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Air Dried Ash for church bell stays

Currently not taking orders for stays. Please contact us later in the year. 
Nearly all Ash timber that one can purchase within the UK has been kiln dried, this is ideal for the joinery trade being more stable for furniture by baking the timber within an oven to rapidly lower the moisture content within hours.

Air drying timber is the traditional approach that has been used for many years, but it requires space and patience to achieve it.
We have invested our time and money into producing our own Air Dried Ash which started in 2019. 

Kiln dried ash tends to be a lot more brittle than air dried, and as church bells require the structural requirements and 'spring', Kiln dried often falls short of expectations.

We supply ​​​​​​Air dried Ash stays mail order to any of the below specifications.  We aim for all stays to be straight grained throughout the full length.

• Rough sawn for customer finishing​ - from £28.00
• Planed square and cut to length - from £42.00

• Fully planed to size including drilling of holes (2 tapers) - from £51.00
• Hastings Stays to drawings, planed and tapered with up to 7 faces - from £68.00 

(Restoration of the Hastings dinglers can also be undertaken at additional cost where the stay is sent to us).

We have templates and drawings of both the Taylors stays, Taylors Hastings stays and also Whitechapel pattern which we will require you to detail out all of the key dimensions required for us to make the stays for you.  

Except rough sawn, all of our stays are finished with rebated corners and given a coat of varnish.  Rough sawn is often supplied slightly over sized and may not be perfectly straight sided, ready for planing to size.  

Stays are best with tapers, they absorb a lot more energy, yet have exactly the same breaking strength as a square untapered stay. There's more 'spring' within them that takes out the shock loading. 

Above prices are all exclusive of VAT and carriage.
​Carriage will be charged at our courier rates on stays.

A Hastings Stay made and fitted by us. Hastings stays have 4 tapers above the headstock socket and 3 within.

A typical Whitechapel pattern stay with two tapers on one side.

Tree work and air seasoning timber

Our staff have competencies and qualifications accredited by City & Guilds to NPTC 30/31/32. We fell and process all our own timber, Primarily Ash, which we air dry for manufacturing into stays and timber shafted clappers.

We work with a local forestry manager and local landowners who authorise us with the necessary permissions to take down trees for processing, most which would have otherwise been taken down and processed for charcoal or similar. 

We have our own equipment for felling and processing large trees, winching trees out of awkward locations and equipment to mill the trunks into boards for air drying. 

At any given time we hold stocks of up to about 10,000kg of timber at varying stages of the drying process, mostly boarded to 2.5" boards.

Milling an Ash trunk into boards for air drying in a woodland.