maxwoodycoverOn the day in June of 1950 when Max Woody bought his first woodworking machines, he took a leap—not a step—onto the path that he would faithfully follow for a lifetime. Max Woody had a dream that has kept him making chairs ever since.

A sixth generation chair maker, he came to wood naturally and honed his skills in his grandfather’s shop after his father’s early death. Using local wood from North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, he makes traditional ladder back chairs and rocking chairs one by one, using the time-tested methods of his ancestors.

Who was that energetic boy who bore a heavy load?  Who is that man so long committed to his chosen purpose of making traditional chairs, preserving traditional skills, and continuing a legacy?

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“I never cease to be amazed, by chips flying off the lathe—no two alike, like waves rolling in from the sea.”

“I never had a hobby, but if I did, I’m sure it would be making chairs.”
–Max Woody

North Carolina Folklore Society honored Max Woody with the 2016 Brown-Hudson Folklore Award in recognition for his lifelong commitment to keeping North Carolina traditions and to fostering understanding of these traditions. Max was also nominated for both the North Carolina Heritage Award and the National Heritage Fellowship.

Max Woody loved making chairs, and he loved people. With his eagerness to share and preserve heritage as a sixth generation chair maker, he welcomed those who stopped by his shop, both old friends from near and far or strangers—friends in the making. His chairs found homes in every state and in foreign countries as well.

Since Max’s passing in 2019, his chair making legacy continues in his shop near Marion as his son Myron carries on the work his father began there. Myron “grew up in the shop” and is a skillful and creative chair maker in his own right.
Visit the website and plan to stop by when you are in that area.
Max Woody Chair Shop
3355 US 70 West
Marion, NC 28752

Order from Amazon.com or email the author.

ISBN: 978-1-511750-24-0, Softcover; 2015; $16.95
Published by Parkway Publishers, Inc.