In early civilizations, loggers were responsible for establishing the foundations of life and optimizing everything from shelter to travel to hunting. In modern times, woodworking is the passion of artisans' lives. And the genius is to create unique beautiful things from the most versatile natural materials.
Move over, pine box. This is what real wood innovators build with courage. Meet America's Best Carpenters.
Nick Shade - Guillemot Kayaks
Unable to buy his own sea kayaks from a dealer, Nick started building kayaks in a shed. It was 1986. I was fresh out of college, studying electrical engineering, living in Maine and wanting to explore the coast. He didn't have much experience in carpentry, but he had helped his brother build a tugboat, where thin strips of wood are joined together to form a shape, and he was sure he could figure it out. He based his design on a photo of a kayak he saw in a magazine and went to work on. It took three months.
"I couldn't get a job in college, so I built boats," Shade said of the convocation project. "It was a lot of fun designing and building it, but it was really the experience of paddling along the beach that got me hooked on something I built."
Shedd now owns Guillemot Kayaks, where he builds custom boats and holds multi-day workshops that guide clients through the boat building process. “If I could drive all day and get paid to do it, I would, but I really like being addicted to their stuff. It's so cool to get out on the water and sail your boat on a remote island off the coast of Maine."
Shedd used quarter-inch pieces of western red cedar, which he stapled to shape, built the boats one by one, and joined the pieces of wood together until the boat took shape. He then sands the wood and applies fiberglass cloth and epoxy to the interior and exterior of the wood.
"It's fun to turn a small pile of wood into a boat that can sail on water," Shade said. "Wooden boats in general are something that people can relate to, partly because the practical aspect is so simple. You take a big piece of wood, cut it, join other pieces of wood and make a boat. In general, it looks scary. , but step by step everything is quite it's easy
The process may be simple, but the results are amazing. Shedd's kayak is literally a functional work of art. One of them is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Gary Malek - Bird Man Bat
Gary Male knows that cartoon characters with wings painted on his Birdman bats are hilarious. That's the real thing. Gary's brother drew Birdman as a doodle while playing baseball in college, and the Maleks decided they should use it as their company's bat logo. "It's a crazy image that reminds hits not to push too hard," says Male. "Just for fun. You're playing a game."
As some of Malek's clients move to higher levels of the game, they might be forgiven for a little performance anxiety. Birdman Bats is one of about 30 independent manufacturers offering custom bats for Major League Baseball players. Although MLB is a highly regulated entity that regulates every aspect of the game, down to the room temperature at which baseballs are stored before each game, hitters can choose their own bat as long as it meets MLB guidelines. And some of the best ballplayers in the world choose Birdman bats, including National League MVP Bryce Harper and fan favorite Ozzy Albies.
Malek made his first bat for fun while playing summer baseball in San Francisco, using a lathe he bought on Craigslist. He had no carpentry training, but he was always a handy man, renovating houses and fixing cars with his father, and he loved the process. He made several more at-bats for his coaches and other players, eventually landing them in the hands of some major league and minor league baseball players. From there the business grew organically. Malek's original lathe is still part of Birdman's shop, but all of the company's bats are carved on computer-automated machines before going through a painstaking hand-sanding and stamping process.
It's just a stick, right? But you can't pick up a manual or take a class to learn how bats are made," Malek said. "And it's a quiet industry because bat manufacturing is such a small place, so we're figuring it out ourselves."
Mal said that the Bird-Man Bat stood out from the crowd because of the wood he chose. Traditionally, wooden bats were made from ash, but recently, independent manufacturers have been working with different hardwoods with different properties. Malek is a special fan of Birch. "Ash wears and breaks very easily," says Male. "Birch has longer fibers, lighter and more durable. The harder you hit, the louder and denser it becomes."
J. Kissinger-Sojourn Cycling
Jay Kinsinger made steel bicycle frames for years until he decided to make wooden frames. It took him 400 hours using mostly hand tools, but he was impressed with the process and the results. "It was a really fun experience, and you shouldn't feel embarrassed when you ride a wooden bike," he says. "Everyone noticed and wanted to talk to you about it."
While assembling his first wooden bicycle, Kinsinger discovered that there was more to the material than just looks. "Wood is a good material for a bike frame because it absorbs all the vibrations from the road and makes for a smooth ride," he says. "Wood is more than a pretty face."
Kinsinger was a mechanical engineer who taught at Cedarville University in Ohio, but he was a born carpenter. His father was a carpenter, and Kinsinger made furniture and sculpture as a hobby for much of his adult life. Wooden bicycle frames combine his passion for cycling, woodworking and engineering, which is why he started building high-end custom bikes for customers seven years ago under the Sojourn Cyclery brand. He says many of his customers now want gravel grinders, but he builds everything from 29er mountain bikes to tandem bikes. The wood he uses, durable black walnut, has an excellent strength-to-weight ratio, so his bikes are as strong and light as metal frame bikes, and the walnut wood absorbs almost all vibrations. Wood makes you more creative when designing frames.
"I don't limit myself to straight lines. I can bend and curve the steam. Wood is a very elegant frame," Kinsinger said. "And people have a real connection with wood that's hard to explain. It has a nice, organic feel that makes you want to touch it and caress it.
Taylor Donsker - Donsker Designs
You could call the pieces created by Taylor Donsker "furniture," but that term doesn't quite fit his work, which mixes elements of architectural philosophy and traditional woodworking to create pieces that often defy categorization. Think: an earthquake-inspired coffee table with an irregular adjustable top. Recently, he used a chainsaw to carve a series of furniture from a single tree, including a chair carved from a log.
"For the first time, I used a chainsaw for most of the process," Donsker says of this almost primitive piece of furniture. "It was a joy for me to stretch the whole tree, because the tree is a part. Where I cut down the tree carefully and carefully so that the remains will become furniture in the future.
Regardless of the end result, the beginning always starts with the choice of wood. "Ultimately, I let the wood guide me to what I want the pieces to be. The first step is finding the right piece of wood. Is it the right shape? The right grain? That first step has a lot of nuances. Once you take that first step, everything else is fine.
"It's an experiment to push the limits of woodworking," says Donsker. "I'm constantly trying to challenge myself to do something interesting or beautiful or difficult, and it really works."
Trained as an architect, Donsker started making furniture as a way to break into the business during the 2010 recession. Architecture firms weren't hiring, so he thought that designing furniture could lead to home design. But he fell in love with furniture and never looked back.
"Furniture is a miniature form of architecture," says Donskar. "You build a chair like you build a house. I get a dose of wanting to do architecture by making large-scale furniture. And I love how it works at home. With a well-designed modern home, furniture can add or take away from the space."
Jorge Rocha - Iris Skateboards
Jorge Rocha did not watch much television. He didn't even spend much time. Maybe, when George is awake, he's skating in his shop or building something.
"Honestly, what I do for fun is my job," Rocha said. "Tiring and time-consuming, but that's how I like to spend my time."
Rocha is the owner of Iris Skateboards, where he recycles many old skateboards into beautiful new rainbow-colored skateboards. The process involves taking about 20 old planks, gluing them together and pressing them together to form a solid block of wood. From there, Rocha removes the colored layers of each recycled board by cutting the board into new shapes. This is the definition of functional art.
"I'm very proud to build and ride my first board," said Rocha. "I smiled as I walked down the street. He was fascinated by the fact that he could make things out of other things that no one wanted."
Being a carpenter came naturally to Rocha, as he instilled the sensibility of a father and grandfather from childhood, from ramps to fixing cars. "I learned to weld when I was 10 years old," says Rocha. "My family is old school."
After embarking on the process of skateboarding, Rocha began making surfboards and furniture from the same recycled boards. He creates custom tables, sofas and end tables that share the same wavy rainbow aesthetic. He bought the first surfboard that Tony Hawk ever made. Now he's turning to sculpture and collaborating with Vans to create a masterpiece that will be on display during the upcoming Vans US tour.
"Furniture is a natural progression of skateboarding, and sculpture is a natural progression of furniture," says Rocha. "I want to develop myself to do interesting things for myself."
