Made In Virginia 2013: Natural Woodworking Co., Floyd

Natural Woodworking Co.

Natural Woodworking CO.

Handcrafting intricate, custom-ordered furniture and other objects from sustainably sourced wood is slow, painstaking work, but Swede McBroom and his team at The Natural Woodworking Co. in Floyd are happy to take their time. It’s the antithesis of Ikea. A single wooden door for Virginia Tech might take a month to complete, a large conference table for a client like Roanoke’s Center in the Square may take six months. “It just depends on the complexity of the piece, the amount of detail and carving,” says McBroom, who employs a full-time staff of four at his 4,000 square-foot workshop, which has been in operation since 1997.

McBroom, who is 64 and learned his craft in Scotland in the 1970s, takes the majority of his wood—Appalachian hardwoods like red oak, white oak, walnut, cherry and maple—from local, sustainable sources in Floyd County. “We do it by single tree,” says McBroom, who works with a horse-logger (meaning no motorized vehicles in the forest) to remove one tree at a time rather than clearing an area. “What we want is to preserve the forest, to have that as a continual source of good product,” he says.

Despite the slow process, or maybe because of it, the Natural Woodworking Co. workshop is where McBroom wants to be. “Everybody here is obsessed with woodworking, and so we can’t wait to come in on Monday morning.” Walnut or cherry American blanket chest, $4,500. NaturalWoodworkingCo.com