SOUTH BOISE, Idaho — Tucked away in a neighborhood in South Boise is a slab wood shop called The Live Edge. They save local trees that need to come down from ending up in the landfill and give them a new life as live edge furniture.
“Live edge means that it’s got the cambium layer on the outside here, this is what people buy. This is what they want, the rough edge," said Shaun Knapp, Owner of The Live Edge.
Knapp essentially has an endless supply of unique local wood slabs he sources from his tree removal business KnappCo Tree Service.
WATCH: Take a look inside The Live Edge wood shop
“I pretty much know where all the wood is even through the chaos of everywhere," said Knapp. “I may never catch up, the whole yard back there is full of logs. We have probably about 1000 logs."
He specializes in turning those slabs and logs into unique live edge tables and furniture that highlights the natural beauty of the wood instead of turning it into a traditional straight edge.
He and his team handle the local lumber throughout the entire process.
“We cut down this tree, milled the wood, dried the wood, kilned it," said Knapp.
One of his current projects for a client is based around two black walnut slabs he attached together with epoxy to make a unique table.
“It’s an epoxy river table, black walnut. It’s being fine tuned and polished out," said Knapp.
Knapp says an intricate project like an epoxy river table can take between 60-100 hours to build from start to finish. He works with each client to build a one of a kind piece.
“It could be an heirloom piece for a person if they had us come down, cut out their tree in the backyard and then turn it into something they can remember it by," added Knapp.
The Live Edge also has hundreds of tree slabs ready to go that local craftsmen can purchase and turn into a project of their own.
