Steven Crowningshield, California Redwood Company

One figured redwood log, six feet across and solid to the core, could pay for an entire sawmill. That math is why Steven Crowningshield bought a band mill that cuts six foot eight wide, after years of slabbing with a chainsaw mill that turned half an inch of every cut into sawdust.

In this episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast, host Jennifer Alger sits down with Steven Crowningshield of California Redwood Company, who has spent more than 30 years milling almost nothing but salvaged redwood on the California coast. His father ran the first Alaskan sawmill on that coast in 1972, and Steven learned the trade in the woods beside him. In the 1990s they pulled sinker logs off the river bottom with scuba gear, barges and winches, until a legal challenge to their permits shut it down. Today he salvages buckskins, the old growth cores loggers left behind on private land.

You'll hear why he moved his operation onto a shared compound where several sawmill operators, a planer molder and a wide belt sander sit on one property, and why he set his own mill to cut forty foot timbers. He also explains the niche he has worked for almost twenty years: sinker redwood tonewood, stained purple, yellow and pink by river minerals and, he says, better voiced for it. Now he wants his best pieces going to small guitar builders instead of mass production.

Steven is open about the hard years too, from paying an accountant thousands of dollars after 2008 to learn he had lost money, to a decade of furniture and a gallery that covered the rent but not his time. Marketing is the challenge now. He has old growth inventory most buyers don't know exists, and ad spend that brought him almost nothing. The conversation closes on what he calls red gold, and on his favorite part of running a sawmill: watching a client see the finished piece.

Chapters00:00 Growing Up Around His Father's Alaskan Sawmill01:21 Pulling Sinker Redwood Logs Off the River Bottom04:24 Salvaging Old Growth Redwood Left Behind on Private Land05:26 Why He Bought a Sawmill That Cuts Six Foot Eight Wide11:52 Sinker Redwood Tonewood for Guitar Builders22:41 Losing Money After 2008 and Ten Years of Furniture25:35 Marketing Old Growth Redwood to the Right Buyers

The Woodpreneur Podcast brings stories of woodworkers, makers, and entrepreneurs turning their passion for wood into successful businesses - from inspiration to education to actionable advice. Hosted by Steve Larosiliere and Jennifer Alger

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