About
Started in a shop, still run from one.
Ridgeworks Tools was launched from Dale Merrick's workshop in Redmond, Oregon, in the spring of 2020. Dale is a third-generation woodworker. His grandfather ran a mill outside Salem; his father built barns and boats along the northern coast; Dale has been cutting joinery for a living since he was 19.
He started Ridgeworks because he couldn't find the tools he wanted anymore. Not the price — the tools. Chisels that held an edge. Hammers with real hickory instead of glued-up composite. Tape measures whose numbers didn't wear off in a month.
So he made them. Sourced steel from mills that still forged their own billets. Turned handles at a shop two hours down I-5 that had been turning them for fifty years. Sold the first hundred out of the back of his truck.
Six years later, we're still small. We ship from three warehouses. Dale still tests every prototype at his bench.
The bench
A short list of things we won't compromise on.
Every hammer head, chisel blade, and file profile is drop-forged from a solid billet. We don't source castings.
Every handle is solid wood — hickory, ash, beech, walnut. Chosen for grain direction, then hand-fitted.
Blades can be re-honed. Handles can be replaced. Rivets can be re-set. Nothing we sell is meant to be thrown away.
Where we ship from
Three warehouses. West Coast.
Portland, OR 97218
Vernon, CA 90058
Stockton, CA 95215