A little bit about me….

My name is Markus J. Hueber and I was born in Germany into a family of woodworkers. I fondly remember my Opa Josef making wooden toys for me and my brothers in his workshop and so I decided quite young to go into woodworking myself. After graduating from school, I started a three-year apprenticeship in my family’s custom door and window company which concluded with my attaining Journeyman rank after an extensive two-day Exam. After working as a Journeyman for a few years, I returned to school to earn my Master’s Diploma.

I worked in Germany for a while before deciding to move and to try my luck in the “New World”. Here I started a rewarding, three decade long career selling, installing and servicing European woodworking equipment. My job brought me to woodworking companies all over the US, Canada and Mexico as our customers ranged from one-man custom shops to large furniture factories. During that time I was involved in a wide range of woodworking processes and operations to help our clients find the equipment that best met their needs – and counted the days until I could indulge in my first love again full-time.

Starting in 2024, I am back to actual hands-on woodworking. In the Foothills of North Carolina, outside of Morganton in rural Burke County, I have a workshop equipped with hand tools and machines necessary to tackle a variety of different projects. These range from solid wood furniture to wooden countertops, from home accessories to personalized cutting boards, from innovative and unique wine bottle displays to children’s toys and even exterior window shutters and bar shelves. I enjoy working with solid wood; my preference are domestic species including walnut, maple, oak, cherry but also lesser known and hard to find types such as pecan, apple, pear, locust or sycamore. 

Being always on the lookout for interesting and unique wood I am known to transport tree logs donated by friends and neighbors to commercial sawmills and pay them to have the logs cut into slabs and boards for future use.

This not only allows me to air-dry the wood carefully, it also reduces my carbon footprint by keeping transport distances to a minimum. And most importantly, it allows me to use a valuable resource that would otherwise end up as firewood or worse, get pushed into a ditch.

When it comes to finishes I try to stay with environmentally sensitive options when possible. My cutting boards are finished with a mixture of food grade Tung (a tree nut) and citrus oil (a safe and vegan-friendly choice) and I use mostly use water-based topcoats or hardwax oils for my other products.

Our three rescued dogs often keep me company in the shop, and shop cat ‘Noodle’ stops by to inspect my work and to make sure I use the right amount of glue.

I hope you find some inspiration checking out the gallery of past projects. Feel free to contact me if you’d like to discuss a particular woodworking project.

Markus J. Hueber