About Us

The path to this business spans a lifetime and more. I can always remember being

around woodworking with my dad and grandfather.

My folks moved to southcentral Missouri, just before I entered middle school, to build a

campground business. I can remember carting off wood and tin roofing sheets to the

back meadow hill side to build a treehouse… The only way my folks found out about the

material missing was when they happen to be taking a walk and the setting sun light

glinted off the tin, 30 feet up a tree, catching their eye. They were not too happy with the

missing material, but they have always been supportive.

When my folks started acquiring livestock, we needed to install fencing to retain the horses and cows. The barbwire was easy to purchase, but the fence posts would be another story. My folks saw all the timber on their land and decided they would take advantage of some of the older knowledge in the area to make fence posts from their own trees. They hired a 90 year old gentleman to come out and teach me how to split rails for fence posts. (sounds cliché) He’d pick the trees, cut them down, and then split them with easy. I was amazed at how he could split right through the middle of a knot, or

where a tree limb had been. He’d explain why he cut off the lower portion of the tree,

about 18”, as being second growth. (second growth is the left over stump from a prior

logging, where the tree sent up a branch to become the new tree). He explained the

density of that section would make it too hard to split… Being young, stubborn, not

believing, and seeing an opportunity, I ended up using those left over sections to turn

Billy clubs for the local police and security guards, 40+ years ago, in high school wood

shop. Splitting those sections did take a toll with one of my front teeth being chipped

from a splitting wedge bouncing out of the log. My high school wood shop teacher

warned me they would crack and check as they dried and would not last. I had to go

with the older guy, who seemed to know so much more. My mother still has one of

those Billy clubs today, without a crack or check in it.

During College, I was fortunate enough to work as a Finish and Rough-in carpenter for

a yacht factory in the Midwest. My high school shop teacher worked there during the

summer breaks and gave me a glowing recommendation for working there, having built

a small row boat from a single sheet of plywood in woodworking shop. This is where I

learned that even a small mistake can cost over a thousand dollars… and this was in

the late 70’s, so pay attention and BE CAREFUL.

After marriage, I started out with a router, a circular saw, a hand jig saw, and a straight

edge. I used these tools to create and build a coffee table, microwave cart, and other

items for our new house. From there, the hardware grew by the projects.  I would justify

a piece of equipment with how I could save money building an item over buying it from a store.

After my grandfather passed away, I received his hobby metal lathe. He used it to turn

brass for his model projects, building ships from scratch from the original blue prints. I

used that lathe to turn ink pens back in the mid 80’s when the turned ink pen industry

was in its infancy. I still remember coming back to my hotel room after a day of working

out of town and turning pens… (I’m sure housekeeping wondered where all the sawdust

came from in my trash.)

Spring of 2017 saw our woodworking kick into high gear. My daughter was getting

married in January 2018 and she was looking for lots of rustic decorations. My brothers

helped with the initial wood cookie cutting. My wife and daughter told me to get wood

cookies about 8” maybe 10” in diameter. Well, they ended up being more like 14” to 20”

in diameter… Slightly larger than expected due to the size of tree my folks wanted

removed from near their power lines. Not too long after that, I purchased an Alaskan

saw mill and chainsaw… The first wood I slabbed was a walnut tree the water district

bulldozed to make way for a new water line. Later that year, several storms pushed

through our area and the wood was everywhere to slab. Seems when you want wood,

storms offer a whole new method of gathering. From those bull dozed logs, to storm

damaged trees, to blight killed trees, to cleared cedars and locust, the wood pile grows!

It has been suggested, by friends and family, over the years, to start selling items I

made on any one of the multitude of internet sites. I’d hear over and over how this item

would sell or that item would sell. I always thought it was more fun to build and create

items to give away as special mementos or gifts. So in January of 2019, R3 Woodworx

was finally formed. This company might be young, but the roots go deep, like the mighty

Oak tree.