A brief history

What Is This Place?

Originally I got into woodworking in order to make a loft bed for my youngest daughter's bedroom. I had no tools, no skills, no clue, and no one thought I could really do it, including myself. The only thing I really had was the desire to try. 

After some time and studying, mainly through YouTube videos, I found a woodworker named Steve Ramsey that created tons of informational videos with instructions and free plans of various projects. He later introduced an online selection of woodworking how-to courses aimed towards the beginning woodworker that helped demystify many intrepidations I had been hung up on. Through his first course called The Weekend Woodworker, I began purchasing tools, namely a table saw and miter saw. After completing a couple course projects, I tackled my loft bed building goal. Although if I were to build it now I would do some things differently, it came out very solid and my daughter was very pleased with the outcome.  In fact, she continued to use it until she moved into her own place at 22.

Along with this loft bed  I also gained confidence in my budding skills and decided to use Phoenix Works back in 2018 as a name for my woodworking hobbyist adventure. The name came from a company of the same name founded by one of my relatives, Henry Fearncombe, in Wolverhampton, England back in the mid 1800s. They specialized in metal work known as "japanning" which was typically ornamental and decorative style of metal finishing.

After giving it some time and thought, I decided that I didn't feel I "earned" the use of the name Phoenix Works yet I did want to incorporate the phoenix in some capacity in a logo. In all honesty what I've been doing is less a business than it is a hobby with potential for business. 

With that in mind, many other projects since that loft bed and new inspiration in the form of my first grandchild Kinsley, I think the name Grampy's Workshop fits much better.  The main part of the logo is a GW that together represent a phoenix image in honor of the name Phoenix Works.

For the time being, I will simply just share my mostly self-indulging projects here for you to check out.

Thanks for taking a look!

-Grampy (Papa)