The best seat in the house

Patience, knowledge and practised skill are all required to create handmade furniture. Nick Hammond discovers how one gifted woodworker found the best possible mentor, thanks to a copy of COUNTRY LIFE

- Nick Hammond

FINN KOEFOED-NIELSEN has a history with trees. He grew up in made entirely of wood. After some the New Forest in a family cottage years in London spent maintaining and repairing, among other things, the Palace of Westminster and some very expensive houses, he set about creating his dream career working with wood. What's more, he was inspired to embark on this new branch of carpentry after reading an issue of COUNTRY LIFE.

I'd been looking for ages for something to do with wood that I would enjoy and that might stand a chance of paying the bills,' he admits over a mug of tea in the kitchen of his stableyard home in sleepy Chilton, Buckinghamshire.

'And then I saw the article in COUNTRY LIFE about Jim Steele, the national treasure.'

National treasure, indeed. Mr Steele made chairs for decades and his work is still sought after worldwide, even now he is retired. He enjoys keeping his eye in, mind you, and he's by no means idle: he's off to Ireland with his wife, Val, at the weekend.

Today, he is here with his protégé to talk about all things chairs-especially Windsor chairs. A sidetrack discussion begins about the minutiae of making Windsor chairs and, for a moment, the pair are lost in another world: one with its own obscure language, characters and pitfalls. They stop to draw breath and Mr Koefoed-Nielsen looks apologetic. 'We can go on like this for hours,' he laughs.

It's fair to say they are obsessed. When we repair to a nearby hostelry for lunch, they waste no time in turning every interesting chair in the saloon upside down, peering at each in minute detail. The barmaid looks on, baffled.