The Person With The Saw

I have had a serious interest in woodworking since I was 8 years old. I made darts with scrap wood, nails and chicken feathers using my father’s antique lathe on our back porch powered by an old washing machine ¼” hp motor. I began building plant stands, occasional tables and crude shelves from pallet material when I was 19, very poor and newly married with practically no tools.

At some point I discovered that folks would pay me for things I made and that they would pay more if I made them to their specifications, i.e. a certain height, or width or shape, etc. Over the last 50 years the Brown family has developed a mindset for success based on a simple ideal. When someone asks us if we can make something a specific size, or with a specific feature our reply is always the same, “Yes we can. We are the ones with the saw.” (Today, we are able to add laser, CNC and resin casting operation)

Somewhere along the line we figured out that folks do want things their way which is often not the same way we would have chosen. If you are making something for another person, either as a gift or for sale, let them decide, make it especially for them, the way they want it, after all, you are the person with the saw. Your challenge is figuring out how to grant their request. That is where the fun comes in. You will be making a project different than what you are used to doing. It may well require some creativity on your part in terms of material, jigs, connections, glue–ups, etc. That is what keeps it interesting and sets you apart from everyone else.

Several years ago a lady called me and said she had a custom furniture project for me to build. I had not been building furniture for some years, but had changed over to a completely different type of business. When I politely declined, she said that she had clipped a newspaper article about me and had been saving her money for the past 5 years specifically with me in mind. She wanted me to make a solid cherry curio cabinet featuring a treasured stained glass panel right in the center. She had acquired this glass panel some 20 years earlier and it was very special to her. This was going to be a one–of–a–kind project and was something I had stopped doing a few years ago. With a story that persuasive, I built the curio cabinet out of solid cherry featuring her stained glass panel just as she had dreamed. On the day of delivery, the entire family was present and it was a major event for three generations. Of course I took extra care to make sure it was perfect in every way and exactly what she had envisioned. Although it was not inexpensive, it was worth every penny to have something exactly as she had envisioned and saved money toward for so many years. I was honored to participate as “The Person With The Saw.”

As you have heard from the beginning, wherever you go, there you are.

Here is my Inspiration for this message:

Exod 35:35 He has filled them with skill to do every sort of work done by an engraver or by a designer or by an embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, or by a weaver—by any sort of workman or skilled designer.

Ps 128:2 You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.