Why MP Woodworks for Your Custom Project

Most outfits want the big jobs. The full kitchen remodels, the whole-house renovations, etc. etc. That’s great. However, it leaves a lot of homeowners stuck when they want quality and craftsmanship for custom furniture, cabinetry, built-ins, and finish carpentry that is either on a smaller scale or has very specific requirements that larger operations struggle to fulfill. That’s where we come in. We know first hand how difficult it can be to get a small project completed.

MP Woodworks specializes in custom woodworking. Every project is built to last, not just until the next design trend comes walking down the street.

We take the time to do things right because rushing and using lesser quality materials and methods leads to problems, and problems aren’t worth anyone’s time.

The Materials and Methods of and by Which Things Are Generally Made

We prefer to work exclusively with North American hardwoods and softwoods. Think: walnut, cherry, maple, elm, sassafras, butternut, white oak, red oak, hickory, ash, alder, poplar, sycamore, pine, cedar, to name a bunch. These species are generally well managed in the forests and readily available in many size options. The variety and diversity of the wood species in North America means there’s something out there for everyone’s taste or worldview.

In our opinion, there’s no real need to use exotic woods, even for decorative purposes like accents, inlays, or marquetry. They’re usually expensive (e.g., rosewoods or ebony or true mahogany) and they often come from exploitative sources. Think: illegal logging in the rainforests of Central and South America or Africa. We’re not interested in supporting that kind of activity, and separating out the good suppliers from the bad can be really difficult, even if they claim their materials are on the up and up. So we don’t do it.

We have plenty of excellent material right here in North American forests. They’re beautiful in their own right. So that’s what we use.

Joinery & Finishes

We use all manner of traditional and modern joinery to create pieces. As most woodworkers know, there’s more than one joinery technique available for every given circumstance. Actually, way more than one. But, some are better than others depending on the application they are being used for and what the piece requires in terms of structural mechanics or other parameters. We choose our joinery depending on the needs of the project – what makes sense, what the customer expects, what’s going to look the best, what’s going to provide optimal structure, strength, durability.

We endeavor to make every every project as perfect as possible. 

An Aside: Let me tell you a secret. No woodworking project is “perfect”. Especially when hand-made. One endeavors to make it as best as one can. There is a difference between quality and perfection. The first is mandatory and you should expect it and demand it – as a customer or the person making the thing. The second, one strives to get as close as possible.

A Note Regarding Finishes

When it comes to furniture and wooden objects we almost exclusively use natural oil finishes of various types. Generally these are either tung oil and linseed oil preparations alone or in combination with waxes (beeswax, primarily) and natural resins. We sometimes make our own but we also purchase from a couple suppliers in the U.S. that specialize in their production. The reason: We think these finishes look great, feel great, and complement the designs and materials used best. They are nontoxic to handle and apply. I don’t need to wear a respirator or worry about frying my brain and lungs with nasty VOCs and other petrochemicals, most of the time. And these kinds of finishes are very easy to maintain and repair over time, even for their owners. These aren’t the fastest methods these days for finishing furniture and other pieces, but they’re the right methods for us. They help us create furniture that improves with age.

That’s not to say we never use a varnish or lacquer. We do but its uncommon. Even more uncommon is the use of polyurethanes – water-based or oil. I don’t particularly care for them. I do use shellac a fair amount for things. FYI: shellac is a natural product, being the resinous excretions of an insect, collected, processed into dry flake form which the user dissolves in alcohol to acheive the desired consistency, and then it can be wiped/rubbed/brushed/sprayed on a project. You could, if you wanted to, eat raw shellac flakes. I wouldn’t recommend it, though. In fact, you probably used to consume small amounts of shellac all the time as it was commonly used to coat pills in the past. Maybe it’s still used today in some food or medicinal production. I don’t know. But anyway, it was used at one time for those purposes. There’s also a commercially available ready to use product. It’s good. Making your own from the flakes is better. More control. Make only as much as you need when you need it. It has a shelf life.

For our cabinetry and stuff, a lot of these pieces end up getting painted to specification or delivered to the customer who has them painted or finished on-site. But again, it depends on what the customer is looking for and what the project requires.