EARLY YEARS

I grew up in the home of a General Contractor, who had all the basic tools for wood working – mix in a grandfather who loved to build a good project and who was the go-to source for a quality Blue Bird house or bird feeder – now you have a recipe for where we find ourselves today. Right here on this page.

CONSTRUCTION

You’ll often see the signs for “Frontier Builders” in my shop and in the background of photos and videos taken in that space. This was the name of my Dad’s construction company for many years. I was blessed to be able to work in that business for many years – I learned a good many things through that time!

EARLY PROJECTS

One of the first things I remember building was a small podium. Growing up, my mom homeschooled me for the majority of my education. We had a group of friends and family who also homeschooled and we’d plan a variety of things together. Everything from field trips and outings to standardized testing days with rigorous schedules ‘planned to the T’ so that a mom was never proctoring a test for one of her children.

One of the events we had together was a annual gathering where we would give speech presentations – often of historical content – to the whole group. All of us students would research and prepare our presentations for this day. One of these such days was to be held at my families home. We didn’t have any sort of podium or music stand or anything for my fellow students to set our notes on or lean their presentation board against (remember, we didn’t have powerpoint and the internet! We had poster board and clip art!) I decided we needed a podium! So I built one! Using all hand tools – no power tools in my box at this time – I built a very crude podium from off-cuts and scraps of wood for the event. It’s a project I intend to revisit and improve on, one of these days!

THE PODIUM

Ok, once you’re done chuckling at just how crude the poor thing is, you’ll maybe agree that it’s not too shabby as the first independent project for a very young budding wood worker.

Anyway, this photo is of a relative of mine giving his presentation at the podium which was made from Hemlock harvested from my family’s property along with a offcut of plywood.

MORE RECENT YEARS

Fast-forward past college, dating, and a wedding, I’m now a father to 4 kids and love to have them in the shop with me. While I hope they grow up to enjoy working with wood, I just enjoy having them around the shop. I try to involve them in projects when I can (and when it’s safe) and I also try to do projects for them. 

SPOONS & SPATULAS

The spoons and spatulas you see on the website and being made in videos, were, in a sense, an early indication of what is now Kirwin Wood Co. I originally made these with my oldest son because I wanted to give family and some friends a hand-made Christmas gift one year. Ever since (so far!), I’ve continued the tradition of giving a gift I’ve made!