Appearances can be deceiving.

While most church furnishings display a similar style of carving, that is where the similarity ends. Taking a cue from the American & European schools of historical cabinet-making, we imbue these same standards into our work. Our craftsmen first create an expertly-constructed piece of furniture that is ready for carving. At this stage engineering the piece for joinery and wood movement are the primary considerations. Other manufacturers seem to hastily assemble a group of separate carved elements with little regard to the structural integrity of the piece itself. Consequently, cracks develop, moving parts may seize, and weight bearing elements loosen and weaken. We employ the best methods of joinery including mortise & tenon for stile-and-rail construction. All joints are tight and precise. Mechanical fasteners are only used in hidden locations, or when visible, done tastefully with solid-brass hardware. You won't find putty-filled nail holes in our work. Carving is done completely by hand using razor-sharp European carving chisels. No routers are used to "carve" our furniture. Simply put, we build our church furniture in the same manner as historical craftsmen of the past. Our pieces aren't just functional church furnishings, but are truly heirloom-quality.

Materials

We use American Basswood (also known as Linden or Lime) exclusively for our furnishings. This is the world's premiere carving wood. It is a very fine-grained, lightweight, and even toned wood. Harvested locally from large, old trunks, our wood is tight-grained and well-dried for stability. We only use select-and-better grade, creamy-white boards.

We finish all our work simply. We do not use overly heavy or high-gloss finishes that do little more than mask the quality of the work and the wood. All work is finished with satin lacquer, sprayed on in 2 or 3 thin coats (spraying the finish allows a very uniform coating) which provides a good balance of protection while maintaining the natural look and luminance of the wood, emphasizing the qualities of the material, carvings and craftsmanship.

All work is via commission. Please feel free to contact us for a price quote. Though our work is in demand we are currently accepting orders. We do work for both church and home, large and small. The images presented here are a limited selection of a sampling of our work.