The Process
Every commission moves through the same four stations. None of them can be rushed, and none of them can be skipped — that's the whole secret, and it isn't one.
No stains that lie about what the wood is.
No screws where a joint belongs.
No piece leaves that won't outlast its maker.
Select
Every piece starts with the tree, not the plan. Boards and burls are chosen one at a time — much of it local and salvaged off the Miramichi — for grain, figure, and the story in the wood. A board with character earns a place on the rack; a board that lies about itself goes to the stove.
Mill & dry
Wood moves. Fighting that is how furniture fails. Stock is milled oversize, stickered, and left alone until it has settled its arguments — then milled again, square and true. The calendar serves the wood here, never the other way around.
Join
Joinery is the difference between furniture and an assembly. Joints are cut to carry load mechanically — so a piece can be repaired in fifty years instead of replaced in five. The glue is a guest; the joint is the host.
Finish
No thick plastic films. Finishes go on thin, coat over coat, and get rubbed back by hand until the surface feels like wood — because it still is. A finish should age the way the wood does: gracefully, and repairably.
Riverside Woodworking is a single-craftsman shop on the Miramichi. The hands that pick the board are the hands that cut the joinery, rub out the finish, and load the piece for delivery. Nothing is jobbed out, and nothing leaves until it's right.
The shop takes a limited number of commissions a year on purpose. That's not a scarcity pitch — it's just how long good work takes when one person refuses to hurry it.
The shop takes a limited number of commissions each year, so every piece gets the time it needs. Bring measurements or bring nothing — the first conversation costs nothing and decides everything.
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