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Winnipegger Bob Russell sells wood slabs to people with a DIY project in mind, but also takes custom orders.
After decades of working in both the music and social services industries, Winnipegger Bob Russell decided he wasn’t ready to end up on a slab, so he started making them!
To make that happen, he retired in November 2017, bought a band sawmill and started sawing logs.
The slabs I speak of are the kind you get from sawing a tree trunk into anywhere from 10- to 20-foot planks of varying thicknesses, called slabs, that are then dried (by letting them dry naturally over a year or so), or much more quickly with a kiln.
At that point, Russell, through his new business, Winnipeg Creative Wood Design, either sells the slabs to people with a DIY project in mind, or takes orders and custom-builds them for people lacking the know-how and tools to do it themselves.
Now you don’t just retire and start planking without practice. Russell says he spent the first couple of months into retirement just learning how to operate his sawmill. There were some big ol’ trees in his and wife Jane’s beautiful yard they wanted taken down, and those are the trees he sliced and diced until he felt he’d got it right.
Understandably, acquiring the sawmill was just the first step in amassing the many tools needed to own and operate a creative wood design business, so before long, he became the proud owner of a Festool track saw, a 20-inch planer, sanders, hand wood planes, a proper dust collector, etc. He’s only just begun.
With his garage full of drying wood and other slab-related equipment, he was in dire need of a shop of some sort to work in year-round, so he insulated and converted a nice big shed in their backyard.
Happy husband, not so happy wife. For some time, Jane had been pondering plans to have Russell convert that shed to a summer-type escape to sit, sip and chat in, but that dream literally bit the dust with the launch of the new biz. Of course, she really is OK with it, but Russell says the pressure is on to build a bigger, more suitable workshop out back somewhere, so Jane can have her hut back.
It’s on the list.
In the slab business, tools don’t do you any good whatsoever if you don’t have trees to cut slabs from. Russell is happy to report that so far, between what he’s harvested from his own yard and donations from people removing trees from theirs, he’s managed to keep himself supplied with the stock he needs to get the job done.
Local trees — maple, oak, spruce, basswood, ash and so on — provide some really beautiful wood to convert into tables, numerous varieties of furniture, plus some extremely creative decor uses, and he is now also bringing in some Ontario stock we don’t have here. Examples include cherry, hard maple and sugar maple, and he’s just ordered some Ontario walnut for a bar top project.
And wow, does he create some gorgeous charcuterie/serving boards.
Now, just as I have become the no-kill shelter for all unwanted pianos hereabouts, Russell has become the recycling/repurposing centre for trees being removed locally. If you have one you think he might make use of, or perhaps have slab project questions, contact him at piney@mts.net. He doesn’t have a website you can "log" onto yet, but you can also check out his Instagram: @bob.russell.731.
No question, Russell works magic with wood, turning trees that would normally go to a firepit or the dump into some amazing and uniquely functional works of art.
Yes, if a tree falls in the forest, he not only hears it, but hauls it.
Comments or feedback, love to hear from you at lmustard1948@gmail.com.
