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cious enough to let him ….

cious enough to let him …. cious enough to let him ….

cious enough to let him come and go as the need arose for him to work on his own products.

“From there, it was a lot of learning, even though I had good construction knowledge,” Joel said. “I still had a lot to learn in terms of buying furniture, gluing panels and this whole thing about steaming and bending logs.”

From that point, Joel and Daniel expanded their repertoire to include more than just bar stools. They now hand craft rocking chairs, end tables, kitchen tables, upholstered and bowed-back dining chairs, swivel chairs, coffee tables, coat racks, benches, bookcases and more.

In late 2020, the Wipfs completed a new building in which they now hold all of Joel’s operations. Before the building had been completed, Joel was working out of a 600 square-foot portable building that was the size of their current show room and had to take certain pieces to other places to be sprayed or finished. The Wipfs also had to use parts of their family home to store supplies and completed products.

The building was erected in a weekend as about 20 volunteers came to help raise the framework of the structure and now serves as a storage area for logs, a workshop, spraying area, assembly area and soon, a showroom.

Joel mentioned that he had worked with multiple shops and furniture builders that had been doing this much longer than he had in order to get started and learn the process.

“I certainly could not have done this on my own. There were a lot of different people that contributed and even still, there’s people that contribute.” The process The process of creating the elegant pieces is an intricate one that takes time and patience to complete. Wood used for Joel’s projects comes from two specific places.

Joel has suppliers in Mississippi and Tennessee. They cut down about 1.5 inch to 5 inch saplings that prolifically grow in the southern forests. These saplings grow straight, heading for the light, which makes them nice to work with because of the vertical grain style.

A lot of these saplings would die because of the density of the forest making them an ideal tree to be cut and used. The saplings are harvested in the winter months when the sap is down, allowing the bark to remain on the stick. Joel orders and Continued on page 23 Family is at the heart of Twin Hickory Rustics success

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receives his supply in the winter months and it needs to last him till the next year‘s cutting. The bark remains on the finished product so if one likes the woods and the outdoors, they can “bring the outside into their home” making for an attractive piece of furniture.

The skill of steaming and bending that’s involved for certain pieces of furniture took Joel a while to master.

“There were a lot of challenges,” Joel said. “The first bar stool I made, I didn’t have that furniture maker to guide me through it. I did get help in learning how to steam and how to bend but as far as the first stool that I built, I had a stool to look at and I had somebody’s help to build it and some of the basic tools. But it was trial and error.”

The panels for benches, tables and other products come from Peak Lumber in Wausau. Joel said the price of these materials has gone up over the past year but not to the extent of plywood or other building materials.

The process of making these products isn’t a one-man job. Sure, it can be done with one person but having a partner is extremely helpful when bending, lifting and attaching wood pieces. That’s where Joel’s son Daniel comes into play. Joel said Daniel’s ability to pick up on the family business and help him create products has helped build the business into what it is today.

“We are very much a team,” Joel said. Joel said even if he receives a piece of wood that has an imperfection or knot in it, those pieces are used and made into a piece of art instead of thrown away.

“Here’s a wide crack that in a fine furniture store, this board is scrapped,” Joel said as he pointed to a recently finished table. “It’s pieces like this that makes the table. That’s the outstanding feature of that piece of furniture. We’ll look at a board and ask, ‘What’s the featured piece that we can build around?’ What is damaged or spoiled, it becomes the feature of the piece.”

These pieces make it so every single piece of furniture that is made at Twin Hickory Rustics is unique.

“I could not produce another table that has unique bark or features. I cannot reproduce this piece. So the customer has a piece that only he or she has.” A family affair What company survives without an accounting department? Joel’s wife, Kristina, has helped ensure the company has run smoothly as they have grown, added a building and expanded their overall operation throughout the years. Anything from accounting, to scheduling, to ensuring orders are done in time are all aspects that Kristina takes care of.

Not to be outdone, Joel’s daughter Victoria assists her family with miscellaneous tasks, including upholstery, making it truly a family affair.

The end product is something that the Wipf family enjoys creating but seeing that other families can enjoy the fruits of their labor is the real reward.

“It’s very meaningful,” Joel said. “When I sell a dining set to a homeowner, they tell us, ‘We love it. We sit around the table at the cabin and love it.’ It’s a great feeling. It’s very meaningful for us to know that this blesses other families. Sitting around a table with loved ones is pretty precious.”

Twin Hickory Rustics offers more than just novelty furniture for cabins. The business can build certain items to order and will have a showroom completed in the coming weeks with already finished items ready for purchase.

You can contact Joel at Twin Hickory Rustics by giving him a call at 715-560-2154, or visit their showroom and facility at 7253 State Hwy. 97, Athens, WI, 54411.

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