About the shop
A mother and son at one workbench.
KJ & Son is Kimberly and her son Nathan. She has worked with her hands for as long as he can remember, and he picked up the habit. In early 2022 they set up a small shop in Oregon City to build the kind of things they wanted in their own kitchens.
Who we are
Two sets of hands on every piece
Kimberly
Kimberly has always been the one fixing, building and refinishing things around the house. Carpentry was the natural next step. She still checks every board before it leaves the shop.
Nathan, the son
Nathan followed her into the shop and stayed. Between the two of them there's no line where one person's work stops and the other's starts. They both do all of it.
What we leave out
Things that never go in your kitchen
We started this shop because we wanted cleaner things to cook with. That means saying no to a few shortcuts.
Plastic, laminate or composite cores
Every board is solid hardwood, all the way through.
Film finishes
No lacquer or polyurethane. They look glossy for a year, then chip off into food.
Stains and dyes
The color you see is the wood. Walnut is brown, maple is pale, and that's the whole palette.
The wood
Four hardwoods we trust
Walnut
Dark and dense, and kind to a knife edge. It deepens in color the more it's oiled.
Maple
Pale, very hard and tight-grained. The classic butcher-block wood.
Cherry
Starts a pinkish tan and darkens to a warm red over its first year in the light.
White oak
Straw colored with a tight, water-resistant grain. Good for pieces that live near the sink.
How a board gets made
From rough lumber to your counter
Pick the boards
We sort rough lumber by hand for color, grain and anything that might crack later.
Mill and glue up
Strips are cut, arranged into the pattern and clamped overnight.
Flatten and sand
Sanded through several grits and wetted between the last two, so it stays smooth after the first wash.
Oil, wax and check
Finished with food-safe oil and wax, then checked by hand before it goes out the door.