"Making a Living out of Wood"
By Matthew Neal
14 April 2010
Idaho County Free Press
Grangeville, Idaho
Harpster—It takes a special set of circumstances for a seed to germinate from the forest floor. Everything has to be just right. The soil has to be right; the slope of the mountain must face the right direction; the sun must shine through the taller trees, and the water must fall perfectly.
Likewise, it takes a special set of skills to take what has become of that seed and turn it into a device of comfort and beauty. The tree needs to be picked from among other trees and it must come down. It then needs to be de-limbed, hauled, cut to size, planed and sanded. What is left is the raw product, which will lend itself to the devices and imagination of the woodworker. In this case, Kim Hosking from Harpster.
“I love to be outside and to create something out of nothing,” he said.
He carefully picks the trees he will use to make his custom furniture. Hosking loves the raw look, feel and smell of pine, and he recognizes the beauty each piece of wood possesses, and his finished pieces of furniture show that he believes the characteristics of wood should be as important as its function.
“Basically, you start with a natural piece of wood and end up with a piece of furniture,” he added.
He’s been making furniture for 18 years. The area around his shop is part mill, part wood storage facility. Sawdust and tailings and the smell of pine pitch depict a scene of the various stages of furniture making. On a timbered hillside overlooking the South Fork of the Clearwater River, his shop abounds with chisels, lathes, mallets, clasps, jigs and clamps. There is a particle board wall of pegs holding a multitude of well-used hand tools, and the light coming through the window illuminates the grain of the wood on top of an almost-complete dresser.
According to Hosking, no two pieces of his furniture are alike. Each piece is a unique creation.
He uses small diameter pieces of lightly sanded wood with the bark still attached as table legs, bedposts and corner rounds for box-style pieces such as cabinets and dressers, and smaller pieces of wood are beveled and sanded to a smooth finish and used as drawer handles. Faceplates, tabletops and cabinet facades are planed and smoothly sanded to allow the personality and grain of the wood to exhibit itself more prominently.
Hosking said he can build any kind of furniture a client can imagine.
There are bedposts and cabinets and finely crafted frames. The smell of wood glue is constant but not overbearing. It’s clean, but cluttered with tools and pieces of Douglas fir, white and ponderosa pine, and half-finished projects, and the beginnings of half a dozen others.
White-tailed deer antlers hang from the rafters making it clear that this hillside overlooking the South Fork is a place where forces of nature converge and manifest themselves in a man who feeds off nature, and takes its energies and focuses them within the creation of a style of furniture that at once shows a hallowed respect for and intimate understanding of wood.
“God made the trees and I made the furniture, and its 100 percent made in America,” he said.
14 April 2010
Idaho County Free Press
Grangeville, Idaho
Harpster—It takes a special set of circumstances for a seed to germinate from the forest floor. Everything has to be just right. The soil has to be right; the slope of the mountain must face the right direction; the sun must shine through the taller trees, and the water must fall perfectly.
Likewise, it takes a special set of skills to take what has become of that seed and turn it into a device of comfort and beauty. The tree needs to be picked from among other trees and it must come down. It then needs to be de-limbed, hauled, cut to size, planed and sanded. What is left is the raw product, which will lend itself to the devices and imagination of the woodworker. In this case, Kim Hosking from Harpster.
“I love to be outside and to create something out of nothing,” he said.
He carefully picks the trees he will use to make his custom furniture. Hosking loves the raw look, feel and smell of pine, and he recognizes the beauty each piece of wood possesses, and his finished pieces of furniture show that he believes the characteristics of wood should be as important as its function.
“Basically, you start with a natural piece of wood and end up with a piece of furniture,” he added.
He’s been making furniture for 18 years. The area around his shop is part mill, part wood storage facility. Sawdust and tailings and the smell of pine pitch depict a scene of the various stages of furniture making. On a timbered hillside overlooking the South Fork of the Clearwater River, his shop abounds with chisels, lathes, mallets, clasps, jigs and clamps. There is a particle board wall of pegs holding a multitude of well-used hand tools, and the light coming through the window illuminates the grain of the wood on top of an almost-complete dresser.
According to Hosking, no two pieces of his furniture are alike. Each piece is a unique creation.
He uses small diameter pieces of lightly sanded wood with the bark still attached as table legs, bedposts and corner rounds for box-style pieces such as cabinets and dressers, and smaller pieces of wood are beveled and sanded to a smooth finish and used as drawer handles. Faceplates, tabletops and cabinet facades are planed and smoothly sanded to allow the personality and grain of the wood to exhibit itself more prominently.
Hosking said he can build any kind of furniture a client can imagine.
There are bedposts and cabinets and finely crafted frames. The smell of wood glue is constant but not overbearing. It’s clean, but cluttered with tools and pieces of Douglas fir, white and ponderosa pine, and half-finished projects, and the beginnings of half a dozen others.
White-tailed deer antlers hang from the rafters making it clear that this hillside overlooking the South Fork is a place where forces of nature converge and manifest themselves in a man who feeds off nature, and takes its energies and focuses them within the creation of a style of furniture that at once shows a hallowed respect for and intimate understanding of wood.
“God made the trees and I made the furniture, and its 100 percent made in America,” he said.
For information about Hosking’s company, Rose Hill Woodworks, call 208-926-7074.
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Idaho County Free Press: http://www.idahocountyfreepress.com/Specials/IFPHomeAndGarden.pdf
