Kansas-grown, locally milled, air-dried lumber is in every creation I miake. Promoting the value and beauty of a forgotten natural resource in Kansas.
Oswego, KS
Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Kansas Ingrained posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
I’ve always loved living in Kansas, but when I was a teenager I fell in love with the outdoors more than ever. The woods became a place to have a bonfire with friends, hunt, and simply walk in the wonder of God’s creation. The more I spent time there. the more I saw beauty in every tree.
I wasn’t going to let my homeland be falsely represented as boring, flat, and empty. Our forests in Kansas aren’t massive and won’t put us on the map globally or even nationally, but they hold so many of the same stunning species of forests in the eastern United States. I knew early on that I wanted to change popular opinion about Kansas not having any trees. I wanted people to value these trees right in front of them, and not just for firewood. God blessed Kansas with a very broad range of native hardwoods, that with regards to lumber, had simply been forgotten.
Thankfully, years later, with a little research and a few local connections, I scratched the itch. I bought a house with a large dead cherry tree in the yard. It needed to go, but I couldn’t see it be put through my fireplace. I asked around for sawmills. My dream of seeing a log taken to the mill happened. The fascination of producing lumber from my own harvested trees snowballed. My wife even supported me in my new hobby, because we would soon have real furniture for the first time in our marriage. I have created pieces for family and friends. It has been a blast.
My philosophy is to show how we can rely on our own beautiful natural resources right here in Kansas, to educate the public on how beautiful our state’s trees truly are, and to produce quality woodworking where every piece has a story of Kansas ingrained.
