using the hashtag #OakChopBoardCo or post to our Facebook page.
Apr 21
And the winners are …
Events have overtaken us recently with so many orders coming in, many of which are urgent, resulting in all our energies being channelled to ensure items leave us in time. Consequently, whilst the monthly draws have taken place we have not had time to update the website. Below are the winners from the past three draws.
Tom in Macclesfield – February draw, David in London – March draw, Liz in Edinburgh – April draw,Their names were the first pulled from the metaphorical hat in each of our monthly feedback prize draws. Each has received a beautiful personalised solid oak stash/keys bowl with a personalised inscription. Reviews and feedback on our website are anonymous.
If you were not the winner and would like to purchase a keys bowl you can order from our Oak and Personal website.
The prize for our next draw will be another keys/stash bowl, with the draw taking place on 15th May 2017. If you missed out this time, and have purchased from us recently please take a few minutes to email us your feedback – it costs nothing other than a minute or two of your time. Alternatively you can tweet using the hashtag #OakChopBoardCo or post to our Facebook page.
2-Liner personalised chopping board
We have been busy in the workshop finalising some new designs, and are pleased to announce they are now available to purchase.
2-Liner chopping boardThis is a variation on our standard 4cm thick chopping boards. We have come to learn that some customers have more to say than we can engrave in a single line of text. We have therefore introduced the 2-liner chopping board which allows for 2 lines of text to be engraved on up to two edges making it ideal for a verse or two from a poem. It doesn’t have to be a poem; perhaps just a long list of names of loved ones – grandchildren’s names can become lengthy!
Gin & tonic chopping boardGin & Tonic chopping board
The Gin & Tonic Board is the perfect size for cutting lemons and limes for your favourite tipple. It can be engraved on up to two edges with G&T and/or your own personalised message. We are sure this will be loved by many with gin undergoing somewhat of a renaissance.
Order online nowYou can find out more about our new boards by clicking the links in this article or browsing the chopping boards section. We have a couple of other new products available from our sister site – Oak and Personal. As well as the boards shown here you will also find a beautiful bottle coaster and a range of dips and snack bowls.
If you have any questions on these or any of our products do not hesitate to contact us.
The first name pulled from the metaphorical hat was Jonathan in Witney. He is therefore the winner of our January monthly feedback and review prize draw, and will shortly receive a beautiful personalised wooden keys bowl/stash bowl. Reviews and feedback on our website are anonymous.
If you were not the winner and would love to have a stash bowl of your own you can order from our Oak and Personal website.
The prize for our next draw will be another of our personalised keys bowls, with the draw taking place on 13th February 2017. If you missed out this time, and have purchased from us recently please take a few minutes to email us your feedback – it costs nothing other than a minute or two of your time. Alternatively you can tweet using the hashtag #OakChopBoardCo or post to our Facebook page. Every response is included in three consecutive draws thereby giving you three opportunities to win.
Thank you, and good luck!
As is usual at this time of year, the past 2 months have been very busy working on Christmas orders. The last few orders have just left our West Sussex workshop and will be delivered tomorrow by Interlink, just in time for Christmas.
We would like to say a BIG thank you to all our customers for their support during 2016. It has been a busy year with new products added to our collection of unique and personalised oak chopping boards. We are working on some new designs for 2017, so be sure to check back on the site from time to time. If you sign up to our newsletter you will be one of the first to hear about such products as well any seasonal promotions we are running (don’t worry about having your Inbox swamped – we send less than 12 newsletters per year).
We would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and our best wishes for the coming year.
Any orders placed between now and the New Year will be made and despatched within the first few days of January. If you have an extremely urgent requirement please contact us and we will do our very best to help.
Sarah in London was the first name pulled from the metaphorical hat in our December monthly feedback and review prize draw. She will receive a beautiful personalised wooden keys bowl/stash bowl in early January – apologies for the delay but we will not have time to finish it before a few well-earned days off over Christmas and New Year. Reviews and feedback on our website are anonymous.
If you were not the winner and would love to have a stash bowl of your own you can order from our Oak and Personal website.
The prize for our next draw will be another of our personalised keys bowls, with the draw taking place on 16th January 2017. If you missed out this time, and have purchased from us recently please take a few minutes to email us your feedback – it costs nothing other than a minute or two of your time. Alternatively you can tweet using the hashtag #OakChopBoardCo or post to our Facebook page.
Nov 16
November’s winner is …
Emma in Oxted was the first name pulled from the metaphorical hat in our November monthly feedback prize draw. She will shortly receive a beautiful personalised wooden keys bowl/stash bowl. Reviews and feedback on our website are anonymous.
If you were not the winner and would love to have a stash bowl of your own you can order from our Oak and Personal website.
The prize for our next draw will be another of our personalised keys bowls, with the draw taking place on 19th December 2016. If you missed out this time, and have purchased from us recently please take a few minutes to email us your feedback – it costs nothing other than a minute or two of your time. Alternatively you can tweet using the hashtag #OakChopBoardCo or post to our Facebook page.
Aug 21
And the winners are …
We have been rather busy in the workshop these past few months, and have been a little remiss in announcing the prize draw winners.
So the winners of the past four draws are:
Annette in London – May draw, Dan in Leeds – June draw, Tracey in Egham – July draw, Sarah in Amersham – August drawTheir names were the first pulled from the metaphorical hat in each of our monthly feedback prize draws. Each has received one of our beautiful personalised chunky wooden coasters with a personalised inscription. Reviews and feedback on our website are anonymous.
If you were not the winner and would love to have a coaster of your own you can order from our Oak and Personal website.
The prize for our next draw will be another of our personalised coasters, with the draw taking place on 19th September 2016. If you missed out this time, and have purchased from us recently please take a few minutes to email us your feedback – it costs nothing other than a minute or two of your time. Alternatively you can tweet using the hashtag #OakChopBoardCo or post to our Facebook page.
Water beads on oak chopping board treated with OSMO TopOil
Whether it be their design, the raw materials or the finish, we constantly strive for ways to improve our products. For the past 5 years we have comprehensively treated all our wooden boards and lazy susans with white mineral oil, and have been mindful that such a finish requires regular maintenance and care.
In a hectic world, we are all busy and likely to rarely have time to take the necessary care, which may lead to the board’s finish suffering degradation.
A highly tactile finishWe have tested a number of different products, all alleging to provide the ultimate protection to timber, and have finally settled on OSMO® TopOil. TopOil (or Polyx-oil to give it its other name) is a blend of organic plant oils and waxes providing a natural finish to the board. The finish is 100% food-safe, conforming to EN-1186, and provides resistance to household substances such as alcohol, fizzy drinks, coffee, tea, fruit juices, milk and water.
OSMO TopOil
Any liquid spillages will bead on the surface without leaving any marks, although such spillages should be wiped away with a cloth. The finish helps protect against bacteria, inhibits the ingress of moisture which could result in cracking, as well as providing a smooth, tactile surface.
The result is that our boards require infrequent oiling. Their resistance to staining is greatly improved as the waxes provide a micro-porous surface, so liquids are more inclined to sit on the timber than soak in. And as the waxes fill many of the tiny spaces in the grain, the wood surface absorbs less light giving the board a slightly paler appearance.
Wooden chopping board care kitsChopping Board Care Kits
As your board is already finished with OSMO® TopOil we recommend retreating it with the same product, which can be purchased from us or timber specialist. Alternatively, single-use Chopping Board Care Kits may be purchased from us and include all you need to refinish your board. More information on wooden board care can be found here.
Why we chose OSMOFrom high quality, beautiful decking, to top of the range wood finishes, Osmo is the wood product specialist. Because the Osmo range is not produced for the mass market (the same as all our hand made boards), more time can be spent on ensuring all the products are of the best quality. The Osmo team have an ecyclopaedic knowledge of their finishes all of which are produced in Germany – the home of perfection. Osmo UK aims to be as environmentally friendly and ecologically sound as possible and this is reflected in the raw materials and manufacturing of its products.
English pedunculate oak tree
We know many customers purchase from us as they love the “Britishness” of oak. Oak has long been regarded as the King of the Forest and emblematic of the UK, and is the largest of our native, broad-leaved trees.
Because English oak is rather rare it is also more costly than European oak, which means for many of our products we are forced to use European oak in order to remain competitive.
The good news is that we have recently changed our primary timber supplier, who sources their timber from northern France and processes (mills) it here in West Sussex. It seems the French managed their forests rather better than the English during the 18th and 19th centuries – in the 20th centrury the whole of the developed world woke up to the need for sustainable forests. The result is the oak we now use is exactly the same species as found in southern England – pedunculate oak or, to give it its Latin name, Quercus robur.
So not only is the timber effectively the same as English oak, with only minor variations in climatic conditions in which the timber would have grown in either country, the character and colour are also indistinguishable. There are, of course, variations as there is in any natural product, and these can occur even within a single log.
By having the timber sourced around 100 miles or so distant, and milled a few miles away from us in the South Downs, the environmental impact is extremely low; much lower compared to timber sourced in Germany which may then be milled in another mainland European country.
Whilst officially we can not say our beautiful boards are all made from English oak you can rest assured they are effectively from that same natural material. A natural material with its almost infinite variations of grain, colour and other characteristics. As a reminder, you can see below some examples of the cuts of oak we use in our boards – further explanation of these can be found here – all of which, of course, are either FSC or PEFC certified.
If you have any questions about our timber, our boards or other products, please do not hesitate to contact us via email or on 01903 650540.
English oak – crown sawn
English oak – quarter sawn
English oak – quarter sawn
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