I was farm-raised in the Texas panhandle with making things in my blood: my Dutch ancestors were shipbuilders in New Amsterdam. A BS degree from Texas Tech in landscape architecture, while practiced briefly, provided me with design and drawing skills, and a glimpse into the world of forms-- in nature, classicism, and the endless variety of styles.

I moved from Austin to Tuscon about 1971, without a dime, to join a fellow woodworker. In one sense poverty became an advantage. With a minimum of power tools, I assiduously collected fine hand tools at the flea market, and books and knowledge, to practice furnituremaking “the old way”, along with skills in the many trades I had interest in. In elaborate work as seen here, alongside the machine operations, comes the indispensable application of the razor-sharp plane, chisel, and carving-gouge.

I built my first complete bar for the Tuscon Athletic Club: a sleek, boat-like concave oak bar with a fine mahogany top. As far as I know it's still there, but I never got any decent pictures. That job likely started my focus on the idea of bar-as-centerpiece. This was a presumed concept in the not-so-distant past, and for centuries. In hotels, restaurants, and clubs, the pride of place was expressed in the focal point of relaxation, cordiality, and service: the bar. In our hasty world of plastic and cubicle, I would like to see the warmth of fine woodwork return to that environment.

I moved back to the Austin area in 1976 and set up my evolving shop, and was fortunate to obtain the barwork I refer to as the Treehouse. The owner liked my sketches, looked at some samples, and I went to the Brooklyn shipyard for a truckload of Thai rosewood and zebrawood from Cameroons. I suppose I was looking at a lot of Deco/nouveau then: concave-conical front, convex stemware canopy, leather armrest, elliptical bevelled mirrors. It was a celebrated piece.

The other bar featured here I call the Texana. This is selected Longleaf pine - the beautiful, resinous, almost extinct slow-growth pine of the old southern forest. Lumber is now obtained from demolition, and in dwindling supply. While troublesome to work, the opportunities for grain-matching and contrasts are all adventure. For Texana - in a private facility on Sam Houston's old ranch at Washington-on-Brazos - I turned to more classical features, housing urns in semicircular alcoves, plinth and frieze. Here I developed shaper cutters to produce a handrail which leaves no inside corner joint, a boon to the bartender, as well as pleasing the eye. Several other bars are around, the Fredericksburg Brewing Co., etc., these being the most well photographed, and the most complete; a complete bar has a bar, backbar, and stemware canopy.

Typically a fine custom bar is a "one-off", although multiples or twins are feasible.

An allied field to barwork is that of complex stairs, and along the way several have come along, mixed in with a lot of showcase/display work, storefronts, windows, doors, one-off furniture, cabinets of course, houses, decks, and barns. While we're here I'll show you a few of those:

Stairs

Displays

Doors

Door & sash work is typically the bread-and-butter of a custom millwright. I have rarely photographed this work. Arch-top windows, elliptical storefront sash, too many to recall scattered over the Austin, Texas area.

Furniture

Shop

My work is done in a 5,000 square foot shop I have built over the last several years and equipped with restored vintage machinery, laid out with efficient custom production in mind. Not many people can participate in this sort of work and control of every procedure is paramount. Many tasks can not be delegated and no imperfections are allowed. Inevitably hundreds of hours are required; full products are fabricated in the shop, disassembled and moved. I am prepared to install anywhere in the world.

"Thousand-Year Joinery"

Work of this class employs techniques and practices proven over millennia, in conjunction with modern adhesives and tools. It is hoped and intended that some of these projects will remain long after my time to attest to the survival of the craft. Only in the case of a commercial project would the use of plywood, etc. be considered, with a different approach to the work.

I have provided this site in hope to continue building custom bars, as well as custom furniture, doors & sash, and meeting the needs for architecural millwork. The possibilities are endless, with materials like stone, metals- and forms and styles, still unexplored; and too many spaces are devoid of feature. Our own Texas Live Oak, of amazing beauty and hardness, suggests its use in a regional style.. There won't be a great number of these. Each is unique and time-consuming to build, and I will have to stop someday. It isn't good policy to overlap these jobs very much, in that it can affect the overall result of each project.

There are a lot of better ways to make a living - I have often done jobs just because I wanted to - but few with the same gratification, the tangible results.

You don't do this if you don't love it.

Contact me to discuss your project at 512-847-9686 or Dale@TexasBarBuilders.com

Thanks for your interest...