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The Joy of Building

Jan 13, 2023

Work should be fun!

 

Paul Leger taught me that when we teamed up to renovate and restore this classic Victorian on Prospect Avenue in West Hartford in the mid 70’s.

Nearly everything I know about woodworking I learned from working alongside Paul. One look at his family tree and you’ll see that woodworking runs deep. One after another from the mid 1700s: shipbuilder, cabinetmaker, carpenter, cabinetmaker.

That’s when I got to know his kids Chris, Chuck, and Ben. They learned like I did. Hanging out back in their three car garage in Hartford that was the shop making projects and other things, burning wood scraps in the stove to keep the glue from freezing. Here’s bearded me and a cabinet I designed and built there.

In those early days Paul would bring the kids to work with him from time to time with (Chris remember sleeping with his first hammer). Chris started working part time with Paul during high school and eventually moved on to full time work. Ten years younger, Ben eventually joined Chris continuing the Lee & Sons tradition (Lee was Paul’s dad). 
Wolfworks reconnected with the next generation as Paul was retiring. Chris’s son Spencer now rounds out the team. You’ll see that lineage of craft in the creative woodworking features we team up to create. They thrive on the challenges of working out exactly how to craft these wooden delights using the hand tools, chisels, and planes Paul taught us all to use (and his father taught him).

Did I say work should be fun. Chris will hot glue Ben’s coffee cup down and next thing you know Chris will find his hammer glued to the workbench. And here is Paul doing a head stand three stories up on that Prospect Avenue project. Finding the daily joy of building is the lasting legacy I value most from being part of this great woodworking families story.

 

And on it goes…