Description

Par Avion: dagger-shape letter openers are handy tools for slitting opening envelopes. Until you have one, you just don’t realise how useful they are and how lovely they are to hold.  However, much more than just a tool, they are like little sculptures.

Simon Cass of the Par Avion partnership, has hand carved each letter opener from bog oak, which is thousands of years old. He has echoed the forms of stone-age hand tools,  from the era when the original trees were growing.

Bog Oak

In peat bogs, fallen trees can exist for thousands of years. The intact trees absorbed the peat and other sediment from the outside in, turning them a black to greyish-brown colour. As the bogs dried out, the fallen tree trunks gradually came closer to the surface. There was a time when farmers in the peat-rich fen lands were discarding lumps of sodden oak without realising its age or interest. It can date from the stone age, some 5,000 years ago.

Bog oak is now quite rare. Par Avion’s bog oak supply  comes from the Cambridgeshire Fens, less than 75 miles from their base in Norwich. Its carbon dating makes it approximately 5000 years old. To put that into perspective, these mighty oaks were standing during the stone age!

About Par Avion

Simon and Monica Cass founded the design partnership Par-avion Co. They have backgrounds in furniture making and architecture which provide the backbone of their designs. Combining traditional craft and modern styling, they aim to create unique pieces.

Their signature ‘pi collection’ embodies aspects not only of furniture making and wood turning, but also innovative detailing. Their embellishments include basket making and seat weaving. Also they are creating smaller bespoke hand-made items using wood carving and pottery.

“Our aim is to design and make good quality products for a reasonable price. We are not interested in transient fads and fashions; we hope what we make is timeless and will be treasured for many years to come.”

Par-avion co. is dedicated to preserving the environment.  They use natural and renewable materials which are carefully & locally sourced.  They select makers from each region on the basis of the quality of their production and their environmental credentials.  Their packaging is 100% recyclable, reusable or biodegradable.