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Drake Staffer Jake Bonnetta: Wood-Chopping Wizard + Dust Punk

Posted by Lindsey Cepek, December 19, 2012

We're so lucky to have amazing staff and Jake Bonnetta is no exception. Jake is the owner of Woodchop,he makes amazing creations out of recycled, reclaimed and pre-loved wood. Through creativity + design, Jake is able to make any piece of wood into a spatial-masterpiece.

Jake & Co.

Lindsey Cepek: How did you first get into wood-based furniture making? Was custom work something that you always wanted to get into?
Woodchop: I have been building stuff my whole life. I did renovations for awhile and I hated it. Thankfully, I was fortunate enough to acquire my own shop near Trinity Bellwoods Park and it all kind of snowballed from there. People want stuff that fits a specific space, or has a certain look and I can make that happen for them. It’s the most fulfilling thing in the world to me.

LC: What other designing and building do you do?

WC: Mostly it’s just furniture. But sometimes we do interior designs.

LC: If you had an unlimited budget, what would you build?
WC: Something for myself, probably? Because that would mean that I’m rich-and that would mean I actually had the time to build something just for me.

LC: What do you do when you’re not busy wood shopping + chopping?
WC: Sleep.

LC: What’s next for Woodchop?
WC: We are moving! Bigger, better and warmer! Can’t wait.

LC:Do you know what a wood chuck is – and does it really chuck wood?
WC: A wood chuck is a groundhog. The amount of wood that woodchucks would chuck on a given day varies greatly with the individual woodchuck. According to a Wall Street Journal article, New York State wildlife expert, Richard Thomas, found that a woodchuck could chuck around 35 cubic feet of dirt in the course of digging a burrow. Thomas reasoned that if a woodchuck could actually chuck wood, he would chuck an amount equal to 700 pounds.

LC: You use a lot of recycled and reclaimed materials from all around the city – What’s the best thing you’ve found that someone ‘chucked-out’?
WC: Everything that my partner at Woodchop and I find is amazing. It’s free, it has a story and in the end it will create a one-of-a-kind piece.

LC: How do you protect your beard from all the saw dust?
WC:I don’t. I’m a dust punk. I have embraced it.

Wood Chop business
Reclaimed wood

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Posted in: Our People

Tags: build  chop  design  furniture  reclaim  saw  toronto  wood 

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