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On the show today is Bryant Dickens from Dickens and Son Sawmill. A fish biologist by trade, Bryant fell in love with live edge furniture in college. His passion really took off 11 years ago when he learned how expensive live edge furniture was, decided to figure out how to make his own designs, and sourced his wood from local tree service companies from what they considered their “tree waste” piles.  Bryant originally paid for local businesses to mill the logs for him but after increasing his earnings selling these slabs and also by making furniture, he purchased his first mill, which was soon upgraded to a Wood-Mizer LT35. He became very passionate about using a resource that is historically underutilized in Arizona, and salvaging wood from the urban forest became his way of combating that waste. Bryant explains further that 75% of what he does is sell raw slabs, and he is certain to pay for his logs even if folks would otherwise be dropping them off at the dump. He does this to give fair value to the tree service workers who provide him with a lot of his product. As a result of his direct and fair practices, the tree service workers often check with him first before going to a dump.  Most of the wood Bryant sources is truly local, within 30 miles of his house, and to avoid waste, he tries to use the whole log, no dimensional lumber. As he mentions, “A lot of trees in Arizona don’t grow straight anyways.” While Bryant uses Instagram and Facebook as most businesses do, because he is focused on his local area, a lot of his business comes through Craigslist. As Bryant states, “People on Craigslist are actually a surprisingly large market since they tend to be slightly less educated on the materials, but they want to get high-quality wood.” Due to his willingness to help local customers, they often send him photos of their projects. Bryant takes his level of care one step further by offering advice on how to finish their project professionally. This attention to his local community means that a great deal of Bryant’s advertising is word of mouth. By making a bench or cutting/charcuterie board for a customer who then refers another friend to him, he has built his business on the basis of being “the guy” in town to get people their wood.  He believes that people want wood and furniture with heritage and with a history. He also knows that most want products that are built durably so they will last a long time, but there needs to be a way to get it for a reasonable price so that average consumers can buy quality wood rather than disposable big box store furniture. In the next ten years or so, Bryant would like to get a larger space and have a proper urban lumber warehouse/milling operation. Sometimes when he’s out, not even looking for wood and he hears a chainsaw, he’ll go talk to the tree service company doing the work and ask them where that log is headed. Especially if you are in Arizona, get in touch with Bryant through his Instagram if you want to come look through his woodpiles or to get one of his pieces of furniture that may be a tree from your hometown. @dickens_and_son_sawmill Phone: 602-390-2635