The workshop
One Pair of Hands
For years I worked a corporate job and built a house at the same time; what went missing in those years was making things with my hands. I started again with small projects in the workshop.
The other thing I care about is espresso. You have probably seen a machine with wooden knobs and thought it looked good. I did too, but I could not find a set whose material and feel came close to what I was already making at the bench. On a machine that costs what these cost, the knobs are the part you hold every day. So I took mine apart, took the measurements, and built prototype after prototype until the design and the feel were what I wanted.
That became Alfreds Grove. Alfred is my middle name, after my grandfather and my uncle; Christopher is the one I answer to.
From Board to Counter
Every piece starts as a board I picked out at the mill. What happens between that and the parcel is below, in order. Much of it is waiting.
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The wood
Styrian hardwood from a local mill, and I pick the boards myself. The mill saws and dries them; everything after that happens at my bench. Because no two boards are alike, the grain in your piece will not match the photographs.
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Preparing the stock Bandsaw, jointer, thicknesser.
I resaw each board on the bandsaw, then flatten and square it on the jointer and thicknesser, and cut it to size. That gives me blank stock, ready for the machine.
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Machining
The blanks go on the CNC. This is the one step a machine does better than I do. On a part that has to thread onto your machine and sit flush, the tolerance matters more than the tool marks. Every piece is then cut free of the excess material by hand and looked over before it goes any further.
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Sanding 80, 120, 180. Wetted between each, and dry before the next.
First with an orbital sander, then by hand. I work through 80, 120 and 180, wetting the wood between grits so the fibres it raises come off on the next pass. Each wetting has to dry before the next grit, so no piece is sanded in one sitting. This is the step that decides how a piece feels rather than how it looks.
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Oiling Twelve hours minimum between coats.
Two coats of a food-safe oil made in Austria, both applied by hand, with at least twelve hours between them. Coasters are the exception: those are waxed, not oiled. The oil is a finish, not a shield, and descaler will ruin it.
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Hardware and the last look
Where a piece takes metal hardware, it is fitted now. Then comes a last inspection by eye and by hand. I check the finish, and whether the piece turns and seats the way it should. Only then does it go into stock.
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What does not make it Six to twelve a batch. Two or three do not make it.
A piece can be pulled at any point: cutting the stock, coming off the CNC, part-way through sanding, or after the oil is on and it simply looks wrong. A batch is six to twelve pieces, and two or three of them do not make it. About one of those turns out to be functionally perfect, with only a minor blemish. I sell those at a discount when they turn up, first come, first served. The rest are not sold at all.
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Packing
Orders come out of stock, so an in-stock piece ships within two business days; anything else is cut in the next batch and goes out within fourteen. The packaging is plastic-free, and a QR code in the box opens the fitting instructions for your machine. Everything ships tracked, within the EU only.
No workshop team and no second pair of hands, and no plans for either. I spent years running at full tilt; I am not building something that does that to me again. If you want to know whether I make something for your machine, that is the place to start.