Oxford, Mississippi-based woodworkers John Haltom and Ryan Pierce are taking the idea of roots to a whole new level. The furnituremakers turned friends have now become business partners, recently establishing Oxford Slab & Lumber Co.
Haltom, who owns Roxie Woodworks and has created custom pieces for Splinter Creek, was inspired to open the sawmill and kiln with Pierce, owner of Ryan Pierce Furniture, in order to build custom pieces with locally grown, milled and dried lumber, creating fully sustainable, Oxford-made furniture, soup to nuts.
They salvage trees through different avenues. Sometimes their trees are downed after storms, sometimes they get calls from contractors who would have to pay to have the trees removed anyway. Occasionally family members, such as Haltom’s grandparents did recently, give them first dibs on a tree they plan to remove. Now and then it’s just luck, like when a friend spots a fallen tree from the road.
“We realized that we could collaborate in an effort to procure and utilize would-be firewood or dump-destined trees for our projects. Each tree we salvage has a story. They actually all have many stories because each tree was appreciated by countless individuals in Oxford over many decades,” Haltom says.
“"Each tree we salvage has a story."
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– John Haltom, Roxie Woodworks
“There’s really no shortage of lumber mills around here, but finding one which also dries lumber is rare. In our business of making quality furniture, kiln-dry lumber is essential. So, we starting building a solar kiln, which is a relatively slow and easy way to dry lumber, using the heat of the sun to draw moisture from the lumber, which is then carried out of the kiln with fans. It’s basically a greenhouse, with a few additions. But then, we found a good deal on an old (but still going strong!) mill, and decided to start acquiring salvaged lumber,” Pierce says.
“Once a tree is salvaged, and that tree is bucked into logs, the logs are milled into slabs. Ideally, they’re milled according to how we know to reveal the best figuring, color, and stability in a given slab. From there, the slabs are stacked back into their original sequence to comprise the whole log, with divider strips between them to allow air movement between all faces of the slabs. After air drying, the slabs dried further in our solar-powered kiln,” Haltom says.
““Ideally, a finished piece of furniture is simply a beautiful presentation of the work that nature has already done to the wood.” – John Haltom, Roxie Woodworks
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“We’re interested in milling strange, highly figured slabs. This is often the simple result of age; it’s the tree’s winding story of its own life. There’s so much beauty to be found in these slabs, and all we’re doing is peeling back some layers of nature,” Pierce says.
“We’re in the business of using that which would not have otherwise been used. It’s amazing really, after having opened up some of the logs, to imagine them rotting away in a ditch somewhere. We’re giving the trees a new life this way. Our furniture will go from tree to finished piece having touched our hands every step of the way. There’s something genuine in that,” Pierce says.
