Since I drove up to Woodcraft of Wilmington in Delaware, I thought that I would make the additional drive to check out Hearne Hardwoods in Oxford, Pennsylvania. I've been discovering that the area where I live seems quite charmed with a number of sawmills and wood sources within a reasonable drive's time.
I first heard about Hearne from Doug at Groff & Groff in Quarryville, PA when I asked Doug about Koa from Hawaii. Doug told me that the place to go is Hearne and, if you haven't been there, it's quite an impressive place.
Plenty of both domestic and exotic woods and everyone there is incredibly friendly and welcoming. As I was hanging out in the lumber stacks, Morrie gave me a rundown of their selections as well as the capacity of their pretty formidable workshop: 30" planer, 26" jointer, big CNC, sliding table saw, etc. Since I have an interest in Koa, he told me that they do quite a bit of work for different guitar manufacturers such as Martin, Paul Reed Smith and Fender, as well as a slew of smaller and higher end luthiers.
From there, Morrie guided me to what they call the "guitar shop" where they prepare soundboards, fretboards and other components for their guitar makers. Sets of boards that can range up to $5,000 for an incredibly beautiful figured koa soundboard.
Morrie had also told me about the other warehouse where they stored the slabs. As I was walking over, I was intercepted by an older gentleman who let me know that I would need to have someone with a forklift if I wanted to see the individual slabs. I told him it was my first time to Hearne and I was just checking things out. He offered to show me around and gave me a tour of the slab warehouse, the new showroom which they expect to open later this year, and then a tour around their offices - which is a converted stone barn whose stonework has been repointed and the interior filled with the most exquisite of woods with floors made of ebony and koa. While the facility overall is very impressive, the converted barn is stunning.
Turns out that the gentleman is Rick Hearne who started this business oh so many years ago. As we got to talking, it turns out we have a mutual friend in Hawaii - Chris Kamaka of Kamaka Ukulele, whom I've known since the early 90s. Small world indeed. He also gave me a tour of some of the incredible guitars made by luthiers I'm not familiar with but the instruments are exquisite and sound incredible.
Another highlight was the English Burl table and full set of Conoid chairs by Mira Nakashima. There's a bit of a funny story behind the table - Rick had offered the big knob of tree to Mira but she thought it would be too problematic and declined it. Rick sliced it up and showed Mira who, evidently, loved it and she made him the table. And since I've never seen a Nakashima in person, I did ask if I could have a sit in the chair!. Quite comfy.
I didn't really have any particular lumber needs during this visit but there's a lot more to explore. They have some scrap bins and I was able to select a few pieces of figured white oak and curly koa that I'm thinking of using in an up-coming table build. As I was checking out and Morrie was entering my info into their database, I told him that should I ever meet Mira Nakashima, I can tell her that our info is shared in the same database. It's my only claim to fame.
So, if you ever are out in southeastern Pennsylvania, I think it would be worth your time to detour out to Oxford for a visit. Evidently, this guy from Baltimore wasn't the furthest visitor. There was another guy visiting from Sri Lanka.
I first heard about Hearne from Doug at Groff & Groff in Quarryville, PA when I asked Doug about Koa from Hawaii. Doug told me that the place to go is Hearne and, if you haven't been there, it's quite an impressive place.
Plenty of both domestic and exotic woods and everyone there is incredibly friendly and welcoming. As I was hanging out in the lumber stacks, Morrie gave me a rundown of their selections as well as the capacity of their pretty formidable workshop: 30" planer, 26" jointer, big CNC, sliding table saw, etc. Since I have an interest in Koa, he told me that they do quite a bit of work for different guitar manufacturers such as Martin, Paul Reed Smith and Fender, as well as a slew of smaller and higher end luthiers.
From there, Morrie guided me to what they call the "guitar shop" where they prepare soundboards, fretboards and other components for their guitar makers. Sets of boards that can range up to $5,000 for an incredibly beautiful figured koa soundboard.
Morrie had also told me about the other warehouse where they stored the slabs. As I was walking over, I was intercepted by an older gentleman who let me know that I would need to have someone with a forklift if I wanted to see the individual slabs. I told him it was my first time to Hearne and I was just checking things out. He offered to show me around and gave me a tour of the slab warehouse, the new showroom which they expect to open later this year, and then a tour around their offices - which is a converted stone barn whose stonework has been repointed and the interior filled with the most exquisite of woods with floors made of ebony and koa. While the facility overall is very impressive, the converted barn is stunning.
Turns out that the gentleman is Rick Hearne who started this business oh so many years ago. As we got to talking, it turns out we have a mutual friend in Hawaii - Chris Kamaka of Kamaka Ukulele, whom I've known since the early 90s. Small world indeed. He also gave me a tour of some of the incredible guitars made by luthiers I'm not familiar with but the instruments are exquisite and sound incredible.
Another highlight was the English Burl table and full set of Conoid chairs by Mira Nakashima. There's a bit of a funny story behind the table - Rick had offered the big knob of tree to Mira but she thought it would be too problematic and declined it. Rick sliced it up and showed Mira who, evidently, loved it and she made him the table. And since I've never seen a Nakashima in person, I did ask if I could have a sit in the chair!. Quite comfy.
I didn't really have any particular lumber needs during this visit but there's a lot more to explore. They have some scrap bins and I was able to select a few pieces of figured white oak and curly koa that I'm thinking of using in an up-coming table build. As I was checking out and Morrie was entering my info into their database, I told him that should I ever meet Mira Nakashima, I can tell her that our info is shared in the same database. It's my only claim to fame.
So, if you ever are out in southeastern Pennsylvania, I think it would be worth your time to detour out to Oxford for a visit. Evidently, this guy from Baltimore wasn't the furthest visitor. There was another guy visiting from Sri Lanka.
