With each kitchen item (cutting board or cheese slicer) a tin of my own blend of mineral oil and beeswax will be provided along with care instructions. My recommendation is to use a paper towel or soft rag to apply the wood wax to the board and let sit overnight. The oil will soak into the board and leave behind some of the wax. Buff the wax the rest of the way into it in the morning with the same rag you applied it with and it should be good to go until it starts to feel dry.

All of my trays, cheese slicers and boards are, yes. Anything that is finished with mineral oil and/or beeswax is safe to eat off of. I also use a touch of carnauba wax in my wood wax blend as well which is another food safe ingredient. A lot of curing oils are also food safe after they are cured, however I choose not to use any of these types of oils on any of my kitchen items.

I use primarily hardwoods and sometimes softwood upon special request. Domestic species in use include walnut, maple, cherry, white oak, ash, and poplar. I also use a lot of exotic wood species such as purplehear, padauk, tigerwood, zebrawood, wenge, marblewood, chechen, yellowheart, teak, iroko, lacewood, and whatever else we can get our hands on.

All sizes. I have dabbled in small jewelry all the way up to desks and tables and everything in between. I typically don’t entertain built-in type projects and try to stick to standalone pieces.

Iverson Hardwoods is my primary wood supplier. Nate is amazing to work with and always has the best quality domestic hardwood in the Twin Cities. For exotic lumber, I frequent Siwek Lumber, Discount Lumber Outlet, and Woodworkers Source.

Depends. To work with, padauk is my favorite. It cuts nice, it has a really sweet smell, and looks amazing. The one major downside is that the dust is so fine that it can find its way into the pores of other species within the same project. Walnut is my go to for most projects however, because you can never go wrong with walnut.

An end grain board has many advantages for the voracious cook. It keeps your knife’s blade sharper longer due to the orientation of the wood grain. Picture drinking straws standing upright, the knife’s edge will slip between the straws rather than slicing them in half if they were laying down, meaning less force on that edge when it comes to the actual wood of the board. The standing grains also have more opportunity for self-healing and will not show slice marks as easily. The downside for an end grain board is that it uses a lot more wooden material to keep it strong and lasting, and requires more labor to build. This means they are generally much more expensive.

Yes. If your board is leeching color, what is happening is loose dust is mixing with the oil/wax blend and conglomerating slightly. Depending on the species of wood, some dust has a tendency to bury itself between pores of the wood on the cutting board. After cleaning several times and applying more finish, some of this buried dust may be encouraged to surface, and in that state is harmless. Some species of wood dust are technically toxic, but typically only if entering the eyes or respiratory system. If it is mixed in with the oil, it can be scrubbed away and if accidentally ingested, there should be no harm.

Usually it’s my latest project. I enjoy extremely in-depth builds that take a lot of time. I think one of my differentiating factors in the woodworking space is the amount of effort I’m willing to put into a single piece. I make few sacrifices on the actual design, and love to add details that one would never even notice on the first inspection. See some of my large furniture in the gallery.

I took shop class in middle school where we had the choice to build a standing clock or a chess board. I chose a clock, and my teacher at the time encouraged me to enter into the Minnesota State Fair. It ended up winning a purple ribbon and I was in complete disbelief. I was hooked before the ribbon, too, because my instructor, Bill Gangl, was a really encouraging guy and good role model. He believed in his students and could tell when you were really trying to do well; he noticed when you were ready for the next thing and could push you to it all while maintaining infinite patience.

I took a few more shop classes in high school that I enjoyed. I always knew I’d get back into woodworking but thought it would be a retirement job in a cabinet shop or something. Most of what I’ve learned is self taught trial and error, as well as hundreds of hours watching YouTube before I even bought my first table saw in 2019.

I could not be happier with my Sawstop table saw, though I think the table saw in general would be my favorite tool regardless of brand. It’s where the majority of the magic happens.

He is my cat, Tyrion, however his nickname is Bossman. He is the face of the business. He is the foreman, chief brand officer, product inspector (photo bomber), and has a stance like a bulldog when he means business.