Why Windfall Woodworks?

Having spent countless hours hiking our country’s wild places, I became steadily more aware of the damage that irresponsible logging causes to our environment. I am the first to admit that forestry can be practiced responsibly and with little long-term impact to the environment. Unfortunately this is rarely the case. I know trees are a renewable resource; but in all reality a thousand year-old cedar is not. Yet I knew I was supporting these destructive practices when I went to the lumberyard to buy stock for my work.

This dilemma came to a crux when I began building boats. Yes, that old-growth fir is wonderful stuff to plank with, but the cost is too high, both monetarily and morally.

Fortunately a solution presented itself at about the same time. While apprenticing at the Arques School of Traditional Boatbuilding in Sausalito, CA, Bob Darr taught me to use a chainsaw mill to harvest my own timber. With simple equipment and relatively low startup cost, I now harvest my own timber from dead and down trees.

Traditional wooden boats are my specialty.

Rob Thompson, Windfall Woodworks