Growers turn culled wood into furniture line

Woodshop News - February 2003

The Raleo line features woods grown at Tropical American Tree Farms in Costa Rica                               By Brian Caldwell STAFF WRITER

    The founders of Tropical American Tree Farms, Steve and Sherry Brunner, opened their first tree farm in Costa Rica in 1992.  The venture, where people may purchase trees for future harvest, has grown to nine farms, 11,000 acres, and more than 1.6 million trees.  Now the Brunners have introduced a line of furniture made from the trees they planted nearly 10 years ago.

    "The furniture that we're making right now, the majority of it is teak, simply because teak is one of the earlier species we're thinning and it is one of the faster growing species," said Steve Brunner.  "In Raleo there are two collections so far.  One is 'Pi,' as in the Greek letter pi, and the other 'Vária'.  The word 'raleo' is a Spanish noun, which means 'a thinning,' so if you are thinning a stand of trees that you have planted, you are doing a raleo.  It's a really good word, because the wood we are building the furniture with is coming from trees that we have thinned."

    Among the pieces initially being built are coffee tables, benches, dining tables, occasional tables, console tables, side tables and game tables.  The furniture received a positive response from designers when displayed at the Chicago Design Show in November, and again at the Chicago One of a Kind Show in December.  The furniture will be marketed through designers and design showrooms to the trade.

    Brunner said the variation in color of young teak is what distinguishes Raleo furniture from other teak furniture.  He said people have not seen young teak - 8, 9 years old - in furniture and said it is much more beautiful than adult teak.

    "We can literally pick the age of the tree for the product that we want to make.  At 5 to 6, the teak is still pretty light in color.  By the time it turns 7, 8, 9, it's got a lot of variation in color.  It has a beautiful grain, it takes a really high polish, it looks really great.  And then by the time it starts to turn 10, 11 or 12, it starts to turn more like you're used to seeing teak.

    "For outdoor use I'd take old teak all day long and as for market value, old teak still sells for a lot higher than young teak, for wood.  But for building furniture - and we are - I'd choose young teak every day."

    Tropical American Tree Farms has two shops, and all furniture production takes place at a 10,000-sq. ft. facility in San José, the capital of Costa Rica.  The San José shop has been in operation making prototypes for about 18 months and is now in the initial production stage, producing about 10 tables a month.  By the end of the year, production levels are expected to increase to about 100 tables a month.  For Steve Brunner, Raleo is a dream come true.

    "I really have a feeling that Raleo is going to grow just as large as the tree farms," he said.  "The products are really very, very unique.  I think there is a significant demand for them and we have really good people that we're working with in our two shops.  I've always loved gorgeous wood and there are things that we are doing now in Raleo that I have had in my mind for years."

    The shop also produces art made of little pieces of wood of all the different species not found in the normal Vária inlay or intarsia.

    "When we tell people we grew everything here in the display, then there's often this blank look.  But some people really catch on and think it's really amazing, meaning that this gorgeous wood didn't come from the rain forest, so they can buy it and use it in comfort."

    Contact:  Raleo™, c/o Interlink 1238, P.O. Box 02-5625, Miami, FL  33102, or Raleo SA, Apartado 608 - 1007, San José, Costa Rica  Tel:  800-697-1880 or 800-788-4918.  www.raleo.com or www.tropicalhardwoods.com

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