05 Jan, 2020 – Oakland, CA
Monday (04 Jan) was rainy and the first day back to school for the kids – they were miserable. I, however, chose to be upbeat as I was excited to get some redwood off-cuts that I needed for a project a friend had asked of me. A project that begs some interesting questions…
The ask was to produce a series of redwood charcuterie boards. Aside: Redwood is not a good material for cutting boards due to its softness (read more: fluff, full-geek) so we must market them as “charcuterie boards”, or put more vulgarly: wooden platters. Wooden platters that sell for between $25 and $35, meaning the manufacturer is paid half that per piece. Is $12 a piece a business I want to be in? Answer: not as a one-man operation and not forever, but a paying gig is better than no gig, plus I think I can find ways to make them interesting. Off I went to source materials.
I tried the leading local purveyor of redwood on Monday, but Lumber Baron does not sell off-cuts or other low priced materials – something I could have learned over the phone, but I wanted to get out of the house so took my chances. The nice gent there suggested Ponderosa in West Oakland, but they were closed until today.
Does trying and failing to source lumber count? Survey Says: 63 slack-days left…
Anyway, the fella there was right, Ponderosa had exactly the type of operation I was looking for. A yard full of locally salvaged lumber that they mill into slabs. Tons of random off-cuts and three large pallet-sized boxes full of free scraps. I paid $50 for all the stuff you see here.
Species left to right: hunk of redwood, little triangle of eucalyptus, large redwood slab (two pieces), walnut, white ash. Here are a few little shots of the yard & showroom too. If you are local, check this place out – they are cool people.
