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Finely Crafted Wood Pieces From The Pacific Northwest

South4th's Shop Announcement

Thanks for looking at our shop.

My name is Steve Elder. Being born and raised in Oregon, wood has always been a part of my life. I've always been fascinated by its properties, its warmth and texture and its adaptability to so many products that touch all our lives. The fact that wood is a natural and renewable resource makes it a perfect material with few equals.

The forests of the Pacific northwest contain numerous species of trees, including ponderosa pine, douglas-fir, sugar pine, hemlock, white fir, cedars, oaks, maples, yew, lodgepole pine and dozens more.

Recently my wife Elizabeth and I moved to an area that has a wide variety of flora with the above-mentioned firs, pines, cedars and maples, but also with less commonly used madrone, manzanita and mountain-mahogany. This got me interested in some of these woods that you can't usually find in the stores.

For example, birchleaf mountain-mahogany (cercocarpus montanus, a member of the rosaceae family - not a true mahogany), which is a variety of mountain-mahogany found in our immediate area, is a tree/shrub that has an unbelievably dense beautiful hardwood. I snagged a small piece that a neighbor had pruned. I cut, sanded and oiled it. It was some of the nicest wood I'd ever seen. I did some research and found that mountain-mahogany grows all over the west and that Native Americans used it for tools, war clubs and dyes. Elizabeth (knitter, sewer, weaver - a real fiber arts freak) suggested I make some buttons out of it.

The products you see here are the result. Wood types vary - mountain-mahogany, big-leaf maple, oak, manzanita, madrone and more - and I hope you enjoy browsing.

Please note: SHIPPING IS FREE on most items, to most locations. Check each item's page. Please see "Shop Policies" page.

33 items