Woodmasters LLC - Welcome - test of content block
973.361.1166 info@thewoodmasterswork.com
Woodmasters' Philosophy
Excellentia Aeternum Vivit – Excellence lives forever
At Woodmasters, we aim to delight our customers. Everything we build is custom to our clients’ needs. Our construction methods pay homage to the old masters, however we incorporate modern techniques when they make sense. We sweat all of the details from design to material selection to construction methods to finishing techniques and materials. We are skilled at working collaboratively with clients, architects, and designers from concept to completion. We believe, as John Keats wrote: “A thing of beauty is a a joy forever.”
Woodmasters' Work
Architectural Millwork
Interior / Exterior • Doors and Entryways • Short Runs • Specializing in curved work • We can Match any Molding • We use any species of wood
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Architectural Interiors
Paneled Rooms • Libraries • Kitchens • Home Theaters • Coffered Ceilings • Custom Bars • Built-in Cabinetry
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Cabinetry
Classic or Contemporary • Your or Our Design • Television Cabinets • Sound System Cabinets • Lighting
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Wood Turning
Stair Parts – Ballisters / Millposts • Chair Parts • Knobs • Columns • Flame Finials • Tiny to Large • Match any exactly
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Restoration
Antiques • Pool Tables • Furniture • Incorporating all our Skills • Repair and fabricate missing parts • Refinishing
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Specialty Work
Custom Veneer Work-ups • Picture Facing • Book Matching • Sunbursts • Hand Carving • Inlay • Marquetry
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Why Woodmasters
It all starts from an idea. We take your ideas and help translate them into detailed plans. We engage you through the entire process to ensure we are building according to your vision and desires.
Our principles, Wally Kunkle and David Pollak, represent nearly a hundred years of collective fine woodworking experience — steeped in the major historical designs and construction techniques. And we are
accomplished at every area of woodworking — from design to construction to finishing.
Our work has garnered accolades and been featured in Architectural Digest… etc etc etc
What does this all mean to you? Simply, it means you will recieve the finest outcome the field of woodworking has to offer. Just look at our portfolio and read testimonials from our satisfied clients.
Testimonials
Contact Woodmasters - With Mail Form
Phone
973.361.1166
Mailing Address
Woodmasters LLC
Randolph Industrial Park
215 rt. 10, Bldg. 3 unit 5
Randolph NJ. 07869
email@woodmasters.com
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Woodmasters LLC - Welcome
973.361.1166 info@thewoodmasterswork.com
Woodmasters' Philosophy
Vivit Excellentia in Aeternum – Excellence Lives Forever
At Woodmasters, we aim to delight our customers. From concept to completion, we work collaboratively with architects, designers, and home owners to create exceptionally high-quality custom cabinetry and furniture. Our construction methods pay homage to the “old world” masters while incorporating modern techniques wherever they will enrich the result. To create an extraordinary product, we sweat all the details—from design and material selection to construction and finishing techniques. We believe, as John Keats wrote, that “a thing of beauty is a joy forever.”
Woodmasters' Work
Architectural Millwork
Interior / Exterior • Doors and Entryways • Short Runs • Specializing in curved work • We can Match any Molding • We use any species of wood
Learn more…
Classic Interiors
Paneled Rooms • Libraries • Kitchens • Home Theaters • Coffered Ceilings • Custom Bars • Built-in Cabinetry
Learn more…
Cabinetry
Classic or Contemporary • Your or Our Design • Television Cabinets • Sound System Cabinets • Lighting
Learn more…
Wood Turning
Stair Parts – Ballisters / Millposts • Chair Parts • Knobs • Columns • Flame Finials • Tiny to Large • Match any exactly
Learn more…
Restoration
Antiques • Pool Tables • Furniture • Incorporating all our Skills • Repair and fabricate missing parts • Refinishing
Learn more…
Specialty Work
Custom Veneer Work-ups • Picture Facing • Book Matching • Sunbursts • Hand Carving • Inlay • Marquetry
Learn more…
Design
We provide our customers with custom design services as the first step in bringing your project to life.
Learn more…
Why Woodmasters?
It all starts with an idea—yours. With your concept as our guide, we draw on our expertise in both fine woodworking and design to translate your vision into a beautiful and functional reality. Engaging you through the entire process, we ensure that your desires are heard and incorporated every step of the way.
Our principals, Wally Kunkel and David Pollak, collectively represent nearly 90 years of fine woodworking experience. Steeped in the knowledge of major historical designs and construction techniques, they are accomplished in every area of woodworking, from design to construction to finishing. Their work has garnered numerous accolades from and been featured in American Woodworker and Architectural Digest, among others.
What does this all mean to you? Simply put, you will enjoy the highest-quality product available in fine woodworking. To see what we mean, we invite you to look through our Gallery and read testimonials from some of our many satisfied clients.
Testimonials
What We Do at Woodmasters
973.361.1166 info@thewoodmasterswork.com
What We Do
As masters of fine woodworking, Woodmasters designs and creates custom furniture and cabinetry, architectural interiors, and perform restorations of all kinds. A full-service shop, we work closely with architects, designers, and home owners, from initial design to delivery of the finished product.
As part of our process, we meet with you to understand your needs and goals for the project. Our next step is to produce project drawings for approval. After generating the drawings, in some cases we create mockups for you to preview the design concept. Based on our decades of experience in choosing materials, veneers, construction techniques, and finishes, we select these elements for the project and provide samples for review and approval. Then building begins.
Our Personal Touch
Wally or Dave will guide you through all phases of your project: design, construction, and installation. We fabricate and construct your product in our own one-of-a-kind shop. When we install your project—whether that entails built-in paneling or cabinetry or simply carrying in your new hand-made furniture, your complete satisfaction is our greatest reward.
Architectural Millwork
Woodmasters offers an array of pieces and parts to enhance your project or complete a project that we are doing for you. Missing a few balusters on your old Victorian staircase? Our in-house turner, Dave Pollak, will match the old ones to the “T.” Entry doors, curved sash, carved corbels, even compound curved mouldings are all in our realm of expertise.
View our Gallery.
Classic Interiors
Many of the rooms built by Woodmasters, have been recognized as some of the finest in the country. A well-known and long-time friend, Frank Klausz, visited one of our walnut libraries. His comment was, “You would have to visit one of the palaces in Europe to find such design and craftsmanship.” We will work in any style, with your design or ours.
View our Gallery.
Cabinetry
Using a wealth of experience and only the finest materials, the term “cabinetmaker” takes on its true meaning. The title must be earned. Cabinetry should reflect the same high quality as the furniture. We create custom, hand-made cabinetry; your or our design, classic or contemporary – built, delivered. and installed by our craftsmen. We create hand crafted kitchen cabinetry, pantries, display cabinets, storage and gun cabinets, entertainment centers, sound system cabinets, and so much more.
View our Gallery.
Furniture
Exquisite pieces of furniture have been crafted here at Woodmasters. Some are award winning. The only time we get something back is when we want it back.
Watch Part One – Wally Kunkel’s Bombe Dresser
Watch Part Two – Wally Kunkel’s Bombe Dresser
We work in many styles – Queen Ann, Victorian, Moroccan, Greek Revival, and contemporary. What’s you’re pleasure?
View our Gallery.
Wood Turning
With thirty-five-plus years on the wood lathe, there has not been a turning yet that Dave Pollak couldn’t execute. These finials were a challenge that he tackled back in the early nineties.
We create stair parts, balusters / newelposts, chair parts, knobs, flame finials, and columns. In the process of restoration work, we can match parts exactly – any parts – tiny to large.
View our Gallery.
Restoration
It takes a vast skill-set to resore an “old world” piece – from hand-tool joinery, to carving, to inlay, and the whole spectrum of finishing. We have what it takes.
View our Gallery.
Specialty Work
Looking for something a little out of the ordinary? Whether it’s replacing a missing chess piece or inlaying something special for your guitar, at Woodmasters we have the skills to make whatever you’re looking for.
View our Gallery.
Design
We create detailed drawings for your review and approval and for our use in building your project. We bring to bear our years of experience and deep understanding of historic precedence and our sense of proportion and layout to ensure your project will meet our goal of excellence.
Contact Woodmasters
973.361.1166 info@thewoodmasterswork.com
Contact Woodmasters
Phone
973.361.1166
Follow Us On
About Woodmasters
973.361.1166 info@thewoodmasterswork.com
About Woodmasters
Woodmasters is a woodworking “supergroup” of two whose principals, Wally Kunkel and Dave Pollak, each have extensive and lauded experience in their field. In Woodmasters, Wally and David have assembled a small team of craftspeople dedicated to producing timeless works using “old school” woodworking techniques.
Our Principals
Partners since 2013, David Pollak and Wally Kunkel bring together decades of individual experience.
Dave Pollak – Born in Morristown, New Jersey, David has been woodworking since he was 18 years old. His many skills include cabinet and furniture making, wood turning, carving, inlay, veneer work, and marquetry. In 1984 he opened Creative Woodcraft in Morristown, on Mt. Kemble Avenue. Five years later he moved the company to a larger facility in Dover on Blackwell Street, where he and his crew developed a reputation for creating beautiful, unique, and diverse work with exceptional attention to quality and customer service. After 20 years of helming Creative Woodcraft, he decided to change direction and closed the business to work as a top furniture maker at Pollaro, in Union. There he built museum-quality reproductions of the work of Jacques Ruhlmann, master designer of the Art Deco Movement.
Five years later, he left Pollaro and joined forces with longtime friend and fellow master woodworker, Wally Kunkel, to form Woodmasters LLC.
Dave is a founding member, former president and current vice president of the “Guild of Professional Woodworkers of Upper New Jersey” and a honorary lifetime member of Crafts. He is also on the board of directors of the Early American Industries Association.
David is also involved in the tool collecting community and restores woodworking machinery as a hobby. He is published in Dana Batory’s book Vintage Woodworking Machinery where he has written a chapter on buying and restoring woodworking machinery.
His parents, Emil and Martyl Pollak founded the trades related publishing company Astragal Press and co-authored several books on antique tools including A Guide to American Wooden Planes and Their Makers.
Respected by his clients and his peers for his skills and attention to quality, David continues to refine his talents with every new project he undertakes.
Wally Kunkel – At age sixteen Wally produced his first museum-quality piece of furniture on commission. That entitles him to claim a professional career of 43 years and counting. His foundation in woodworking comes from his ancestry, mostly his father, Wallace M. Kunkel, known to the nation as “Mr. Sawdust.“ The senior Mr. Kunkel was the founder of a legendary woodworking school in Chester, New Jersey, which served as the springboard for many professional woodworkers on the East Coast today. Wally Jr., along with his brothers Bruce and Marc, were an integral part of the school’s success.
The building boom of the “roaring 80’s” spurred Wally and his brother Marc to form Kunkel Brothers, Inc. It was the place to go for a one-of-a-kind library or furniture piece. Together they built a portfolio that raised eyebrows and made jaws drop—from the remaking of the Gothic arch tracery windows at the famed Trinity Church in lower Manhattan to what has been called the most spectacular private library in New Jersey.
Trinity
Church
Windows
With a passion for his work and a natural born talent, Wally went on to win the prestigious American Woodworker Award, also known as the Excellence in Craftsmanship Award. This was a high honor for the young Kunkel considering that the competition included many of the icons he had only read about.
Further experience included six years of fine yacht building at Merritt’s Boat Works in Pompano Beach, Florida, called the world’s premier sport-fishing yacht builder by Yachting magazine. In just a few years, Wally became the foreman of an elite group of builders, considered by some as the best in the world.
Let’s Talk Shop – Our Shop Facility
One of Woodmasters’ unique features is our rare assembly of tools. While our work is state of the art, we specifically exclude some of the most modern gadgetry, such as CNC machines. These machines are wonderful for production shops, but we specialize exclusively in finely crafted, hand-made productions. Many of our hand tools and machinery are from the last century and are painstakingly refurbished.
Our tools reflect our dedication to the “old world” craftsmanship that few of our peers are capable of producing these days.
Want to come check us out? Contact us…
