🌵 About Us

☑ A little bit about Dan McBride ~ the Master Woodcrafter

Dan McBride - Arizona Specialty Woodcrafts Owner and Wood Artist

Dan learned drafting techniques in high school then went on to attend college. He has been in the carpentry business all of his adult life. Spanning across almost every western state, he has done concrete to cabinets.

After moving to Arizona Dan finally decided to concentrate his energies on designing and building small wood crafts. Working with wood has always been a passion for Dan. After building a shop here in Northern AZ in 1994, he started building custom woodcrafts, selling everything online. Working directly with customers, offering help and advice and creating a one-of-a-kind item for the client has been very rewarding for Dan.

☑ A little bit about Deb McBride ~ the Webmaster

Deb McBride - Arizona Specialty Woodcrafts Owner and Webmaster

Deb is a self-taught freelance web designer and graphic artist. She is the designer and webmaster of this site which has grown from a mere 3-page website to over 900 pages full of photographs of Dan's work over the years.

While attending college, Deb learned a lot about art and design. However, back in those days, home computers were not even a reality. Once she got her own PC, everything changed. Now, as a web designer, Deb spends each day answering e-mails, designing and updating web pages and helping fellow woodworkers find supplies. Feel free to contact Deb.

🌼 Our Online Business ~ In the Beginning:

When we first started our business, we had a free 3-page website at Angelfire.com. We'd find plans for something we liked, such as a decorative wall shelf, cookbook organizer, step stool, bookends, or mantel shelf. We'd build several items, post them on this website and see if anyone was interested. We did manage to sell a few things, but we weren't getting the traction we were hoping for. We decided to switch things up and invest in our own domain name (azwoodman.com). We concentrated on small wood boxes, because everybody wants or needs a box for something.

🌸 Our Motto: You Design It ~ We'll Build It

As it turned out, site visitors would contact us and ask if we could make their box out of a different species of wood. Some would want a different lid style, use different hardware or choose different corner joints (such as finger joints, dovetail, splined miter, etc.). But most importantly they wanted a custom size, to accommodate the special items they planned to store inside.

We created an Online Quote Request Form with all the optional specs available. At the click of the mouse a potential client could send us a list of specs for their unique box. Some would submit a sketch they drew up themselves. They were thrilled to be involved in the design process.

By choosing to go with 'unfinished' woodcraft projects, we encouraged our clients to apply the finishing touches themselves. This way they could see the wood "come to life". Hand rubbing with Tung Oil or Minwax Finishing Paste Wax, even using a clear lacquer spray would bring out the beauty of the wood. Many clients were into pyrography, decorative inlay, wood carving, laser engraving, decorative painting, even needlepoint and our boxes gave them a surface to display their artwork.

🌻 Always Room for Expansion:

Box building was a hit and our mantel shelves were very popular, but we thought we could expand even more. We designed a new Remote Control Holder we named "The Couch Caddy". Dan would make 15 or more at a time in all species of wood: Walnut, Mahogany, Cherry, Maple, Ash, Oak, Alder, Birch and Poplar. We offered them finished and unfinished plus we accepted custom designs.

Later we decided to include Lapdesks and Writing Slopes. We built many unfinished Mahogany and Zebrawood Speaker Boxes for a client in California. Military Hat Boxes were a specialty of ours as well. Things were very busy at Arizona Specialty Woodcrafts!

📌 All Good Things Must Come to an End:

After 16 years in the custom woodworking business we decided to retire and close our wood shop. This happened in 2015. So, needless to say, we no longer build custom woodcrafts. We want to thank our clients for their support throughout the years. We truly appreciated doing business with you.

But keep in mind, we still own 11 domains full of links to products like wood craft kits, power tools and hardware, craft supplies, shop plans, lumber, home décor, toys and games, software and electronics. We offer these products in association with Amazon, Rockler and WOODstore . We hope you will continue to shop our sites.

~ Deb & Dan McBride