As a kid, I always loved to tinker and build things.

I started with boxes and crates to store my treasures, then graduated to tree forts in the woods.  My early skills were rudimentary, but I learned as I went along.  If someone handed me a piece of wood, there was a solid chance that I would turn in into something.  

I took my first woodshop class in the ninth grade.  The tools, the smell, stacks of raw wood…I was hooked.  I had to get special permission to take Mr. Greer’s shop class all four years of high school.  My counselor told me I should try different electives.  I wasn’t interested.  Wood was it.  

Almost forty years of messing around in the woodshop has taught me that every piece of wood has a soul.  Hardwoods, softwoods, exotics, and run-of-the-mill stuff.  All of it has the potential to become something wonderful, useful, practical…something beautiful.  Craftsman have used wood as their medium for thousands of years.  To this day, no other material comes close to the timeless warmth and character of wood.