About Us

Welcome to Tofino Woodshop

My name is Rick Jamieson and I was born and raised in beautiful Tofino BC; also known as the surfing capital of Canada. Aside from its picturesque beaches and mild winters, Tofino is surrounded by Old Growth Western Red Cedar trees which are as old as 1500 years.

I was passionate about woodwork from a young age and first introduced to hands-on experience woodwork in high school. Having lived in this small yet vibrant community, I was inspired by a local furniture business which thrived for over 20 years here, until the owner closed their doors due to retirement. It motivated me to start my own woodworking business and continue tradition of building Adirondack chairs from salvaged wood, which became true in 2018. But due to limited space in previous shop and for family reasons, in 2021 I moved my business to Kitchener BC.

I make a trip each year back to Tofino to pick up lumber from the same sawmill that I have always used, and have been able to find a few small mills around British Columbia that do salvage. With the recent Old Growth deferrals, it will become increasingly difficult to find the lumber I need, and I have seen a sharp decline in available supply around the province.

Tofino Woodshop is a 100% sustainable business and all activities, from selecting lumber to building Adirondack Chairs to shipping them to customers, are carried out with careful consideration so it does not negatively impact our environment.

Tofino Woodshop is commited to providing high quality furniture from salvaged Western Red Cedar. Most of our lumber comes rough cut from a local sawmill up the coast from Tofino BC. They salvage the wood themselves from the waters around Clayoquot Sound. In addition, we operate our own bandsaw mill at our shop, when we are able to salvage our own Western Red Cedar logs.

Due to the outstanding beauty of Western Red Cedar, it is highly sought after by the logging industry. For this reason it is important for us to use cedar from salvaged sources, so the existing old growth cedar will remain in its natural environment. Therefore preserving a dwindling population due to logging.

Western Red Cedar is known and respected as one of Canada's most beautiful and durable wood species. Cedar is naturally durable and light in weight. It is a softwood of moderate strength with excellent weather resistant properties. Western Red Cedar varies in colour from light straw to pinkish red to deep rich brown. Due to its resistance to decay it makes it a perfect medium for constructing outdoor furniture, whether left natural or treated.

We have our own lumber kiln, where small batches of wood are dried slowly for several weeks until the proper moisture content is reached, which translates to minimal movement within the wood. Lumber is hygroscopic by nature, which means that it will give off and absorb water to balance out with its environment.

Just as using salvaged wood products is important for the environment, so is using environmentally friendly packaging. We chose to ensure we continued to meet those environmentally friendly standards by using packaging paper that was made from %100 recycled product and reusable organic cotton bags for the included hardware, to the gummed paper tape sealing your box. We encourage you to reuse the bags if possible and to recycle the box and packing.