Two German Carpenters Set Up a Workshop for Wooden Furniture Design

When Heiner Schäfers and Aron Keidel, two woodworking enthusiasts, met at the master carpentry school in Germany, a parade of great ideas has begun. They started working together twelve years ago, and today they run a truly unique business in Recklinghausen in Germany.

"Our business locates on the former colliery property established in 1883, which used to be in operation until the 1970s," Heiner says. "Now, some buildings of the former colliery are a place for entrepreneurs and craftsmen business."

Aron and Heiner run three companies. Specializing in clay building restoration, Lehmundo company is mostly Aron's field of expertise. Schreinerei Schäfers is a joinery workshop that is mainly Heiner’s responsibility. They also run a Naturalis shop, where they offer ecological building materials and natural tree products.

"We are not the kind of carpenters who like to produce on a large scale. Our favorite work is building with solid wood and creating an individual design. Wood feels good, it's warm, we can process every single wooden piece individually," says Heiner.

People often stop by Naturalis to buy some natural wood, paint, or building materials. Aron and Heiner talked to their clients a lot and discovered how many people would like to build something out of wood themselves. One day, they came up with the idea of organizing carpentry workshops.

"Right now, we teach our customers how to make furniture out of wood. During the workshop, they can design and make a piece of furniture. People are fascinated by this process, from cutting logs to the finished product," Heiner recalls.

Aron and Heiner focus on quality at every stage of production. So they need to use the highest quality wood in their workshop. They've been buying oak wood from a trusted supplier for years and cutting it to the required sizes on their dependable Wood-Mizer LT40 sawmill. But over time, it got harder and harder to buy appropriate, correctly dried oak wood. So they came up with one more idea - to buy logs straight from the forest and prepare timber themselves.

"Because the LT40 was working great for us, we decided to get another Wood-Mizer sawmill. So we bought the WM1000 sawmill that is capable of cutting huge logs", said Aron. "We cut the log into boards and then store them for at least two to three years to dry naturally before this timber converts into a table or stairs. Products made of wood prepared this way are extremely durable and serve for hundreds of years," he adds.

They chose the Wood-Mizer WM1000 sawmill because of its large capacity. "With the WM1000, we can cut massive logs. The biggest log so far was 1,7 meters in diameter. It's hardwood, so logs are not only big, but also really heavy. Often we need two tractors to load a log on the sawmill. However, the machine is so robust that it can easily handle such logs," says Aron.

The logs are sometimes decades old. They often contain metal pieces inside, such as nails or missiles from the Second World War. Even that's not a big obstacle for the WM1000 sawmill.

"When a blade hits a metal piece, the blade does not break, allowing me to finish the cut straight. In addition, repairing and sharpening a blade is not expensive and changing it on the sawmill takes only a few minutes," Aron says.

Aron also values the WM1000 sawmill design. "An operator is moving on the platform with the head and can see and carefully control the cutting process. It's handy," he says.

"Setting up the machine and training took two days. All we needed to do was provide the space. Technicians set up the machine here on-site, leveled and adjusted it, and taught us how to operate it. It was very well-organized, and all it was included in the price. Wood-Mizer has once again confirmed the quality of its products and service," Aron says.