Carved by hand — and painted freehand

Ron Tester carved birds on the edge of the Forest of Dean for nearly forty years. After all that time, he can shape the body by feel — but the last touch, the markings, has to be laid on freehand by a steady hand. The white bar on the wing, the black-and-white stripes down the tail: done by eye, one bird at a time, never two the same.

Last winter a stroke took Ron's right side — his carving hand. He is teaching his left, but it can't learn forty years in a season. So this is his final batch: the birds his right hand carved and marked, and the few his left can still manage. When they're gone, there are no more.

What makes a hand-carved chaffinch feel so different from the ones in the shops?

• It's actually carved. Most "carved" wooden birds are resin-cast (no grain) or machine-routed (no tool-marks). This is cut from a single block of lime, by hand.
• You can feel the gouge. Run your thumb up the back — the little flats and ridges are the proof a hand, not a machine, made it.
• The markings are freehand. The white wing-bar and the striped tail are painted by eye — the part the factories fake with a printed transfer.
• One of one. A brush in a hand can't repeat itself. The fall of the wing-bar and the taper of the tail-stripes are yours alone.
• Soft limewash finish. The traditional country look, dry-brushed and gently distressed, so it sits like it's always been there.
• Mounted, ready to perch. On its own turned post — windowsill, shelf or mantel. No feeding, no watering.