The timeless tradition of the American Woodworker, going against the grain to handcraft the answers of life......

              What wood wisdom we wood wonder without, if the willingness to work wood were washed away without warning....       

For as long as man has walked the earth, he has been one with the forest, basking it it's fresh air, harboring under it's canopy, and carving it's beauty into various tools, gifts and shelters.  

This ancient art of woodworking surely has become all but lost in my generation of instant gratification, response and reward.  Lost is the art of nurturing results that followed time well spent, and of carefully planning a long assent to a simple destination.  Gone are the days when the tortoise beat the hare.....

The WoodShop in all it's glory, basking in a Barboursville, Va sunset

My father has designed and built some of the finest woodworking I've ever had the pleasure of laying my eyes on, he has studied numerous disciplines within the trade and has been designing and handcrafting now for over 41 years.......and he's done it with nearly the same group of craftsmen for over twenty five of those years.

The inside of the luxury wood shop, all the tools necessary for today's modern american craftsman

THAT is what tradition is.......THAT is what excellence is.......THAT is custom designed and handcrafted woodwork.   And it represents much more than that, I come to discover, after surviving what was surely a fatal car accident just five months ago on my birthday.   I tell you that because being hit by a car at 60 miles an hour will slow you down just a little bit.  I was created with so much energy that wreck only brought me down about two revolutions, leaving me still a few ahead of normal......BUT, just enough, in my opinion, to actually appreciate life for the first time.  To notice the air that I breathe into my lungs....heck I actually noticed that there are even clouds in the sky nearly everyday!!!  So Ive been taking pictures of sunsets, and as I recover, I've been going to work with my father at his high end custom cabinetry shop.....
this is what I've missed out on........
this is what my generation will miss out on if they don't start doing a little more handcrafting and a little less finger clicking!

 

WATCH this VIDEO with THE CLEVER CRAFTSMAN & his Father (click blue text)

This is Matthew Jaeger, the son of my father, and the heir of the fathers before him.....and my father is one of the greatest cabinet designers the world will ever know......and more importantly, one of the best men I'll ever know......and the closest I'll ever come to being as good a man as he is, is to share with you the man he has fought to become: 

a man dedicated to the timeless tradition of making the right decision, and following through with projects always in the timely, fair, and just fashion......a man whose instinct is taking care of those he loves, and treating his fellow craftsman like family.....

WATCH the video of the CLEVER CRAFTSMAN (click here)

This is the story 

of a great man....

and how through the forests from which he came, handcrafted into designs that will survive time...

he built a cabinet shop of an ancient timeless tradition....

those that had the patience to outlast the silence of sawdust, he had handcrafted a place where men entered....

became master craftsman....

and never left....

a wood shop that held all of life's simplest answers....