History

What’s in a name?

My father, Joseph Fink, had many irons in the fire. In addition to being a doctor, he dabbled in junk collecting – fixing cars, bikes, VCRs (what the heck are those?), computers, furniture, etc. Oh yea, he was also the fulltime husband to the most beautiful and marvelous woman – Barbara, and the father to four kids (one girl, three boys). These were just a few of the things that kept him busy. My father had two brothers of his own. It was his (and possibly their) dream to have some type of business, real or not, called Finbro. This would not only payed homage to his brothers, but was vision for his three boys. Ironically, one of my uncles also had three boys (in addition to two girls). The other uncle was a catholic priest – offspring status is self-explanatory. As we grew up and became young adults and “adults”, he and my uncles would often explain that the dinner bill at a restaurant was picked-up compliments of Finbro. In fact, random bills would be paid for by Finbro – putting gas in the car when we were in college, bar bills at bachelor parties, etc. Random items acquired by my father and uncles without a story were also attributed to the Finbro Company. Interestingly enough, Finbro had no real source of income – it was all a dream.

My brothers and I (as well as our cousins) always reference Finbro when we get together. However, no business ever surfaced.

Where did this come from?

Being a homeowner you take on many projects, both desirable and undesirable. Whether it’s fixing leaky sinks, painting rooms, or upgrading furniture, money seems to find a way to get spent. Learning from my father, I wanted to be cost efficient and I enjoy tinkering. Often my wife and I would see things that we liked to decorate our house. And I found myself saying, “I can make that.” Or, “I can do that.” I’ve always had a thirst for creating, making, and building in the area of home construction and design and I wanted to prove that on another level.

My first wood project was for my wife. It was a bench to be placed at the foot of our bed. We had seen one in a catalog for a lot of money, but didn’t want to pay the price. I ended up making a beautiful bench which we both love and it rests at the foot our bed to this day. (of note, my learning curve at this point cost about as much as the one in the catalog). This started a slew of projects to decorate our house.

The first projects:

Just a few years ago I got the bug for “live edge” wood. We re-did a room in our house which has a wet bar. We made the bar top from a piece of live edge spalted maple and got a bunch of compliments. Shortly thereafter I ended up making a coffee table to match. Again, gaining some compliments.

The Dining Room Table:

After the bar and the coffee table projects home ownership had kicked in again and we had to have a tree felled that was being strangled by vines and blocked our vegetable garden (one of wife’s passions). It was a black walnut tree and I recalled from long-long ago that the wood had value. With a little bit of research and some money, I decided to process the wood. A friend dropped the tree and I found someone with a portable mill who came to the house to cut it into boards. I took half of the load to be kiln dried, while I dried the other half in my basement. It was a very large tree and I wound up with an immense amount of wood.

Around this time, some friends who were getting married had stopped by our house. They saw the coffee table and wanted a bench made in a similar fashion for their wedding day that would be included in their reception (part of their design theme). We discussed their likes and dislikes and they commissioned me to create their bench from some of the black walnut wood. We delivered the bench to the wedding of about 175 guests, and again, received more compliments.

After the wedding my wife and I were looking into buying a dining room table, but we didn’t want the cost. We decided to use the black walnut wood from the back yard. Lots of research, lots of learning, and lots of time later we arrived at a table that we will have forever and couldn’t love more. We personalized it was well, to create the heirloom feel.

The table was the real first step in taking woodwork seriously.

Friends and Family:

The dining room table, the bench, and the coffee table led friends and family to commission works. My expression of joy was able to be spread. This was the dawn of Finbro Woodworks and a chance to make my father’s dream come true.

The struggle is real:

With the woodworking bug now fully sunk in my head and daily life (and the life of my family) it is impossible for me to drive by downed trees on the road and not see what could be made from them. I’m taunted and tortured by each passing tree….

Like father, like son:

Like Dad, I have a few fulltime things going as well. Fulltime husband to a breath-takingly beautiful and forgiving woman. Fulltime dad to two awesome boys who are as busy as every other kid their ages, but always want to be involved in dad’s woodwork. And a fulltime assistant principal at a local high, where no two days are ever the same.

Some people read books. Some workout. Others cook as their passions. I enjoy those as well. But woodworking and making people happy with my designs and projects has taken passion to a whole new level.