Our Doorstop... Is it pretentious to call it iconic?

The doorstop is one of our best sellers. It sums up The Oak & Rope Company in so many ways. It is made of oak and rope of course, with a clever little twist in how the rope is attached.

In the beginning we mostly engraved house names on these doorstops, but not every house has a name (particularly when you look outside of England) and people wanted to make them relevant for their occasion...

So, somebody thought of giving them as wedding presents… and then we started making them into mile post/stops with the distances to special places. At that stage I felt that we had peaked, until somebody in the workshop decided to tie a knot in the rope and engrave ‘Love is a knot that can not be untied’…

Recently people have been even more adventurous with their engravings. We have seen everything from emotional quotes to corporate logos or simple instructions such as ‘Shoes off! Or ‘Hold it!’ and we can not wait to see where their journey go next...

From time to time people call us after they have received their doorstop because they are worried about doorstops having cracks. We use 'green oak' to make these doorstops, the same grade that is used to build timber framed buildings. Green oak is not completely seasoned, therefore there are varying degrees of cracks present. It is similar to the ageing process of oak beams and is part of the natural beauty of the wood. The cracks can change over time as the wood reaches it’s equilibrium with the environment.

Very often the cracks will close up when the moisture in the core of the block equalises with its surroundings. However there is no guarantee of this.

We embrace and work with the cracking as it is part of the character of the wood. Blocks of these sizes cannot be seasoned without cracks developing.

The doorstops I have at home have ironically often started up as ‘too cracked’ for a customer order, but when they have stayed there for a while, the cracks completely disappear without me noticing. We are now carrying out an experiment checking if we can stop the cracks from closing up again, by adding these beautiful butterfly wedges (see photo). In the process we will learn more about this beautiful material we are lucky enough to work with...

The cracking will not affect the function of the doorstop and the handle will stay secure. If any doorstop was to split in two or the handle was to come loose, we will replace it with a new one regardless of how old it is.

We are careful to point the nature of the doorstops on our website, because we understand that some people may not like this look. Then the doorstop may not be for you... we see it as part of their beauty…