Goodwin Company turns 40 years old this July. While that seems like an eternity, it is just a flicker in time when you compare it to sinker cypress, which is more than 1,000 years old!
One of our favorite publications is this 1936 booklet, “An Inside Story of Tidewater Red Cypress for Interiors of Beauty and Stability” by the Southern Cypress Manufacturer’s Association. It refers to Virgin growth Heart Cypress as “the Wood Eternal” and gives example after example of heart cypress that has lasted for centuries on exteriors.
Cypress has always been my favorite wood. I love the swirling ancient grain patterns and beautiful warm honey, to cinnamon to light and dark chocolate tones. Instead of showing you beautiful interiors this time, I have compiled a list of some of our less conventional projects using sinker cypress:
A different sort of reception desk was made by carving out a River Recovered® sinker cypress log
The bar top at Swamphead Brewery is made of River-Recovered® Heart Cypress and Heart Pine log rounds
Making ‘cut nail holes’ in Tom Cruise’s River Recovered® sinker cypress floor… we told his builder that heart cypress did not have nail holes, but we were happy to make some for him!
A 10’x10’ Scallop Shell floor medallion that shows all of the colors you might find in one millennium giant heart cypress log. My husband, George, Goodwin’s founder and sawyer says the color of the wood has nothing to do with where it is located in the diameter of the log, but rather what was going on with the elements during that period of time.
George Goodwin and Norm Abrams from New Yankee Workshop and This Old House looking at a 1,700 year old sinker cypress log. According to an 1881 hand-drawn map of Florida’s forests, all the rivers in Northern Central Florida had already been clear-cut, meaning the best virgin cypress was cut and sold or lost on the river bottom.
Al Bavry, Kimal Lumber, Sarasota, FL and surrounding cities, uses Goodwin’s Character grade of sinker cypress to maximize the most natural characteristics of the wood.
And last but not least, four River-Recovered® Sinker Cypress logs were specially selected for the portico at the Wellness Center at Lakewood Ranch, Florida.
Have an idea about how to incorporate sinker cypress into a home or corporate space? Drop us a line – we would love to hear your thoughts!
