Starting out with a skill saw purchased at a second-hand store for $7.00 to build some furniture for themselves, they now operate a growing business that builds custom furniture and sells slabs to woodworkers across North America.
Old Souls truly comes from humble beginnings. “Five years ago, we were shopping for furniture and Rik was like, ‘I can build that’,” recalls Callie. “He built me a coffee table and posted it... and sold it right out from underneath me,” she laughed.
That was all the encouragement Rik needed. He and Callie built a few more pieces and started a portfolio that they could show clients.
It took talent and determination to start the business. Rik was working full-time as a welder and pipefitter for power plants. “I did woodworking from 3:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m., worked for the company, then did more woodworking after hours. We got about 6 months backed up on orders,” he recalled. Two years ago, Rik was confident enough in his business to quit his day job and become a full-time woodworker. Recently, Callie also left her job to work with Rik full time – mostly in production – while Rik manages the business.
Rik and Callie get their wood from tree services and salvage dead and blown-down trees. “We found someone with a portable mill to mill up the smaller stuff.” It soon became apparent that owning their own sawmill would be the next major purchase. “We were paying $1,000 a month for custom-sawing, so it was clear that the mill would pay for itself, even if we had to make payments,” Rik noted. “A purchaser from Texas put in a $10,000 order for slabs, so we invested the profits into the sawmill.”
“We did our research,” Callie said. “The Norwood HD36 could get us in the game and cut 70% of what we needed, and we could add on to it as we could afford it and as the need arose. We got the best we could afford and will purchase more accessories as we need them – I can’t wait to add hydraulics to it,” Rik added.
“Norwood has done a good job taking a lot of the guesswork out of running the mill. They designed the mill to make it easy to be confident that you can produce good lumber right away.”
“Norwood has done a good job taking a lot of the guesswork out of running the mill,” agreed Callie, “They designed the mill to make it easy to be confident that you can produce good lumber right away. Our 11-year-old daughter cuts with it quite a bit. Our neighbor is a retired 85-year-old logger,” Rik added. “He comes over and loves to cut on the mill.” And while he still brings in a sawyer with a wide slabber for logs over 36 inches in diameter, Rik says that the Norwood mill has given him a lot more flexibility and creativity in cutting the logs up to that size. “I’m learning to read the log and turn it to get the best grain and most character from it,” he noted.
“The Norwood sawmill has been a real game changer for us,” exclaimed Rik. “The sawmill has allowed us to purchase a custom-built CNC router to flatten wide slabs and carve signs. Next to the mill, that’s our biggest purchase.” By the time you read this, the Simonds will have it set up, providing yet another service from Old Souls Creations.
As for that $7.00 Skilsaw that Rik started with … “I smoked the motor on it years ago,” he laughed, “but I still keep it as a reminder of how we started out.”
Old Souls Custom Creations: https://www.oldsoulscustomcreations.com/
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