Rick Bowerman is into recycling.
The tops of his reproduction tables are fashioned from century-old pine floors from Ontario, and the staircase in his shop features wood from the old Interfor Mill in Squamish. Even the railings are recycled "drill skills" that were used in the blasting and construction of the Sea to Sky Highway between Vancouver and Whistler.
When he uses new wood for his furniture, he tries to use pine that was killed in the province's pine beetle infestation. But his most striking recycled product might be a line of side tables he's making out of discarded end cuts from logs.
"We were doing a project for a designer and we had to go and source material," he relates.
"I went to my buddy's place, who is a timber framer. I went out back and there were all these huge, short end cuts of beams from the timber framing industry. I thought 'We should try and do something with this.' It was basically just sitting there."
Basically, Bowerman leaves the end cuts in their natural round state, smooths out the rough edges and stains them. Because a lot of them come from old-growth fir, they have a lovely circular design from the tree's growth rings.
Which means if you have the patience, you can figure out how old the tree was. But Bowerman has noticed a difference between men and women regarding this fact.
"Usually the husbands come in and sit down and count the rings while the wives are looking around the showroom," he says.
"I hate to say it. It's a real evolutionary statement right there."The Vancouver Sun
