Custom Wood Creations sits in an Amish community tucked away in the mountains of Southwest Virginia, where the Appalachian Trail skirts the town of Pearisburg and the New River winds through the valley below.
The year was 2011. The Chupp family had called Virginia home for fifteen years when Sam bought a no-frills Alaskan chainsaw mill: a Husqvarna chainsaw, a 60 inch bar, and a simple guide to keep the cut level. Rudimentary as it was, that mill unlocked something. Local sawmills were rejecting logs for being oversized or gnarled, and those were exactly the logs full of character. Beautiful hardwood slabs started piling up with no plan for them.
David was working in his brother's cabinet shop at the time, and he let his woodworker's instincts take over. His first pieces went to friends and family. Cabinet shop customers noticed next, and soon there was a first order, then a second, then a third. By 2016 the work had David busy full time, and two more craftsmen have joined since.
The chainsaw mill is long retired. A bandsaw mill does the slabbing now, a WoodWizz planer surfaces the big slabs, and a lumber kiln dries them right here. The showroom, mill, and wood shop all sit a short walk from each other.
Built the slow way, and built to be handed down.
Redwood, walnut, and imported burls are cut soon after arriving. Buckeye burl and maple rest up to a year first, letting natural color spread through the log and deepen its character.
After the bandsaw mill, slabs air-dry for about a year, then finish in our kiln. Dried slabs wait in a climate-controlled warehouse until the right project calls for them.
Many of our pieces are river tables: two slabs joined by a river of epoxy. Many others are a single live edge slab where the epoxy fills the knots and cracks instead. A single table can take up to thirty gallons. One customer even sent creek sand from their own property to set into their table.
Surfacing, sanding, and then the finish, chosen to suit the wood in front of us. From kiln-dried slab to finished table takes about three weeks of careful work, give or take the piece.
Our shop and story were featured in The Connection, the Lancaster County Showcase publication.
About every eighteen months the team packs up and spends a week in the high desert of Arizona, harvesting twisted juniper from land we own and thousands of acres we have access to. Those roots and trunks become our bases, lamps, and legs.
Redwood burl, buckeye burl, claro walnut, myrtle, and maple, brought in whole and slabbed here. First-hand access means we also supply specialty lumber to other fine furniture makers.
Our tables live in countless private homes, in the conference room of a Texas bank, and in an upscale Wyoming fishing lodge, where the owners sent sand from their creek for the table's river.
We welcome visitors by appointment. Call ahead and we'll set a time to walk you through the showroom and whatever is on the bench.
