We are proud to source our wood from Almendinger Sawmill in Johnstown, Ohio, whose mission is to harvest locally sourced timber to provide quality, sustainable hardwood products. The Almendinger mission is environmentally friendly, ensuring no waste with 100% of harvested logs being used to produce products made with their timber.
The Almendinger family has a tradition of sawmilling and logging in Ohio that dates back to 1917. Joe Almendinger started the Almendinger Sawmill on his farm Southeast of Johnstown in 1974, specializing in walnut. Over 40 years later, Almendinger Sawmill is a very successful family-owned wood products operation, and we are grateful to hand-select all of our hardwoods from them.
What is hardwood?
“Hardwood is a descriptive term applied to woods that are the densest and rigid compared with the vast collection of wood options. The hardwoods most commonly used are Cherry, Hickory, Maple, Oak, and Walnut. The primary advantage of hardwoods is that they tend to be more durable than other softwoods.” Some examples of softwoods are Cedar, Douglas Fir, Juniper, Pine, Redwood, and Spruce. Most hardwoods have a higher density than softwoods. We do not use softwoods in any of our box making.
When selecting the hardwoods for our keepsake boxes, we look for the least amount of knots, splits, and sap.
Since we love the look of consistent grain for the surround of our keepsake boxes, we use a single piece of walnut (or oak for our whitewashed oak boxes) as wide as the keepsake box is tall. We seek out pieces of walnut (or oak for our oak boxes) that are at least 10″ wide, referred to as “wide walnut” or “wide oak”.
We have built up such a great relationship with the folks at Almendinger that they call or text us when they are unloading wide walnut from the kiln dryer. We always rush right over! We are incredibly grateful for the beauty of their hardwood selection.
These are the solid hardwoods we use in our keepsake box making:
We love working with beautiful hardwoods to create custom keepsake boxes that will be cherished for years to come.
– Christy & Tyler