Osborne Custom Team Replicates Family Heirloom
Toccoa, GA– The best part of building custom furniture is “the pleasure I get when I see how much other people appreciate and appreciate the finished project,” according to woodworker Dwayne Hobbs. Dwayne, a hobbyist woodworker and former teacher of the trade, comes from a long line of woodworkers. “My grandfather owned a shop in Tifton, GA. He took measurements on site and took them back to his shop to build custom windows and doors.” Dwayne’s great grandfather built the 1st Methodist Church with its elaborate oak detailing. The church has since then been converted into the city museum.
“I have always been a hobbyist,” Dwayne told Osborne Wood Products. After over twenty years of teaching woodworking, Dwayne decided to set out building custom furniture with the extensive collection of woodworking equipment he had been collecting. Dwayne has been asked by friends, family, and others close to him to build a variety of items such as roll top desks, gun cabinets, book cases, and tables.
A recent project Dwayne has taken on involves rebuilding a bed. This is a very special project, as the handmade bed was built in 1990 to be an heirloom for the family to continue to pass down to future generations. The original oak bed was destroyed in a fire with the original posts badly burnt. Dwayne’s challenge was to produce the posts, followed by the spindles and framework for the head and foot boards for a perfect match.
It’s all about “having the right tools, machines, and ability,” Dwayne told Osborne. Dwayne’s machines were not large enough to reproduce the posts for the bed, and so this is where Osborne Wood Products came in. Dwayne contacted the company to help him reproduce the oak posts exactly like the originals. With careful measurements and design by the drafting department the posts were replicated along with the spindles for the headboard. Drafting intern Ethan Lord made sure that the design matched the original as closely as possible.
“Now that I have the posts, I’ll make the head and foot boards,” says Dwayne. The boards will be mortised into the bedposts and the custom designed spindles will be inserted. Then the entire piece will be finished to flawlessly match the original bed frame.
“My goal is to build the bed exactly like the original. This is a special project that will mean a whole lot to the family and I want to get as perfect as possible.”
Dwayne told Osborne, “Thanks to you and all the folks at Osborne Wood products. Everyone at Osborne Wood Products has been so nice, professional, courteous and competent. It has been a pleasure working everyone on this project and thanks to the precision of computer aided design and computer numerical control, the finished product will be an absolutely perfect replica.”
Drafting Engineer, Haden Smith, commented on this special custom project. “This project was very special to Osborne Wood Products because of the history and value of the piece. It’s amazing to see how something handmade decades ago can be so closely matched by a CNC. The results of preserving tradition in such a meaningful project are truly spectacular.”
Operation FINALLY HOME was established in 2005 as a nonpartisan/nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. In 2015 Operation FINALLY HOME is celebrating 10 years of providing custom-built, mortgage-free homes to America’s military heroes and the widows of the fallen, those who have worn America’s uniform and sacrificed so much to defend our freedoms and values. Operation FINALLY HOME partners with corporate sponsors, builder associations, builders, developers, individual contributors, and volunteers to help America’s military heroes and their families transition to the home front by addressing one of their most pressing needs—a home to call their own. To find out more, visit OperationFinallyHome.org.