Sweet Gum Co

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Sweet Gum Co

Woodworker in Chattanooga, TN. Proprietor of Sweet Gum Co. Sawmill operator. Lumber salvager.

18/10/2025

Small wooden serving bowls in sweetgum wood.

These have been a long time in the works, and when I finally had them finished a couple of weeks ago, I messed up the last coat of finish and had to re-sand them all and start over. I'm finally at the stage of looking for boxes and trying to figure out how to pack them, sometimes the most challenging part of the process!

15/10/2025

Wooden dessert spoons in black walnut, headed off shortly to for , opening soon in Ottawa.

I hadn't carved a large set of curved ones before so I was quite happy with the way these turned out. The curve itself wasn't difficult, but figuring out how to get it consistent over a set of 24 was a bit tricky.

11/07/2025

Wooden dessert spoons in cherry. These are part of a large project that's finally coming together for and his new restaurant, Aptos, in South Australia.

Cherry is a hard wood so not the easiest to carve, but I got this batch from my dad's shop when I cleaned it out last fall and it was some of the hardest wood I've carved. I think he'd had it drying in there for about 30 years. It was prettier than what I had, though.

02/07/2025

Hand-carved wooden dinner spoons in black walnut.

These are on their way to Lilo in Carlsbad, CA, which opened in April and already last week got it's first Michelin star, quite the impressive beginning.

08/04/2025

Dessert spoons in maple.

These are for the restaurant Aptos, which will be opening soon in Stirling, South Australia. These have kept me busy for a while, and there are a lot more pieces in the works.

27/11/2024

Odds and ends, mostly new, with a few older ones to fill the gaps. I'm working on getting these all up in the shop in the next day or so.

The second photo is from September of 2011. At the end of April we'd had three tornados come through on the same day. Trees were down everywhere, through houses and across roads, and almost everyone with a chainsaw was out clearing them up. That's the point at which my dad and I started talking about getting a sawmill, and this was the first log we cut, a cherry one that had been pushed to the side of an alley behind a house he owned. We cut all the logs we could get ahold of for several years, so when my friend Beth asked me to make cutting boards and utensils for her online shop, I had more lumber than I knew what to do with.

Dad passed away last week. He's the one in the back; I took the photo. He was 87 years old, so 74 in this pic. It's not the best portrait, but it's how I remember him: hard at work and learning something new.

19/11/2024

A few more dinner spoons.

These are currently on their way to San Diego, to , chef of the Michelin-starred restaurant . Eric's working on a new restaurant, Lilo, set to open in February, where these will find a home.

I haven't been to San Diego since the summer I turned 7, probably the best summer of my childhood. My dad got a job teaching summer school there, so we, my parents and two sisters, packed up a pop-up camper, drove out there from Wisconsin, and lived in the camper at a KOA campground. Dad only taught on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, so we had long weekends for sightseeing and shorter trips. Weekdays we spent at the campground where we lived in the swimming pool and tv room, watching reruns of the Beverly Hillbillies, 3 Stooges, and Chips. I remember it as a paradise, though it must have been a bit rough on my parents. That was a while ago now, summer of '77, I think.

28/10/2024

Charred red oak.

At the beginning of the year when things were slow, I started experimenting with a blow torch. The first set of these did not turn out well; I don't think you're actually supposed to set the pieces on fire! These turned out much better, and I've got another set almost ready to burn.

Since July I've been struggling with dry eyes, and looking at screens makes it a lot worse. I've not heard not looking at screens touted as a good social media strategy, but fortunately I had a lot of work lined up that didn't involve screens. Now that the eyes are a bit better I'm back working at getting new pieces, including these, up in the shop.

Address

37341, 37343, 37350, 37351, 37363, 37377, 37379, 37402, 37403, 37404, 37405, 374

Website

http://sweetgumco.squarespace.com/

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