This is what makes Citadel different. We control every step from forest to finished piece. No outsourcing, no middlemen, no material you can’t trace. Here’s the chain.
1. The woodland
Our Douglas Fir comes from our own forestry operation in mid-Wales. We manage the woodland sustainably — thinning, felling, and replanting on rotation. Hardwoods — oak, ash, elm — come from local estates and managed forests within 50 miles of the sawmill. We know the provenance of every log.
2. Felling & extraction
We fell to order where possible, selecting trees for the job. Extraction is low-impact — we’re not clear-felling, we’re thinning and selecting. Logs are transported to the sawmill at Bryncoch.
3. Milling
Logs are converted to beams, boards, and slabs on our bandmill. We cut to the dimensions your project needs — not to standard merchant stock sizes. Want a 280×280mm beam? We cut it. Need boards bookmatched from the same log? We do it.
4. Drying
Green timber goes straight to use for structural framing — it seasons in situ, which is how oak frames have been built for centuries. Timber for joinery and furniture goes into our kiln, dried to 8–10% moisture content. We control the schedule — no rushed commercial drying that stresses the wood.
5. CNC machining
Joints, profiles, and components are cut on our CNC. Mortise and tenon for frames. Dovetails for furniture. Moulding profiles for architectural joinery. The CNC gives us precision and repeatability. We don’t use it to replace skill — we use it to execute complex geometry that would take days by hand.
6. Hand finishing
Every surface that a person will see or touch is finished by hand. Planed, scraped, sanded, oiled, or waxed — depending on the piece and the client’s preference. This is where craft lives.
7. Delivery & assembly
Frames are trial-assembled in the workshop, labelled, and transported to site. Our crew raises the frame — we don’t hand off to subcontractors. Furniture is delivered and placed. Timber orders are loaded and delivered or collected from the yard.