ABOUT DAVE STINE
I was born and raised on the land from which I harvest the wood I use in my work. My grandfather and uncles were dairy farmers. We worked on the farm with our hands every day, doing whatever needed to be done: mending fences, harvesting corn, fixing tractors, chopping firewood, milking cows.
My grandfather and father taught me woodworking. We repaired furniture and fences and we built tables, cabinets, bookcases, and beds. I fell in love with it. I loved taking something so simple and natural—a piece of wood—and crafting something beautiful and useful from it.
Woodworking gave me great joy as a child and as a young man. That joy never left me, even when I moved away from the farm to attend Penn State, where I majored in political science. After college, I moved to Washington, D.C. where I attended the George Washington University School of Law.
I missed creating things and working with my hands, so while I was a law student, I started a little side company, Stine Woodworking. I went back to the farm and returned to D.C. with tools and some lumber. I worked out of a friend’s warehouse, crafting humidors, little tables, and small items. It was the perfect complement to the long hours I spent reading law and being in class. It grounded and nurtured me.
After I graduated from law school I worked as a trust and estates attorney, but woodworking kept calling to me. Every night after work and on weekends I would be in my wood shop. After 18 months of practicing law, I realized that I was miserable, that working with wood was my passion and my calling. It was the only thing I wanted to do. So, in 1998, with $90,000 in law school debt and the blessing of my wife, I quit my law job and devoted myself full-time to woodworking. It was the greatest decision of my life.
Four or five times a year I’d travel back to my family’s farm in Illinois to cut timber, mill boards, rotate my stock, and bring lumber back. From the beginning I knew I wanted to use only native hardwoods in my work, and I wanted to use only timber that I sustainably harvested myself from my own land. This was an essential component of my work. “Green” and “sustainability” weren’t buzzwords back then, but that is how I’ve always run my company. Word quickly spread in the D.C. area that there was a custom woodworker who was dedicated to both the craft and to a different way of doing things. My roster of clients grew so much that I quickly outgrew my woodshop. I had gotten bigger, but my ethos never changed.
In 2002, my wife and I decided to leave D.C. and move back to Illinois, where we could be near family and the land that I love so much, land that I care about and cultivate, land that is the source of my lumber and the source of my inspiration. We bought a 40-acre farm, renovated an 1871 farmhouse, and installed a woodshop, kiln, sawmill, studio, showroom, and seasoning sheds. We’ve been there ever since.
I’ve just celebrated my 22nd anniversary in business, and we’ve grown tremendously over the years. I now have clients around the world, and I’ve been a featured furniture maker at shows from coast to coast, including the Architectural Digest Show, where I exhibited for 13 years and was awarded “Best in Show, Sustainable Design” by ASID New York. I’ve grown bigger and more accomplished, but I’ve never changed the way I do things: by hand, one piece at a time, with authenticity, integrity, sustainability, and tradition as the cornerstones of my work.
It all starts in the woods. I draw strength and inspiration from the trees, by how and where they grow. As I mill the logs, every cut is a revelation as I see the inner life and extraordinary beauty of the wood. Often, as I mill a board I see what the wood will become. I don’t try to bend the wood to my will. Rather, I let it speak for itself. My designs maximize its singular, natural beauty. Every piece I craft is the articulation of the natural beauty of that tree, which lives on in a beautiful and useful way.
Mine is a different sort of craftsmanship, one that’s infused with stewardship and a deep appreciation and respect for the wood. It’s about taking my spirit and passion and putting it into something beautiful and lasting. It’s not just craftsmanship; it’s a way of life.