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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, April 27, 2003

Used tropical hardwood recycled as fine furniture

By Paul Foy
Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY — When some of the overseas crafts he was buying arrived in packing cases of mahogany, Tim O'Brien began to think about the business possibilities for a valuable hardwood that's so common in some parts of the world it's used for pallets.

Tim O'Brien of Salt Lake City salvages tropical hardwood overseas and turns it into furniture imported by his business, Tropical Salvage.

Associated Press

On his travels to Indonesia he also watched some of the world's finest hardwoods being junked at demolition sites.

Now O'Brien is salvaging those tropical hardwoods — usually large beams from old buildings and mosques — and cutting, planing and sanding the wood into fine furniture.

His costs are low, so he can keep the retail price of his goods well under that of quality furniture made of solid American oak. His wood can be twice as dense, richly textured and very heavy, with names like red jackfruit, garu, inja and waru.

The hardwood can be as old as 300 years, giving it sought-after patina — the rich oxidized color, usually dark, that comes only from aging and affirms the value of antique furniture.

At first, the furniture made by O'Brien's workers overseas left much to be desired. The joinery was primitive; drawers used nails instead of dovetail joints. Panels tended to crack or separate in the low Utah humidity.

But his first pieces were experimental, and O'Brien is perfecting his craft. He's drying the lumber so it doesn't crack and hiring more skilled craftsman in Indonesia, where he set up two makeshift sawmills.

• On the Web:

Tropical Salvage:
www.tropicalsalvage.com

He's also toning down some of the native carvings and making cleaner styles that are more attuned to American tastes, including the Mission style of furniture.

One thing that hasn't changed is O'Brien's raw material. He says there's plenty of it left — even as rain forests around the world disappear from intensive logging.

O'Brien is salvaging more than 25 species of tropical hardwoods, a few so rare that they can be obtained from old buildings only. Some of the dark-red hardwoods smell as sweet as perfume, still fragrant from their oils despite decades or centuries of use.

O'Brien operated Tropical Salvage on a shoestring, and now the venture appears to be paying off. Within months, after his next shipment of finished goods arrives from Java, he expects shops from San Francisco to London to carry his furniture, and he also plans to sell planks for flooring.

His first, ad hoc sales are finally starting to cover his travel, manufacturing and shipping costs. O'Brien has poured about $40,000 into the venture over 2 1/2 years, using money he made at a Salt Lake City crafts and clothing shop, Grunts and Postures.

O'Brien, 43, wasn't trained as a businessman or craftsman. He's an English literature major who graduated from Lawrence University at Appleton, Wis., with a case of wanderlust.

He traveled, first across the United States, then to South America. On a visit to Salt Lake City 19 years ago, he ended up staying, opening a record shop with a partner "on a dare." Then they turned to selling "funky" old clothes — what O'Brien calls the "rag market."

He was still traveling, importing silver from Thailand and antiques and crafts from other Asian countries.

Years later, O'Brien turned to salvaging tropical hardwoods. Besides a few teak traders, he knows of nobody else doing the same thing on the same scale, and says there's plenty of salvage wood for competitors.

The business satisfies O'Brien's passion for environmental and social justice. He can reuse rare hardwoods, save forests, put native people to work, make quality furniture and give U.S. customers a bargain.

When O'Brien bought his first load of salvage hardwood, more than 8 cubic yards of it, he had no idea how much money to offer. He paid about $1,000, only to find out later he could have gotten it for begging. Now he pays about $300 for the same amount of rare tropical hardwoods — enough to fill a large house with furniture.

His woodworkers and carvers earn as much as $100 a month, a good wage in Indonesia, where unemployment in rural areas runs about 45 percent. O'Brien has hired about 35 workers.

Shippers charge about $5,000 for sending a standard shipping container — about 40 feet long and 8 feet wide — across the Pacific. O'Brien's workers load the containers like puzzle masters, packing smaller crafts such as pottery in the dead space of dressers and cabinets.