Dan Benedict | Dan Benedict Woodcraft

I have always loved working with my hands and solving problems.   Over the years, this could have been: fixing small engines, doing home improvements, or coding/designing a software solution for complex problems.  Having worked in high-tech for the last 30 years, I left the corporate world in May 2022 to pursue what I love! Working with wood gives me great satisfaction and brings many of my past experiences together.

I have been a woodworking hobbyist, off and on, for about 20 years.  Participating in
workshops and taking classes from Tom Lee at Ballard Woodworks has brought me to my current skill level.  Creating mostly furniture at first, now I focus on clocks that will be heirlooms for your home.

My art has been inspired over the years by collecting Carnival Glass and owning an art glass and ceramics gallery for 2 years in Seattle.  Observing the way beauty is extracted and created from earth materials amazes me.  

All of my clocks use a combination of up to 3 different species of wood:
Cambia Maple – this is regular maple lumber that kilned dry in higher heat and longer
period than most lumber. This results in the sugars turning a rich brown and giving the
lumber more stability. This is also known as “Roasted” or “Torrefied” lumber.
Cherry – valued for its warm aging color.
Sapele – a “mahogany like” species from Africa. Valued for the dynamic range of colors in the wood. It can be very light, or very dark lumber.
Maple – this provides the need for a light color wood that provides stunningly dynamic
contrasts.
Birdseye Maple – this is the focal point of the clocks. Birdseye maple, one of the rarest kinds of wood on the planet, has a distinctive pattern and unique to each piece.