Creekers & Sam Maloof

[Earl Reid]

I will agree with all the remarks about Sam. I had the wonderful opportunity to meet Sam in Dec 2001 in Washington DC, He is a remarkable man, that I have respected for many years.
Earl

[John Miliunas]

While I doubt very, very much I'll ever have the opportunity to meet the man in person, much less to spend the day in his shop with such an esteemed bunch of Creekers, I can "brag" about meeting and being friends with one of his students. Ed Wohl, (http://www.edwardwohl.com/index.html) a local WW artisan, just outside of Spring Green, studied under Sam and later, spent an entire summer working side by side with the man in his younger years! Must be something about the renowned WW's which, it seems, makes them just so easy to expound a sincere enthusiasm about their craft. From all you guys have described about Sam, with his skills and energy and zest for life, I can see so much of it in Ed Wohl, as well. Ed, who is not a "spring chicken" himself, is currently in the process of building a tennis court in his own yard! He just installed a great spray booth at his own shop, so that he can have full control over the entire process, whereas before, he would farm that part of the work out. Always looking to learn and share and, always wearing a smile. True, there have been some great Masters in the past but, we certainly have some present day craftsman who easily fit that mold!

[Don Baer]

One question that's been rattling around in my head is, what's the ultimate fate of that wood collection? Unless my back-of-the-envelope calculation is way off, there's something like a 100 year supply stashed away there.

Well ya know Lee that I would be glad to drive over and relieve him of any surplus that he may have..

I'm sure he wouldn't miss a couple of hundred board feet.


woudn't it be nice to beable to walk out the door to your shop and just pickup what you need no matter how big the project is..

[Paul Comi]

I am going to take a similar visit with some Woodnet guys from around So Calif and I'm really looking forward to it. Seeing the pictures and hearing what you guys had to say really gets me excited.

[Paul Comi]

I went with 15 people on a shop tour yesterday and all I can say is what a nice guy Sam Maloof is. We paid $25 to get a 3 hour tour and he ended up sitting with several of us for over 30 mins talking about woodworking, his life and his approach. I hope that he continues his work pace. I think its keeping him young in the mind and body and I hope woodworking does the same for me as I get up in years. He is turning 90 next month and they're celebrating his birthday and breaking ground for a meeting hall building on January 22nd. If you're in the So Calif area, it should be good considering the number of people who know the man and his work. Oh, also if you get weak in the heart seeing nice lumber in the rough be prepared. The man has 3 wood storage buildings stocked to the roof with planks of walnut, zircote and other hardwoods ranging all the way up to 4" thick and most I saw are well over 8" wide. He must have a fortune in wood on site and considering that he and his 3 helpers build 50-60 chairs per year I'll bet he uses a lot of it. As someone who is still building mostly out of poplar and mdf its hard to imagine working with wood that costs $100 bf.

[Don Baer]

Paul

Glad you guys had a great tour. Your are so right about Sam. He is a wonderful open person. You might consider the next Workshop comming up in Early Feb. He is such a great teacher. I was planning on attending the ground breaking but unfortunatly I'll be out of town.

[Paul Comi]

Can you send me a PM about the details?

[Don Baer]

Paul
I'll post it here in case other creekers want to go also.

The course is offered through UC Riverside and is held once per quarter. The fee is $160.

Here is a link to sign up.

http://138.23.217.138/cgi-bin/catalo...keyword=Maloof

Good luck and have fun makinf sawdust.

[Mike Henderson]

Our woodworking club took a tour of Sam's place last year. If you'd like to see a few more pictures of Sam's workshop, with a lot of pictures of the club people, go to http://members.cox.net/norma.henders...aloofvisit.htm

It was a great visit with a lot of good stories. Some of the best were related by Roz, Sam's business manager. One was about Sam buying wood. Roz told the story this way:

"Sam gets a call from the local lumberyard who has supplied him with lumber for 50 years, saying that they just got a bunch of really nice walnut. Sam always replies the same way. He says, 'Roz won't let me buy any more wood.' Of course, I can't tell Sam what to do."

"They talk some more and finally Sam says, 'Send me a sample and I'll look at it.' Some time later, a truck drives up and deposits a load of walnut, not a sample, AND SAM KEEPS IT!"

If I recall properly, Sam now gets $20K for a rocker. I asked Roz how many rockers Sam builds in a year. Roz's reply was succinct and very business managerish, "Not Enough!" She did check and I think they had made about 30 rockers up through September in 2004 - so that was $600K just in rockers.

Others have commented upon this but Sam has a genuine warmth that comes through very clearly. I think this may have been one of the things which really helped him succeed - he's so darn likeable that people probably went out of their way to help him early in his career.

Mike