(Continued from Page 1) grain bins, is hand tooled

(Continued from Page 1) grain bins, is hand tooled by one of the three cabinet makers and then signed. | “We use spokeshaves, drawknives and wood planes to give the furniture a primitive, old-fashioned look that people want today,” Tom said. “Most of the furniture made today is plastic and people want solid wood furniture made by hand that they can have in their homes and pass on to their children. ”

Tom started making the furniture Six months ago as a side business to his custom cabinet and kitchen business because of neighbors.

“The McKittericks, our neighbors, were looking for a farm table and they described what they wanted to me,” Tom said. “They bought an antique table somewhere, and when I found out the outrageous price they paid for it and how happy they were they found it, I decided to make a few.”

When he first started making the tables, he did not know where he would sell them.

“I put some out front to dry and a lady stopped and asked to buy one,” Tom said. “I put two more out the next day, and I sold those so I decided I really didn’t need a showroom.”

Country Manor Gift Shop bought some of the furniture to put in the Deli and the pieces sold “right away.” Antique dealers in the area also buy the furniture for their shops.

“Farm tables are expensive in antique shops where the prices begin at $300 — at least — and can run up to $1,200,” Tom said. “Ours start at $225, so the price is one of the main things that sells them.”

Tom, who started his cabinet making business in 1982 after teaching Industrial Arts at RCHS, is finding it easy to sell all of the furniture.

‘With three people working, we can usually make two tables a day and a hutch in three to four days,” he said. ‘We’re selling all we can make right now.”

Most of the sales have been to people passing through the county,