Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 8, 1993 TAG: 9304080419
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-18 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETSY BIESENBACH STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
BUSINESS ISN'T JUST A JOB, IT'S A PHILOSOPHY
In the recent hit movie "Sommersby," the title character comes home and finds his friends and family working in the fields.Thinking he was dead and surprised to see him, they take a moment to stop and stare at him, while leaning on their 19th-century wooden rakes.
Those rakes were crafted by Kevin Riddle of Eagle Rock, who designs and builds handmade Appalachian-style furniture and farm implements, using traditional tools and methods, in his workshop behind his house.
For Riddle, who operates as Mountainman Woodshop, his home-based business isn't just a job - it's the embodiment of his philosophy of life. Working in this way has reinforced his desire to return to a simpler lifestyle.
"A lot of the old ways, I think, are worth preserving. If you don't pass it on, you lose it."
Riddle grew up in Botetourt County, left and returned several times. He came back for good after the flood of 1985, when Craig Creek inundated the house, and his mother needed help.
After high school, he said, he worked for several large companies, and as the years went by, the desire to work for himself grew stronger.
"I wanted to get out of high-tech," he said. "I decided that this was not the way to go."
Riddle started his woodworking as a hobby. Members of his family had "always worked with their hands," doing carpentry, electrical work, and plumbing, he said.
He looked up local "old-timers" and "ex-hippies" to learn their methods, and by 1991, was ready to practice his craft full time.
Learning how to do the woodworking part was easy compared to learning how to market his product, he said.
"I was kind of naive about the marketing thing." After doing research in libraries and at local colleges, "I just started walking into offices asking `How do you do this?' "
He tried craft shows, but "you live like a gypsy doing that."
Finally, he started selling to local craft stores on consignment, and now he works with wholesalers, who place his pieces in stores all over the nation. He doesn't handle walk-in trade, however.
"I like to make stuff and ship it out."
Aside from a slow period last winter, he said, everything he does "goes out the door as fast as I can make it."
These days, he said, people seem to want "something comforting, something from the past."
Riddle has an office in the basement of his house, but "it's no big deal," he said. All of the real work goes in the workshop, an old outbuilding on a 100-acre tract of land which has been in his family for 60 years.
Riddle has five basic designs that he produces, all from oak, but he also can make other items on request. He uses a shaving horse, which is basically a sit-down foot-operated vise, and drawing knives to cut the wood into the proper shape.
"It's the kind of technology people used to use," he said. At first, he said, he was a "purist" in his methods, but now, because it's so much easier, he buys his oak splits from a supplier and uses a chain saw to cut logs. Everything else is done the old way, however. He even uses an ax and a wedge to split the wood.
The rakes and the three- to five-tined pitchforks are used by city folks as decoration, even though they are perfectly serviceable. Riddle also makes chairs and stools, weaving oak splints to make the seats and tying off the loose ends with twine.
Throughout the process, he uses no nails or glue. The rungs and backs are dried until they shrink. Later, as the moisture in the atmosphere rehydrates them, they swell until they fit tightly into holes bored into the legs and sides.
With the exception of the firewood carrier, which is a modern design, all of his work is based on traditional Appalachian styles.
The pitchfork, the most popular item, sells for $40, as does the rake. The stool sells for $75, and the chair for $130. Each piece comes with a lifetime guarantee.
Riddle spends about six hours a day in the shop, and several more hours doing paperwork. He also is executive director of the Craft Marketing Association, a statewide organization of crafts people.
Although Riddle admits that it's a definite advantage to be able to operate his business in a location that doesn't cost him anything, he would like to move his shop to Craig or Floyd County.
Botetourt is getting too urbanized, he said. But because he is not making enough to support himself yet, that dream is still many years away.
To contact Mountainman Woodshop, call Kevin Riddle at (703) 884-2197.
Memo: Also ran in Current April 10, 1993.