schroeder

Happily married with a mistress!
My friend Al Cronk & I run a small custom furniture shop in McMinnville, OR. We are (were) both Professional Foresters. We generally build strictly in the Arts and Crafts style. We try and use the parameter - if it won’t last a hundred years – we won’t build it.

Most work is on commission and clients found by word of mouth. Our standards are simple: Work from our shop doesn’t have to be perfect, but it does have to be your absolute best work! – Every time! ~we find that this principle will make your skill set and craftsmanship constantly improve.

I am fortunate enough to have friends of great faith that push me to build things I would never try on my own.

We thought the shop was plenty big a few years ago (~2,500 sqft)…though now it seems to get smaller every day. Al collects plumb- bobs and has hundreds of them hanging around the shop (I think he secretly believes he is keeping the shop “level” ;) He also has an eclectic hobby of collecting bones, especially skulls, hence any free wall space has a head-mount on it and there is one cabinet totally dedicated “just to bones…”

Our mascot is “Cisco”, my 8 year old chocolate Lab. She’s always on guard to save us from someone sneaking into the shop and killing us while we’re working ~”…here’s a biscuit Cisco,….good dog!”

We have both built most of the furniture in our own homes. We primarily use Black Walnut and White Oak, but also maple, alder and other NW species. I am recently finding old-growth Douglas-fir a great wood to work with and plan on focusing 2009 on projects with that species.

There are others who occasionally work in the shop and even one other partner. We encourage the young and try to mentor where we can. We embrace an old Germanic saying, “…so long the craft to learn, so short the life…”
Schroeder

-- The Gnarly Wood Shoppe