the door—that’s my priority above ev- ready for something new, something erything.” While he admits there are im- more challenging,” Nate articulates. perfections in his work, he’d rather lose “My favorite thing to build is the next sleep to make his pieces better rather thing.” But by the same token, the than completing something he feels is builder is so connected to everything he unfinished. makes. “There’s a part of me that goes “I spend so much time on something with every piece I build,” he attests. And that by the time I’m done with it, I’m it’s in the form of his signature stamp, a
banjo, that can be found on the underside of his work. I ask him if he’s considered partnering with his dad, and as if he’s been thinking about it already, he quickly responds, “I would love to work alongside him every day, but I really cherish the moments when he comes to help just because he wants to.” “It wasn’t until I started doing this that I realized how much we had in common,” he says slowly. “The longer I do this, the better friends we become. My dad’s hands look like this every day,” Nate says, displaying the callouses on his palms and the dirt and sawdust caked under his nails. “I feel like an Akey. I feel like I’m doing justice to how I was raised—like it’s what I’m engineered to do.” When I ask him to classify his style, he starts by explaining the current barnwood craze. “It’s super sexy, right?” he begins. “People are making things by nailing them together and saying it
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