Lehto & Mänty

Bespoke woodwork from Åbo, Finland, since 1928

The bench room in morning light, shavings on the floor

Wood runs in family

01The workshopfour benches, one kiln, and what that limits us to
02The woodwhat each species does after it leaves us
03How a commission runsbrief to delivery, and where it goes wrong
04What it costsand what a smaller budget should buy

The workshop

Four benches, one kiln, sixty pieces a year

What a machine cannot

A dining table with a mitred frame and drawbored joints takes a joiner eleven days.
The same table, dowelled and screwed, takes a factory eleven minutes.
Both will be in the room for a year; only one will still be in use in twenty.

So the question we ask first is how long the piece has to last, and the second is what the room does to it.
Underfloor heating and a sixteen-metre window are harder on a table than any customer.

The workshop in four numbers

98 years in the same building, Lehto since 1928 and Mänty since 1954
60 pieces a year, which is the ceiling of four joiners and one kiln
7% moisture at delivery, measured on the piece
25 yr structural guarantee on every joint we cut

Ninety-eight years on the same street

1928 Esekiel Lehto rents the ground floor on Kyrkovägen and cuts church furniture.
1954 Väinö Mänty arrives with a veneer press, and the name takes its ampersand.
1978 The kiln is built in the yard, and the workshop stops buying timber it cannot dry itself.
1999 Rakel Lehto starts as an apprentice at the bench she runs now.

Four pieces from this year

Dining table
Fitted wall, birch
Woodwork for new museum in Utsjoki
Chair, sixth prototype

What each species does after it leaves us

Species	Hardness	Seasonal movement	Lead time	Price index
Finnish oak	1 290	2.9%	14 weeks	100
Ash	1 320	3.4%	10 weeks	78
Birch	1 210	4.1%	8 weeks	61
Pine, aged	380	4.8%	6 weeks	42

Movement is the column that decides a design. Ash is harder than oak and cheaper, and it moves half a percent more, which is a drawer that binds in February and a joint we have to cut differently.

Workshop and factory, honestly

A workshop piece

Joints: Cut to the board in front of us
Repair: Any part, by us, in twenty years
Lead time: Eight to sixteen weeks
Price: Two to four times

A factory piece

Joints: Cut to a tolerance, then glued
Repair: The part is not made any more
Lead time: From stock, or six weeks
Price: The reason most rooms have one

The mistake that costs the most

A specification that gives a width, a length and a species, and says nothing about the room. We have delivered into an apartment with underfloor heating at 24 degrees and 22% humidity in February, which is drier than the kiln, and a 3.2 metre top will find that out within a month.

The fix is one paragraph in the brief: the heating, the glazing, and whether anyone opens a window. It changes the joint, not the price. A frame-and-panel top moves at the panel and stays flat; a solid slab in that room is a warranty claim we have to honour.

What a finish is actually for

Finish	Wear	Repairable at home	Refresh	Feel
Hardwax oil	Good	Yes	2 years	Wood
Soap	Fair	Yes	6 months	Raw wood
Lacquer, matt	Very good	No	Never	Sealed
Wax only	Poor	Yes	3 months	Wood

Three commissions and what each taught

A library in Kirkkonummi26 running metres, and the reason we now measure a room twice a year before we cut
A conference table, 4.4 mit went in through a window, which is a crane and a permit and a line in the quote
A chair, six prototypesthe piece we lost money on, and the one the workshop is now known for

How a commission runs

Sixteen weeks, four decisions, one of them yours alone

Where a smaller budget should go

Solid wood where hands touch itthe top, the arms, the drawer fronts
Joints cut for the rooman afternoon of drawing, before anything is cut
A rarer speciesdoubles the material and changes nothing structural
Carving and inlaybeautiful, and the first thing a later owner paints over

what it costswhat it is worth in twenty years

Brief to delivery

VisitRoom measured, heating and glazing recorded, drawings agreed.
PrepBoards chosen with you in the timber store, grain marked for the top.
CutJoints cut, dry-fitted, and photographed before glue.
InstallDelivered, levelled, and the care card left on the piece.

A full interior commission

	Jan	Feb	Apr	May
Drawings	Agreed 14
Timber	Selected	In the kiln
Bench work
Finish and cure			Oil, 3 coats	Delivery 6

A joint you can see is a joint you meant. Everything else is furniture that hopes nobody looks underneath.

— Rakel Lehto, granddaughter of the founder, Esekiel Lehto - at the bench since 1999

Come and stand in the timber store

Kyrkovägen 1, Åbo. Most Thursdays, and the kettle is always on.