Replies

1. 
   Jamie_Buxton | Feb 20, 2006 03:14am | #1

   Visit a real redwood forest.   No fine woodworking, but remarkable trees.  There's a good one in that area: Big Basin State Park. 

2. 
   Danceswithwoods | Feb 21, 2006 10:24am | #2

   John,

           I just watched a repeat of a Woodworks show with David Marks.  This was one where he went to a couple of hard/exotic wood supply houses in the outlying areas of San Francisco.  These people had some great woods.  Just thought it may interest you and perhaps you could do a little spending of your own.  Also, on one of the streets in downtown Carmel, there is a gallery I saw that carries some or all of the work of one artist who makes these beautiful ribbon-like creations in wood.  Sorry I don't recall the name of the shop or artist.

3. 
   Dave45 | Feb 22, 2006 05:38pm | #3

   John -

   I live in San Jose and definitely recommend a tour of Big Basin Park.  No woodworking there, but there are some awesome redwood trees.  You'll need to ask around, but there are a few sawmills in the Santa Cruz mountains where you may be able to get some redwood burls.  There is a store in San Jose called Southern Lumber which has a nice selection of exotic hardwoods (with nice prices, too - lol)

   David Marks lives in Sonoma county which is about about 2-3 hours north of San Jose.  Sonoma and Napa counties are the heart of the California wine country.  It's a little far for a day trip, but if your schedule permits, you could go up there and do the wine country tour and hunt for exotic wood stores. 

4. 
   rubydog | Feb 24, 2006 04:00am | #4

   I grew up in San Jose and had many inspiring moments at Southern Lumber. (Just south of downtown. Fifth and Keyes, I think.) I was last there 15 years ago. Assuming it's more or less the same they have an amazing selection of every kind of wood. Best of all, the wood is indoors, planed, and under great light. They also have a museum of early woodowrking tools and machinery and a great selection of hard to find hardware. It was standing in line at Southern Lumber in the late '70s that I first thumbed through a Fine Woodworking magazine.

   In the early '70s Southern Lumber burned to the ground. They rebuilt better than ever. Check 'em out.

   Steve

1. 
   Dave45 | Feb 25, 2006 04:25pm | #8

   It's at Monterey Highway and Alma, Rubydog.  Monterey becomes S. First a couple of blocks north of Alma - in keeping with San Jose's tradition of changing street names even if you don't actually turn - lol.

   Southern Lumber was bought out by ACE Hardware about a year ago, and extensively remodeled.  They still have one ofthe best hardwood selections around and a great millworks shop.  I don't think that the museum survived the remodeling, though.  I'll check when I'm there later today.

5. 
   rubydog | Feb 24, 2006 04:03am | #5

   You could also check out the wooden roller coaster at the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz...

6. 
   Miami | Feb 24, 2006 08:12pm | #6

   Assuming you'll be flying through SFO or Oakland, Japan Woodworker is right there in Alameda, and it's easy to find and to get in and out of.  They have lots of tools set up to play with, and it's a big, fascinating place.

   If you are going north up into wine country or along the coast, you could stop by and see the College of the Redwoods' Fine Furniture shop in Ft. Bragg (Krenov's former haunt -- he still comes in every week or two).  They are gracious to visitors, but check their schedule on the site - they do close up the shop for part of August every year.  And in Mendocino, there are two galleries which carry quite a lot of local woodworkers' work, Highlight and William Zimmer.

   There's also a great wood dealer in SF whose name is escaping me right now - it's not Gilmer, it's ... umm ... darnit!  The wood dealer in that episode of David Marks' show is Shively, but I thought they were much farther north, maybe Oregon even?

   Clay

1. 
   tuscanyt | Feb 25, 2006 06:29pm | #10

   Sorry Miami, it's Mount Storm and located right here in wine country, Santa Rosa, Ca. Go there alot my self.

1. 
   Miami | Feb 25, 2006 06:59pm | #12

   There's both - Shively's in 'Marshall, CA' and Mount Storm in Windsor - here is the contact info for both, from Marks' site -- http://tinyurl.com/j3s2c   I got the location for Marshall from mapquest, and since it is in reasonable range from his shop in Santa Rosa, it seems logical.

   I admit it, I was only going on a previous poster's mention of Maloof being in Marin to assume that Shively was close by, never looked up the Maloof location myself - sorry!

   Clay

7. 
   DougF | Feb 24, 2006 10:26pm | #7

   Sam Maloof's foundation/studio is in Marin on the other side of the bay from San Francisco.   Well worth the time to drive up there.

1. 
   Jamie_Buxton | Feb 25, 2006 06:40pm | #11

   "Sam Maloof's foundation/studio is in Marin"?  No, it is in Alta Loma, which is in the Los Angeles area, not San Francisco.

1. 
   DougF | Feb 27, 2006 08:07pm | #13

   Jamie, I had a major brain fart!!!  Of course your right and I know where it is but for some reason I locked it in as Marin County.  Oh well, he should visit it anyway :-)

   Doug 

8. 
   Miami | Feb 25, 2006 05:47pm | #9

   Oh, and I was wrong about the location of Shively wood (the one in David Marks' show) - It's pretty near SF, up very near Point Reyes.  If you're going up to Marin to Maloof studio, this would be reasonably close.

   Clay

9. 
   user-65718 | Feb 28, 2006 12:42am | #14

   a little out of your way but In the Oakland, Berkeley area these are some of my local favorites:

   http://www.berkeleymills.com/
   a beautiful workshop and showroom. here's a recent news piece:
   http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/02/11/HOGPPH3Q9C1.DTL

   and right down the street:
   http://www.macbeath.com/berkeley.html
   In my opinion the best specialty lumber shop in the Bay Area. Right next door to a redwood burl carving studio.

   and over in Alameda for some tool drooling:
   http://www.japanwoodworker.com/

   Enjoy!

1. 
   bakesale1 | Feb 28, 2006 10:29pm | #15

   John:  I have another suggestion.  Visit the website for the Bay Area Woodworkers Association, http://www.geocities.com/bawanewsletter/, they may have something going on to visit or you can contact local in the area.  I also like White Bros. in Oakland for hardwoods.  I think there is also a place in Sausalito that used to give free or cheap lessons on building wood boats by hand.  I think they were tring to keep the craft alive.

    

   I second the fun of visiting Berkeley Mills.  Scott Wynn is also in the Bay Area.  He's been a FWW contributor and has done some nice work.  Arnie Champagne (sp) gives hand tool classes in SF.

10. 
    Bob G | Mar 12, 2006 07:30am | #16

    There is a Woodcraft store in Dublin, 25 minutes N. of San Jose and a Rockler store in Pleasant Hill, 40 minutes N. of San Jose. They are both off of Hwy.680 and that's the way to go to Napa from S.J. Napa is about an hour and 20 minutes from the north end of San Jose.