The topic this month is a person, and not just any person. This month I’m going to talk about Brian Skalaski. That’s right, the winner of the 2025 Young Wood Pro contest. I was fortunate enough to run into Brian at the Wood Pro Expo in Pennsylvania and he agreed to sit down and have a little chat with me via Zoom. 

It is always a delight to have a lively woodworking discussion with our annual winner and this month did not disappoint. We talked about his introduction to woodworking at a younger age, what it’s been like since opening his business, and where he hopes it goes. We also quickly discussed what he bought with his winning prize of a $2,000 shopping spree at Grizzly. 

If you are not familiar with Brian’s piece that won the contest. I highly recommend you go onto the Woodworking Network website to view it. When I was doing my part as a judge in the contest, his piece was a clear favorite on first viewing of all the entries. 

I will also note that the entries this year were of a higher caliber than I’ve ever seen. It is uplifting to see contestants entering higher quality pieces year after year. Brian’s piece was a liquor cabinet made out of walnut and ash. It featured steam-bent work that gave a sculptural feel visually along with all the small fit-and-finish things you expect from a well-executed piece. That includes interior lighting that turns on when you open the doors of the cabinet. It is the definition of high quality work.

 

Inspiration
When I asked Brian about his inspiration for the piece, it became clear that it involved experimentation. He had a client who had a lot of available lumber and had hired him before. The client reached out saying they had lumber and wanted another piece to go along with what they already had already commissioned from him. Brian experimented with a lot of steam-bent work to test some of his ideas for how he wanted this cabinet to come out visually. 

It was in this process that he’d be inspired and gained the direction he needed to execute it. This is a process I am all too familiar with and there were many pieces in my earlier years when I had the time that I did the exact same thing by experimenting. His love and appreciation for steam bending was clear in our conversation. He lit up talking about it, and it is a fun experience that I also understand and share. Sometimes the best direction comes from just going to the shop with material and playing with ideas.

Going into business
Brian opened his solo woodworking business about a year and a half ago, and it’s now getting a rhythm going with clients and work in. I took advantage of his recent dive into self-employment and asked him what the most unexpected thing was he has learned. Brian feels like the most surprising difficulty and challenge has been scheduling. Not scheduling himself necessarily but flexing his schedule to the changing deadlines provided by clients. 

If you’ve been reading my articles for the last few years, I’m sure you recall this is an issue that has come up for several young woodworkers I’ve interviewed. We talked about how as woodworkers we are usually some of the last people on a job site or the last to be included in the process of a home or office coming together. 

Because of that we are typically the ones who inherit a lot of problems or frustrations and most of all deadlines that are more like a moving target. Brian discussed how it was problematic because set ups in space at his work were already created to begin working on a project that kept getting moved back. That’s a problem I might know all too well. Fortunately, Brian has been able to survive those difficult hurdles and is now humming along currently on builds for architects. I’m not surprised. The young man is extremely talented.

Moving forward
One of my favorite parts of our discussion was his response to where he envisions or hopes his work goes moving forward although he also expressed how important it is for him to be open and flexible as well. He has been experimenting with a line of home goods and testing them in his own home for a few years now. He continues to experiment with design and toil at in hopes that at some point, he’ll be able to create his own line. 

The gist I got is that this line would be very specialized in showing steam bent features geared toward a more streamlined style of build and visually having the influence of it being obvious that it was handmade. Bringing the human element and the handmade feel of furniture back to furniture. If you’ve ever looked at my work, it should be no surprise I’m a fan and completely support this.

Eye on the prize
He did mention that it has gotten easier to do this and all the jobs he’s working on because of the purchase he made with his shopping spree prize from Grizzly of $2,000.00. Brian picked up a 3 hp canister dust collector. He jokingly mentioned he knew it wasn’t the sexy choice, but it was the one he needed. 

I completely agree without good dust collection. Even my sexier equipment is pretty miserable to work with if there is no dust collection and the finishing areas would not be workable. Dust collection is a vital part of our work and it seems like Brian made a very smart business-like choice. 

It was abundantly clear to me in our conversation that Brian has a joy for this work that is infectious and is more than evident. Just his tone and facial expressions when talking about it showed that. This is a guy who has found his calling and is just happy to continue following it. It’s refreshing for someone like me who’s been doing this a long time to be reminded of what that can look like. 
I highly recommend you check out Brian’s work and follow him along his path. I am certain it will be worth it.

Watch our full conversation below.

#YoungWoodPro is a contest and an educational program sponsored by Grizzly Industrial to help novice professionals improve their skills in business and woodworking. Entries are now closed for the 2025 contest. Learn more about the contest.