May 28, 2023
I am a woodworker, and furniture maker and have lived in North Carolina area for nearly 17 years. I used to spend more time looking for quality hardwoods than I did building my woodworking projects and when I found some, it was low quality, incredibly overpriced, air dried, or turned into potato chips by someone else’s attempt at kiln drying. So we took the bull by the horns and started a small hardwood kiln operation 6 years ago to provide high-grade furniture, cabinet, table top lumber for ourselves. Soon word got around, other folks liked working with our specialty hardwoods.
Our North Carolina business grew little by little, and now we use a local sawmill and our kiln to provide top-quality hardwood to hobbyists and professional woodworkers alike in the Triad and surrounding North Carolina areas. Our hardwood customers range from hobbyists, homeowners, carpenters, cabinet and furniture makers, professional musical instrument makers, wood carvers, to folks who just want to build a doghouse or front porch bench. We put a lot of effort into producing top-quality exotic hardwoods and are very proud of the wood we sell. I won’t sell a board that I wouldn’t use myself.
If you are wondering why our hardwood would look any different from the stuff you can buy in the big box stores, it’s because the wood sold commercially by franchise stores is specifically processed to dull out the highlights in order to reduce batch to batch color variability.
For example, the walnut sold by big box stores in California needs to look the same as the walnut sold in North Carolina or Florida. So big commercial kilns use processes to flatten out unique colors and pigments so everything looks the same. They intentionally color level it. So if you buy walnut from the box store, you would be paying twice as much and go home with bland wood you are forced to make look good with a bucketful of wood stain and other finishing techniques. We do just the opposite. We use gentle, low temperature processes to bring out and preserve the true colors of the wood, so it looks as natural as possible. The best way to finish our wood is with just a quick wipe of finishing oil. Our hardwood has been described as “Wow Wood” because that’s a common phrase we hear all the time when folks see the colors, grain and vibrancy of our lumber.
Our hardwoods come from trees grown in the Appalachian Mountains from North Carolina to Pennsylvania. We work with local professional loggers, top-quality sawmills and log brokers to help us find premium logs. We know that great hardwood only comes from great logs, and we spend a considerable amount of time and effort tracking down the best logs in North Carolina, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania.
It’s not easy finding these high quality logs, and sometime our stock of lumber runs low, but we won’t compromise and buy low quality logs and try to pawn them off as the good stuff.
In the end, what do you get out of it? What are we trying to sell you? First class lumber that fits your needs! Looks at the picture below, and try to imagine how good you would feel building projects from wood like this. When is the last time you’ve seen 12″ walnut boards? Without a knot? Kiln dried
Our Commitment – We want to provide the best specialty hardwoods, at the best prices, with the best customer experience in North Carolina and the surrounding areas. We do our best to cater to everyone who has an interest in fine wood, to keep things relaxed and easy-going. We are proud to say that we have a lot of women and young people as repeat customers. We don’t have a fancy showroom, but most folks don’t mind the view at our farm in Kernersville, and we have a spacious and clean converted barn to house and display our wood.
Woodworking is supposed to be fun, but it’s not if you have to spend a big pile of bucks to buy a few boards that you can carry out of the retail store tucked under one arm. Depending on the grade of hardwood you want, I can fill up your pickup truck for the same amount of money.
