Pacific Millworks is a father, son operation focused on providing the highest quality custom wood products and services. Richard Blackburn and his son Ryan have over 50 years of combined woodworking experience.
Richard began his woodworking career when he inherited his grandmother's carving tools. In 1972 he started "Woods & Works" in downtown Santa Barbara, California. In 1976 Richard moved to Idaho. After 10 years in Sun Valley, building furniture and cabinets, Richard decided to move the family and business he had started back to California. When he stumbled across San Luis Obispo county, he knew he had found somewhere special. In 1986, Pacific Millworks opened up shop in Morro Bay, California and began to focus on custom doors and millwork.
Ryan grew up tinkering in the shops scrap pile and sweeping up to earn his weekly allowance. He began working in the shop part time through high school and college. After graduating from the Industrial Technology department at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo in 2002, Ryan started working full time at Pacific Millworks.
In 2003, Pacific Millworks expanded to its current larger, more modern woodworking facility in Atascadero, California. This current location features a variety of large, and state of the art wood milling equipment, including a 5'x10' CNC (computer numerical control) router. This facility, along with two other skilled employees, has increased the quality, tolerances, and scope of work that Pacific Millworks is able to produce.
In 2008, Ryan became a partner in the family business. Now the two work together designing, building and overseeing all of Pacific Millworks custom projects.
When not in the shop getting dusty, Ryan and Richard can be found surfing, mountain biking and spending time with their families around the beautiful coast of central California, which they call home. Pacific Millworks is their vision of a small, customer-oriented business, dedicated to the traditions of craftsmanship, quality and creativity that are missing in much of todays products.
And if you were wondering, Ryan's great-grandmother's carving tools are still in use when hand-carved projects come through the doors at Pacific Millworks.