The original idea was to build a coffee table for my man cave with a Bandelier of M60 rounds set in the center covered by a plain of glass. Needless to say that the bullets were a bit extreme for 80’s and a bit harder to get passed the guards at the front gate, so the concept of my table sat for the next 30 years.
In 2010 after the passing of my Father, I wanted to build a shadowbox for his WWII ribbons and medals. My father had introduced me to the art of woodworking early on, so I thought it was fitting that I do something special using wood in honor of him. When I finished his Shadowbox, the idea of my “coffee table” reemerged and construction began almost immediately. After building a few more pieces for some old Corps buddies of mine, it was suggested that I build these unique items for other military folk, so Military Cuts was born.
I was born in New York City in the early 60’s the youngest of 5. My Father, a WWII vet,
(Army 3rd Engineers), sent his 2 oldest boys off to Vietnam, both joined the Army, I guess you could say the military was part of my family.
In the 70's, my Father introduced me to his passion of wood working I was too young to understand wood but I enjoyed hanging out with the ol' man.
Mr. Earl (my
dad) owned a small company called E&L Fibers, were he built custom wood paneling for living rooms and Dens.
I as the dutiful son helped and learned as much as I could until the late 70’s when I broke from the
family tradition and joined the
Marine Corps instead of the U.S. Army . . . OooRahh!
My family moved from New York to Cape Cod Mass and in the Early 80’s and after the Corps I followed them to a small town outside of Falmouth. I began working with my father again doing carpentry and home construction. Over the next 15 years we built everything from finished basements to double beds to 3 quarter wrap around patio decks for homes on Cape Cod.
In the mid 90’s I met a young woman from Montreal Canada, we dated for a few years, and after a whole lot of traveling back and forth, we finally got married in 2002.
We (she) decided that living in Montreal would be a good idea as the closeness of her family was very important to her and I wanted to honour her wishes.
For me, . . . . heck I was 45 minutes from New York and 6 hours from Cape Cod so this was an acceptable move.
I am still a US citizen, I still vote and pay my taxes in the U.S., but Montreal is where I am raising my family.
