Mathew Wlotkowski: Rough Sawn Detroit

HOW THE BUSINESS STARTED

On this episode, I chat with Mathew Wlotkowski of Rough Sawn Detroit. For Mathew, the business started out as a hobby. He had and wanted to get into cutting lavage material he had been buying for a while for his own stuff like tables, but later on, figured it would be best to get some cash out of it.

He’d been going through the Detroit area sourcing his material from trees that had fallen or cut out from people putting up houses. He then started posting pictures on social media in order to get his products out there and that is where he sourced his customers.

RUNNING THE BUSINESS AND CHALLENGES FACED

Currently, his biggest challenge is getting time to get his projects done on time and building the business because it's a side hustle for him. He’s been practicing landscaping for 15 years now, but his new business is growing at a faster rate than he thought. Due to this challenge of lack of time to really engage in projects, he is milling wood to provide to other makers and woodworkers in the area.

LEARNING HIS SKILLS

Mathew was one time watching a video on building and he saw a person cut down a tree and take his chainsaw, which had a funky attachment at the end of it, and the person began to mill the material to build his house. This was so cool to him and so he thought it was something he could get into. He then did some research on Granberg and bought a chainsaw that he has been using.

The most popular thing he sells is vinyl record stands but he had to pull out of selling them because he couldn’t keep up with the orders that were being made at that time. Aside from that, he also makes candles holders and some oaks.

FUTURE PLANS

He plans on going a notch higher and get more into building lavage tables, single slab tables and maybe 10 foot long tables.

Instagram: @roughsawnDetroit