Rescued Wood– Wood that we source and process from logs to final dimensions for the use in guitar building. Logs that would otherwise end up in landfills are turned into something special!

Our neighbors at the facility where we manufacture Coop Guitars, are Arborists and tree removers. Very often, our neighbors return from the job of the day with large logs on their trucks. Early on I asked what they do with these logs. The answer I received was surprising. Some of the more special logs are sold to mills to be processed into lumber, but most of the logs are dumped. Most of the logs that our neighbors secure, are from residential neighborhoods. As a result, these logs often have nails and other metal objects that can damage a sawmill’s equipment. Mills seldom buy the residential logs because saw mills cannot afford the risk of metal objects damaging their equipment.

About a year ago, I started checking out these logs that were coming into the facility. I was also introduced to a gentleman that has a really nice saw that he uses to turn logs into lumber for his personal use. A plan was hatched to rescue as many of the logs as possible. We’d saw the logs into boards, air dry them for 6 months and then transport the boards to a commercial kiln for further drying. The sawyer has a steady supply of logs and I can also select a fair amount of boards that I can use to build special Coop Guitars and bodies for do it yourselfers.  Truth be told, the cost of rescuing some of this wood exceeds the cost of purchasing the same type of wood from a lumber yard, but I feel good about the fact that so much wood is being kept from landfills.

The guitars that we call Rescue-Ts are produced from this rescued wood. We are proud of these guitars as they are unique in appearance as well as having uniquely sourced materials for their construction.