Inside the Chattanooga Woodworking Academy
If you look around the corner from the Choo Choo on Market Street, you can find the Chattanooga Woodworking Academy. In just a decade, this institution has become one of the best craft schools in the region, and probably the country.
The school was founded in 2008 by Bill Carney, a well-known craftsman and furniture builder who built a nationwide furniture business with his bare hands.
When students leave this four-year program, they are a journeyman, they have a diploma, and they have the confidence to go into any wood shop and most likely be the best worker there—because they’re trained, they have the skills, and they know how to do everything.
They know about lumber, about trees, and about sawmills, and as Carney notes, “Knowledge gives you power, and you can turn that into a living.”
Recent graduate Will Peebles exemplifies this. “The school has really done a lot for me. Before I came here, I was delivering pizzas. Now I build high end furniture.”
One of his pieces can be seen in the academy’s showroom, a gorgeous writing desk done in the Chippendale style, with immaculately carved ball-and-claw feet, that retails for around $10,000.
The academy is designed for people who are serious about woodworking and want to make it their life’s work.
“If you’re going to dedicate four years of your life to this school, then I’m going to dedicate four years of my life to you,” Carney explains. “My goal here is to prepare people to support themselves with their hands, to make a good honest living doing this kind of work, hand woodworking. I have been able to do that in my life; I have been able to support myself, send my kids to private schools and college, to own some rental property and some land—and that all came from my hands.”
Soon-to-be graduate Matt McKee tells us, “Woodworking is something that I never thought I would want to do—but the second week here, I fell in love with it. I’ve been getting better every year, learning new things, learning new tricks to get things done faster and better. I’ve had a lot of help from the school, and a lot of support from Bill, who is always trying to push us in the right direction.”
This is McKee’s last semester, but he will be back next year to help out with projects that come in the door, and mentor new students.
“Bill has always extended a helping hand to graduates who want to make use of the shop,” he says. “We don’t have to go out and find our clientele—they all come here looking for fine woodworking, repairs on chairs or tables, new pieces of furniture, or custom jobs. It’s a good place to be to start building a clientele, and meeting some other woodworkers.”
Carney is proud of his students and speaks highly of McKee, telling us how he enjoys watching him grow as a craftsman.
“He’s got sawdust in his veins, and he’ll never get it out,” he says.
There is a lot of one-on-one instruction at the academy, and if a student is doing something that Carney wants everybody to learn about, the students will gather around to watch. He founded the school in 2008, and has graduated two classes of successful students.
“We don’t just make the best furniture in the county, or the state,” notes Carney. “We make the best furniture in the country. I’m an artist who found my expression in wood, that is my medium—I don’t do it in stone, or metal, or paint.”
“I have always been dedicated to the highest quality,” he continues. “When I went into business, I decided I was going to do the very best work, and use the very finest materials—I wasn’t going to get into the cheap business, I was going to get into the high end business.”
Carney explains how his good reputation helped him when he started this school.
“I have never carried a briefcase, and I work in my overalls. When you acquire a craft that not everybody has, it gives you a certain amount of respect in the world. If you do good business, and you’re honest, and treat people fairly, you can be successful.”
A lot of it comes from hard work, and a lot of it comes from luck. But Carney believes anyone can create luck with hard work.
“The harder I work, the luckier I get. Success comes in overalls.”