About Us
Landon Buck salvaging redwood burl.
Our family-owned business began in a picturesque beach town before making the Redwoods home. During our extensive experience over the past 40 years, we have perfected the craft of redwood – from ethical sourcing and finishing, to sending redwood furniture worldwide.
George Buck
In the early 1970s, George Buck established Burlwood Industries in Carmel, CA. The business focused mainly on collecting driftwood from local beaches to use as landscape pieces. In the late 1970s, George entered the growing finished furniture market. He opened galleries from Carmel to the Bay area and moved north to Humboldt County, where the redwood was more plentiful. During this time he met and married Marilyn Landon. Marilyn managed the galleries in the Monterey area and helped grow the business exponentially. By the 1980s, the Bucks were distributing furniture all over the world.
In the 1990s Burlwood Industries went through turmoil and business slowed. It wasn’t until 2005, with the internet boom, that George established Redwoodburl.com. This new business entity focused mainly on small, redwood items such as vases, turning blocks, and slabs.
Landon Buck
In 2008 the business was passed on to Landon Buck, Marilyn and George’s son. Landon turned the business into what it is today, Redwood Burl Inc. Since then, the business has grown considerably. It has moved to larger facilities due to increasing production and inventory. Redwood Burl Inc. is now the largest old growth redwood supplier in the world.
Redwood Burl Inc. is now able to store all cut slabs indoors and out of the elements. We are using better equipment that are able to handle larger logs. The company has also looked at the way others in the industry have worked over the years and have instilled policies and procedures to stand out above the rest. The entity that Redwood Burl Inc. is today is much more than what it started as, decades ago. From our sourcing methods, quality products to personable, helpful service – we take pride in our work in the field.
Ethical Salvaging
At Redwood Burl Inc, we take our sourcing seriously! Ethically sourced materials will ensure that we have a old- growth forest for generations to come. The majority of the largest redwoods were harvested back in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Generally, loggers worked standing on spring boards sometimes 10-15 feet from ground level, sourcing lumber. For the most part, the mills desired straight-grained redwood to use for lumber. Today, we know that the burls and stumps are where the grain patterns compress and create beautiful figure. At the time, the burls that were too large to move were considered undesirable, so they were left behind.
Today, previously logged areas are being ethically salvaged, or cleared out to make room for new homes, roads, and harvesting of new growth redwood. Our supply of salvaged redwood includes pieces that age up to hundreds of years old before we recovered them. Poaching is alive and active, we pride ourselves in using ethically salvaged redwood and do more than our part to combat it. As a result, because we ethically salvaged our redwood, we are a “green” company.