Sons of Sawdust
A series of unfortunate events led brothers Matt and Ben Hobbs to begin a business that now has international reach, with customers calling from as far as Canada for their stunning products.
Although Ben no longer works at Sons of Sawdust, Matt has continued to produce custom farm tables, furniture, and entire spaces—all from reclaimed wood.
Working with this material and repurposing it in this unique way was not unfamiliar to the brothers when they started their joint-business venture. Their late grandfather played an instrumental role in the creation of this business. Although he passed in 2008, their grandfather taught them how to be craftsmen and carpenters.
“I think that Pa would be proud,” says Matt Hobbs. “I know that he would be in our workshop everyday with us, and he’d be building right alongside us, guiding us along the way.”
The Hobbs brothers were raised working with wood, and after Matt created a table for his wife as an anniversary present, the brothers decided to build tables to earn money after they’d lost their previous incomes. The influx of commissions and inquiries about their products was far greater than they could have ever imagined, and they decided to give the business a shot.
In 2014, Sons of Sawdust was born. This Athens-based business has a workshop in Bishop and strives to collect all of their wood from local sources. Through the repurposing of their wood, Sons of Sawdust is able to give new life and meaning to material that would otherwise be forgotten and destroyed.
“It’s a beautiful story about second chances, which means a lot to us, since we were dead broke financially when we started building tables. This business is about our second chance at life,” says Hobbs. “We see ourselves in the wood, and as we have saved this old wood, it has in turn saved us!”
