Reclaimed
At Ridgeway Woodworks, we believe that every piece of wood has a purpose, and its purpose is definitely not to end up in a landfill! Many of our products are made of reclaimed wood, which is wood previously used in a variety of different applications, that we harvest, process, and turn into amazing items. Almost 100% of the wood that goes through our reclamation process stays out of the landfill - even the scraps and shavings. Take a look below to better understand how we reclaim wood.
Step 1: Sourcing (aka Dumpster Diving)
A lot of our reclaimed wood comes from waste in our local communities. We have several partner businesses and individuals who help keep our supply of used wood high. And yes, we also do grab used wood from the curb and out of dumpsters. Regardless of how we source it, we keep it out of the landfill.
Step 2: Elbow Grease (aka Nail Removal)
The first step in processing used wood is to clean it up so it can be further processed by our equipment. This primarily consists of nail, screw, and heavy dirt removal. This step is probably the most time consuming and labor intensive process, but taking extra time to make sure we don't damage our equipment is well worth it in the long run.
Step 3: Trim, Cut, & Plane (aka Sawing)
With nails, screws, and heavy dirt removed, we move on to processing the used wood on our equipment. We first trim the wood pieces to remove unusable sections. Next, we rip, crosscut, and resaw the wood down to desired lengths and widths. The last step in a typical reclamation process is to use the planer to create a piece with desired thickness and a smooth surface.
Step 4: Create (aka FUN!)
Once we have our reclaimed wood in our desired sizes, we can move on to creating! Whether we're cutting Woodle blanks or working on a massive glue-up, this is the fun part, because we get to see our products come together. We glue, screw, nail, trim, sand, and finish to create some awesome products ready for you.
Step 5: Waste (no waste that is...)
After we've reclaimed lumber and created our one-of-a-kind products, we're still not quite done with our reclamation process. We next process the waste material. We save our small scraps, and a lot of those scraps get used in other projects or as tools to help us (like stain stir sticks). Scraps we can't use and our saw dust gets collected and used as kindling and campfire starter and is used by many in our local community to help them enjoy an evening with friends.