Friuli craftsmanship: why we choose Larch and Oak for Wood·Touch

In Friuli, wood is not a generic raw material: it is part of the landscape, the culture, centuries of alpine joinery. When we chose the woods for Wood·Touch we did not look for the cheapest or the most exotic: we looked at what this region knows best.

The four woods

Larch. It grows in the Carnic and Julian Prealps and resists everything: humidity, temperature swings, mechanical wear. It has a tight, compact grain with warm, irregular figuring that makes every card different from the next. In a pocket, larch ages well: like a leather belt, it gains character over time.

Oak. Darker, heavier, more solemn, open-pored. The same wood that has been used for centuries for ageing barrels and fine flooring. On a business card it brings a natural elegance that needs no explaining: whoever touches it feels it straight away, and it is the wood the engraving stands out on most.

Okoumé. The most understated of the four: a very fine, almost uniform grain without the marked figure of the others. It is the right wood for anyone who wants the engraving to be noticed rather than the grain beneath it.

Spruce. The palest, and the one that gives the sharpest contrast against the dark mark of the laser. It is also the standard wood for the totems, where the surface in play is far larger.

What we look at before cutting

Every board is inspected before cutting: we look for regular grain, no structural knots, correct seasoning. A knot in the wrong place, on a piece 85 × 54 millimetres, is not an aesthetic detail: it is the point where the wood will give. We only use wood we would use for a bespoke piece of furniture, which is why part of every board always ends up as offcut.

Three layers, crossed grain

Selection alone would not be enough. A two-millimetre sheet of wood, in a pocket, would split along the fibre: that is what thin wood naturally does. So the card is not a single piece but three layers cold-pressed together with the grain crossing at 90°, held under pressure for several hours.

It is the plywood principle applied at a thickness that fits a cardholder: stress spreads in every direction instead of running along one fibre, so the card does not warp and does not swell with humidity. The NFC chip lives in the middle layer, where it cannot be seen, cannot be felt, and cannot come loose.

Linseed oil and beeswax, not varnish

The finish is the part nobody looks at and the part that decides what the card will be like in two years. A plastic varnish gives an immediate shine, then chips at the edges and peels where the wood moves — and when it does, there is no way back.

We finish with linseed oil and beeswax: it penetrates instead of sitting on top, it leaves wood feeling like wood, and if the surface ever dulls, a pass of wax brings it back. It is the same treatment used on kitchen worktops, for the same reason: it survives use.

The engraving is the wood itself

The logo and text are not printed: the laser works to a tenth of a millimetre and burns the surface layer. The mark is not added material, it is modified wood — which is why it cannot lift, cannot be scratched off and does not fade in sunlight. On oak and spruce the contrast is stronger, on okoumé softer: one of the things worth weighing when choosing the wood.

Six steps, all by hand

From rough timber to parcel: board selection, cutting and gluing, pressing, engraving, chip configuration, final inspection and packing. Six operations, none of them automated, the last of which is a real test — the engraving is checked, the chip is read with a phone, the piece is squared.

It is not a romantic choice: at these volumes a production line would make no sense, and piece-by-piece inspection is what makes a lifetime warranty sustainable. Anyone who offers one without looking at every piece pays for it sooner or later.

A short supply chain, because of how work is done here

The workshop is in Bertiolo, in the province of Udine. The wood comes from the area, all the work happens inside, and between order and dispatch there is no container: there are 7-14 working days of actual work. The environmental advantage is not a stance to take, it is what is left when there is no intercontinental logistics chain in the middle.