Rustic Redwood Slab Furniture

During the early part of the 20th century (1900 - 1950) many giant redwood trees in Northern California and Oregon were cut for the lumber industry. When cutting these giants, the lower 10' to 15' of these trees were left in the forest because this lower portion of the trees had burl and curly grain which was not desirable for the redwood lumber (the burl and curly grain fractures easily - the lumber industry needed the straight grained wood). Therefore, the large stumps that were left in the forests are now available to be cut for very beautiful slab timbers to be used in slab furniture. Cutting and transporting these large stumps and roots is very labor intensive and expensive. Then the stumps must be cut into slabs and the slabs air dried for a considerable time before the slabs can be used for furniture. However, it is all worth the effort - just look at the beautiful grain in these sample furniture items that we produce in Illinois.