Words by Robert Erickson. After 45 years of experimentation we have settled on a few select woods for our unique back support design, which we affectionately call “The Floating Back.” The flexibility and durability needs of this design have required us to delve deeply into the inherent qualities of various woods, and one thing is certain: all woods are not created equal. Some have gorgeous figure, some gorgeous color, some gorgeous grain. These aesthetic qualities are what we look for when choosing the wood for our chair seats, arms and headboards. Other woods have less figure, but have knot free, […]
Red Elm: A Perfect Wood
7 November 2016
For over four decades red elm has been our first choice for back slats. Robert Erickson explains why.
The Living Chair Series
12 August 2015
The idea was to take my father’s designs and reinterpret them in a new material that had never been used before in our shop.
When I joined the family woodworking business as a partner last year I was confronted with a legacy. My father’s rocking chair design—a contoured chair with moulded joints in a lineage that included Danish designer Peder Moos and California builder/designer Sam Maloof—had been around for over 30 years and was in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Museum. Up against that kind of history I wanted to do something that would make the design at least partly my own, and so the Living Chair was born. The idea was to take my father’s designs and reinterpret them in a new […]
Erickson Woodworking Sponsors “Save the Big Trees of the ‘Inimim Forest Volunteer Workday”
2 November 2014
Erickson Woodworking is sponsoring the Yuba Watershed Institute‘s annual “Save the Big Trees of the ‘Inimim Forest” volunteer workday this year.
When: November 15, 2014, 9 AM to 3 PM, rain or shine. A picnic lunch will be provided. Where: Meet at the North Columbia Schoolhouse Cultural Center on the San Juan Ridge This event is a chance to get out into the woods and work together as a community to do fire protection around some beautiful, old-growth trees on the San Juan Ridge. Afterwards, we will be holding a picnic lunch at our shop, followed by an optional tour of the facilities where we take local, sustainably harvested hardwoods and process them into luxury furniture. This event is a special […]
First Slab
29 October 2014
We slabbed the California walnut log yesterday and today we are preparing the wood to go into a drying shed built specifically for this tree.
We slabbed the California walnut log yesterday and today we are preparing the wood to go into a drying shed built specifically for this tree. The slabs will be so heavy that we had to build a special foundation to support their weight. This photograph gives some sense of the scale. Robert Beauchamp, our partner in this operation, stands on the left.
A Conversation With Dave Stine
25 October 2014
It’s hard not to like a guy whose eyes well up when he talks about pushing his spirit into his tools
It’s hard not to like a guy whose eyes well up when he talks about pushing his spirit into his tools, but who also gives a very man cave thumbs up when discussing his beer fridge. David Stine is a man well expressed through his furniture. They’re both held together by the tension of opposites: burly and lithe, lush and minimalist, rural and sophisticated. His whole slabs with live edges leave you in awe of the tree that was. I’m on assignment from my son (and new business partner) Tor, to sit down and talk with Dave about woodworking. At […]
Cordwood
7 October 2014
2014-09-18 Cordwood from Erickson Woodworking on Vimeo.
2014-09-18 Cordwood from Erickson Woodworking on Vimeo.
And the winner is…
16 September 2014
Thank you to everyone who helped to spread the word about Erickson Woodworking over the past week.
Thank you to everyone who helped to spread the word about Erickson Woodworking over the past week. It has been inspiring and humbling to see the breadth and depth of support from our friends, family, and patrons. Almost 3,000 people signed up in just seven days to make the event a tremendous success. For us this promotion has been a way to connect with our community—a community that was integral to the success and story of Robert Erickson Woodworking, and a community that we are now asking to stand behind the next, multi-generational chapter, Erickson Woodworking. As the different stories […]
A Recent Walnut Acquisition
13 September 2014
The upturning of two driveways of two neighbors along the American River in Sacramento, CA caused them to move forward with the sad removal of their beloved shade tree, a large native walnut.
The upturning of two driveways of two neighbors along the American River in Sacramento, CA caused them to move forward with the sad removal of their beloved shade tree, a large native walnut. Nineteen years previous we had removed another large walnut from their back yard and had milled it with a chainsaw mill, lugging the heavy, wide, long planks out one at a time. The most recent logs were larger and required delicate work by an experienced arborist and crane operator in order to safely take down the tree and load them onto our truck and trailer. We milled […]
Sustainability: Thoughts for Erickson Woodworking
30 August 2014
We live in a heavily forested area of the Sierra Nevada. Out our front door of our shop and home we see 5 species of trees that feed us (lumber for furniture), warm us with their firewood, shade our house and provide habitat for 28 species of wild mammals.
We live in a heavily forested area of the Sierra Nevada. Out our front door of our shop and home we see 5 species of trees that feed us (lumber for furniture), warm us with their firewood, shade our house and provide habitat for 28 species of wild mammals. The 117 acres that we share with 4 neighbors grows approximately 300 cords of wood each year. Of course most of this is on trees that are lumber trees and ecologically important trees that one would never cut. We use 10 cords of firewood per year for heating our house and […]