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TrueNorth Woodworking, Arlington, VA (2026)

06/04/2026

Hello everyone,

If you have been wondering where I have been.....I have been busy and working as much as I can trying to get the shop expansion project over the finish line. In amongst the furniture repairs and Thor Hammers that we had orders for....Im not sure if you all are interested in furniture repair pictures....let me know down below if thats something you would like to see.

Back in 2017 when I designed and started building the shop, I decided to make the shop 2 stories instead of trying to fight the county and zoning department with trying to make it all on one level.

Half of my almost 2 acre property is in a county "Resource Managment Area". That means that the acre plus of woodland in the back is off limits to cutting trees down without county permission. I should have at least tried to get them to allow me to cut more down than I did for where the shop is now..

Having a 24x30 2 story shop has been a blessing I dont have the words to describe.... however going up and down the stairs with projects to use the tools upstairs and then take the project back down stairs to continue to work on it has gotten very old...

Enter the shop expansion project. The shop has always had a lean too on the right side to store my boat under cover.... I decided the 13.5 × 28.5 area would be a perfect place to put most of the tools that are upstairs that I use a lot.

So more than 2 yrs ago we began the expansion. I do not believe in taking out loans for these types of things so I saved money or earned the money needed to purchase everything outright.....it takes a little longer to get things done but I dont owe a penny. The whole shop is paid for.

All the construction projects on the shop are complete except for pouring a sidewalk and a few loose ends like fixing the concrete where the garage door is and finishing up some outside siding details. The shop is now just over 1800sq ft and we need to get tools reorganized and moved around to best fit the needs and make room for some new tools. So stay tuned!!

Thanks for following along and all the support!!

04/23/2026

Forgot a Picture

04/23/2026

Well...I have not been very good about my social media this week friends.....my apologies....been kind of a tough go this week but we did manage to be productive.

For those of you who dont know, my wife and I are AVIDE dog parents.... for the last several years we have had 4 pure breed German Shepherds, one of them being a "Blue" GSD. Very rare, both parents have to have the same recessive gene.....that is transfered to the offspring and the dog would either grow blue fur or dark Grey and Black. Kimber was dark Grey and Black. We have two females, Nikita and Dakota and we had two Males, Hunter and Kimber. We lost Hunter in November, suddenly to a ruptured spleen (common among Large dogs....he was 110lbs) and this past Saturday, I put Kimber down, he had lost the ability to walk (bad hips) and he was rapidly losing weight despite having all the food he wanted....he still would not eat a full serving.

SO.... needless to say....I have been off kilter all week. To make matters worse, last week I got lit up by Poison Ivy I didnt see doing yard work and the steroids they gave me to help...have really screwed up my sleep and eating schedules....I can't sleep and Im eating everything in sight!! 😂

But like I said, we did manage to be productive, I made 2 more Thor Hammers for a long time repeat client that gives them away as going away gifts to Service members. Being a Veteran, I REALLY enjoy making them.

We repaired a broken end table, forgot to take pictures and then we got all electrical wiring run, we got the insulation up in the ceiling and walls and almost have all the sheathing up as well... so the week was not a total loss!!

My oldest Son is a Supervisory Master Electrician, and my youngest Son is a 3rd year Electrician apprentice. They do some nice clean OCD level work....Im proud to say I passed that trait on to them both.... like they say....do it right or have enough time to do it again...

03/23/2026

This project started Christmas Day.....

Over the years, we have been very fortunate to have repeat clients....but Its a RARE.....I mean very rare that a client becomes a friend.... not an acquaintance type of friend but a real true friend.... the kind that would not only purchase a medical device you needed but drive up and deliver it completely unexpectedly.

These dear people have loved and encouraged our family when they didnt have too.... they have supported our business and helped us grow over the years. They are the type of client every business owner dreams they had.

When they decided to build a new house.... I knew I would be making some type of house warming gift.... the Idea came to me after spending some time in the house while it was under construction.

Trying to get everyone's schedules to line up has been interesting but this afternoon we finaly delivered the gift. Bonnie and Jim, Mary and I hope it brings you many good years of Service. I really enjoyed the process of making this one and we count our blessing everyday for your friendship.

03/19/2026

Hello everyone..... YES I'm still kicking!!!! if anyone was wondering 🤔...... 🤣 🤣

I'm furloughed from my full time job so that was the perfect opportunity to head to the Denver area for almost 3 weeks to help my Mom with some stuff around the house...

My Step Dad has been looking down on us for almost 3yrs now and Mom was finally at a place where we needed to find new homes for some stuff, get rid of some unnecessary stuff and make room for more important new stuff!!.

We filled two 20 cubic yard dumpsters, we hauled about 1500k lbs of scrap to the metal recycling yard. At least 2500 lbs of electronic scrap went to the recycle center... THEN we moved everything for her business out of the storage facility and back home saving her a ton of $$$.... Yeay!

My Step Dad was an electronics engineer by definition but really he was an electronics genius if Im honest...

Fun fact about my Step Dad.... IF you know a Farmer or Crop Duster pilot that uses GPS technology to maximize the use of their farm land or spray precisely......my Step Dad invented the first system that allowed them to do that.

After all the work was done, I spent 2 full days with Mom being a tourist!! 😂 Loved every minute of it...

Then I came back home and went straight to bed with the flu or something.....kicked my tail for a week....

Today we got back in the shop to cut some Cabinet parts out for a client. Them corners and edges comeing off the machine are mint!!... got a boo-boo from one of them!

What are you all working on?? 🤔 ❓️

02/09/2026

We love our pets!! We have 3 German Shepherds.

We got a request to build a fully insulated dog house with some great amenities....

Let's Go!!!

Dog house is 4' x 8' x 32" high.

Roof area opens up for access to sleeping area.

4' square sleeping area, 4' square front porch lazy day area.... 🤣

1.5" foam board insulation in the floor and walls.
3" foam insulation in the ceiling.

XL dog door with magnetic bar at the bottom so the door stays closed after entry or exit.

Motion activated light

300/600 watt heater.

House is sitting on 8" cinderblocks to help keep critters out.

02/07/2026

WARNING: Long Post 🤣 😂

We love making cutting boards of all kinds....regular, edge grain, endgrain, 3 dimensional you name it.... the one type of cutting board we have never made till just recently is an endgrain cutting board with an endgrain inlay......for several reasons.

#1. Several years ago I lost a dear friend, Jeremy Knight who had vast amounts of knowledge on the subject and unfortunately I was not able to learn anything from him before he passed.

#2. Inlay cutting boards dont care.... the machine work and order of operations has to be precise, exact and repeatable or the inlay wont fit in the board and you have the most expensive firewood money can buy.

The huge cost of materials coupled with the high margin for error being self taught made this intimidating to me and I couldn't bring myself to try and make one or justify the attempt.

2 yrs ago, I completed a motorcycle ride called the Ultimate Coast to Coast. The UCC is the farthest distance you can drive on dry land in North America. I rode a motorcycle from Key West, Florida to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska in 9 travel days and then spent another 21 days traveling around Alaska and the upper USA. I'll leave a link to my motorcycle adventures page at the bottom. Go to the page, scroll down to the bottom of the page and work your way up to follow the journey and see all the pictures.

On my UCC trip, a chanse encounter with Chandler Heavrin, a Combat Veteran like myself, has been life changing for me. The time I have spent with him and his wonderful family is something I never knew I needed and it's really hard to describe what they mean to me.

Chandler LOVES to grill and BBQ (PSA: He is really good at it). As soon as he came outside to take the meat off the grill with a weird looking flimsy cutting board.... my brain immediately said " We should fix that". With that instantaneous thought, the catalyst to learn to do inlay work was set on fire.

I returned home and began the process of watching as many videos as I could find, running test pieces on the machine. I spent considerable time and effort "going to school" on my own trying to master this process. We used as much scrap wood as possible to limit future expensive material mistakes. Another good friend of ours, Peggy Andrews had several single inlay (one contrasting wood) cutting boards for us to manufacture and practice on which really helped us dial the process in and finalize the order of operations.

When I felt confident enough, I made a single inlay board, for everyday use, with the family name, wedding year and a grill. Then I decided to dive in head first, and make something "Over the top" for the second board.... its a 3 inlay board for use with larger items.

First board is Sapele and maple, 12x15x1

Second board is Walnut, Maple, Brazilian Cherry, Yellowheart, 12 1/2 x 20 x 1 3/4

The inlay process is to carve the female pocket in the board, then carve the male plug in the inlay. Manually clean all the fuzzies off the board and the plug, then glue them both together.

The second board is that exact process, 3 separate times for a total of 6 machining operations....3 pockets and 3 plugs with glue up in-between each one.

Big board total machine time, almost 12 hrs.
Total time to make the board, machine and glue dry was almost 3 weeks.

Let us know what you think!! Bring us your cutting board ideas!! This was a lot of fun! Not for the nerves though.... 🤣

My motorcycle adventures page

https://www.facebook.com/share/17w2XzPjwY/

01/01/2026

We wish each and everyone of you a Happy New Year!! Mary and I have so much to be thankful for in 2025 and we are really looking forward to 2026!!

We hope 2026 is everything you need it to be and so much more!!

Please be responsible tonight...there is zero excuse... really.

SEE you in 2026!!!

Mike and Mary

12/25/2025

As you gather with friends and family to celebrate Christmas, please take a minute to remember our Service members away from their families serving abroad or in harms way on our behalf.

This year has been a quick one, time really moved along. We are thankful for everything that happened along the way. We are thankful for all of you.....especially those who follow us on a regular basis, who support us with projects or work and who just encourage us....in the good times and bad.

There has been a lot of heartache and loss this year for me personally and as a family... Cherish the coming days with your loved ones and friends. Life is short and our time is a gift....make the most memories possible... when your gone....thats all the rest of us will have.

We look forward to what the new year has in store for us. We have several new projects already on the calendar and some exciting stuff for the business so stay tuned for that...Im pretty excited....we have been working hard to achieve our goals!!

Please be responsible, there is absolutely zero excuse for driving impaired.

Mary and I sincerely appreciate all of you, we wish you the most wonderful Christmas this year. Remember the reason for the Season.

Mike and Mary

12/23/2025

You will never forget your first crush.....your first car or your first job... somethings in life are just etched in stone....this project will be no exception by far!!.

This project brought a LOT of first's to our small woodworking business. I am honestly having difficulty in trying to express in words how satisfied and happy I am with the final results...I knew it would be good but I think I fell short in imagination compared to the finished product.

Let's list some Firsts!!

Longest project to date: 94 days.
Most man hours to date: 154 hours.
Oldest restoration project to date: 100+ yrs old.
Heaviest/ Largest single restoration piece to date:

Wheel is 6 ft end to end (handle tip to handle tip)
Wheel weighs 100lbs
Steel mounting plate weighs 50 lbs
Brass washer and Nut weigh 5 lbs.
Used just over 1 quart of Spar Urithane Varnish
Zero chemicals or sand paper of any kind were used to remove paint.

Paint was removed by hand using card scraping, razor blades, exacto knife, dental tools and soft brass brush. VERY tedious and extremely repetitive work.

I would be amiss if I did not mention that my clients are they type of folks every craftsman hopes they encounter. They are just a joy to work with and Im very lucky to have them. Im so excited to be able to bring this wonderful piece back to life and provide something for them that will be special and brings years of enjoyment and conversations in their home when people see it hanging in the grand living room.

Let us know what ya think!!

Bring us your next project!!

TrueNorth Woodworking

06/04/2026

04/23/2026

04/23/2026

03/23/2026

03/19/2026

02/09/2026

02/07/2026

01/01/2026

12/25/2025

12/23/2025

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