It's a Burl - A photo tour of where I work

The chairs we make range from about 4 or $500 for the outdoor chairs up to about $3000 for some of the fancier indoor ones.

We are about a half hour North of the California border on the Redwood Highway. Closest airport is in Medford, about an hour away from us.
 
That looks like a great place to work !

Burl Source said:
The guy who does the carving here is pretty good.
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This is one of the nicest "Man of the Woods" I have seen :thumbup:
 
4ever3 said:
That looks like a great place to work !



This is one of the nicest "Man of the Woods" I have seen :thumbup:
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The guy who does these carvings is really good. He has been carving about 30 or 40 years now. He did one a while back that he named after me. I told him it was jinxed and would never sell. The next weekend a customer wanted to buy it. I tried to talk them out of it but they insisted. After paying for it the wife looked at my card and said "this is named after you" and laughed. It had a goofy face and was sticking out it's tongue.

Everything this guy carves has a goofy or happy theme. Kind of like him. If you ever come out and see a guy wearing a kilt, that's Wiz, our best carver. He's been trying to teach me but I'm a slow learner.
 
Fantastic Mark. If I ever visit, you better frisk me going in and coming out. I'd probably head straight for the burl barn. :D Make your own hours indeed. Harvey obviously has nothing to worry about. Let's see you get to work with fantastically beautiful wood in great shops on your own time...does your wife see you at home much? BTW, place seems like kind of a tinder box. Wonder what kind of fire control system y'all have in pace.
 
Farmer Phil said:
Fantastic Mark. If I ever visit, you better frisk me going in and coming out. I'd probably head straight for the burl barn. :D Make your own hours indeed. Harvey obviously has nothing to worry about. Let's see you get to work with fantastically beautiful wood in great shops on your own time...does your wife see you at home much? BTW, place seems like kind of a tinder box. Wonder what kind of fire control system y'all have in pace.
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You will probably need to use one of the golf carts to move stuff out of the burl barn. A lot of those caps are like wrestling a 100 pound porcupine.

I am not sure if my wife would recognize me in the daylight.

Fire control is a tough one here. Harvey started the place back in the early 80s. It has burned down a few times. Last time was over 5 years ago. They think a tourist tossed a cigarette butt that smoldered in the sawdust and broke out during the night. I am always sniffing around whenever anything smells funny. Too much good wood here to lose it in a fire.

Photos don't show it but there are several shipping containers with wood as well as stuff that is stacked under tarps around the grounds.

Every so often Mike Turner comes out and sneaks around trying to find the really good stuff before I do. Then he buys it from Harvey before I even know about it. It is kind of like treasure hunting around here. Sometimes I think his wife has a better eye for finding the hidden treasures than he or I do.
 
I have to admit I have been bitten by the wood bug. Going to a place like that would simply pain me. I probably wouldn't want any of the furniture or bowls or carvings... just the raw wood. And of course the problem there is I don't have the equipment to work on the raw burls. *sigh*

Since I live in northern WA, it's not too likely I'll make it down there, so I'll add my word of thanks for letting me visit the place vicariously.

- Greg
 
Wow , that looks like a dream job to me!! and besides all the awesome wood, you would have to watch the old wrecker with me snooping around. Wife wants to take the kids down the oregon coast soon hmmm how to work in a trip to the burl shop on the way.....
Chris
 
tryppyr said:
I have to admit I have been bitten by the wood bug. Going to a place like that would simply pain me. I probably wouldn't want any of the furniture or bowls or carvings... just the raw wood. And of course the problem there is I don't have the equipment to work on the raw burls. *sigh*

Since I live in northern WA, it's not too likely I'll make it down there, so I'll add my word of thanks for letting me visit the place vicariously.

- Greg
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You say we're too far away now........but, I used to live on Bainbridge Island. I was making a road trip through Oregon and found this place a little over 10 years ago. Next thing you know I was making excuses to go to southern Oregon a few times a year. Then a little over 3 years ago I sold my house, quit my real job and moved down here.
 
I would love to see that whole village of burl... But, Indiana is a pretty dang far away place to go to Oregon. Maybe in a couple years I'll have a reason to be on the West Coast.

Thanks so much for the pics. Please post more when anything interesting is made!
 
Amazing place for sure! I feel glad that a spot like that can stay afloat in these economic times.

What species do you carry? I suspect Bigleaf Maple and a good deal of Myrtle, but what are some of the other kinds of burls you stock?
 
PB Wilson said:
Amazing place for sure! I feel glad that a spot like that can stay afloat in these economic times.

What species do you carry? I suspect Bigleaf Maple and a good deal of Myrtle, but what are some of the other kinds of burls you stock?
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Most of our woods are from around here. Maple, Black Oak, Myrtle, Madrone, Manzanita, Redwood, Buckeye, Olive and anything else unusual that shows up.
 
Another forum member asked if I had some photos of our place.

This is what it looks like in the summer.
I am having a hard time remembering what that is like.
 
If there is a heaven, this is surely what it must look like.:)

Thanks for posting the pics Mark. Made my day.
Fred
 
That is a cool lookin' place! If I drove by there I would want to stop and check it out. Thanks for the pictures.
 
I remember this thread when it first came up. Amazing place and amazing stuff! What a lucky guy to get a job like that....
 
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