I have to admit that when word came down that there was inquiry into the customized woodcarving found inside some Monaco coaches, and that it was my job to find out a little more about the who, what, when and how details surrounding this feature, the first thing that came to mind was a smiling white-haired man in a tiny woodshop wishing he could turn a puppet into a boy. The last thing I expected upon arriving at Heartwood Carving was to find a bustling 16,000 square foot shop overseen by two friendly men willing to take time from their busy schedules to lend some insight into the world of modern day woodcarving.

“There are actually three partners in this business,” said Joe Valasek, a woodcarver and sculptor with 25 years of experience. “I do the artwork, Martin Grant oversees the machinery, and Joe Olma manages the business end of things.” The other Joe was out of the office enjoying a holiday with his family, a luxury I suspect is hard to come by within this thriving business.

The story of how three men with such varying expertise came to form a woodcarving business starts with Joe Valasek. Affecting the demeanor of someone straight off the pages of an L.L. Bean catalog, Joe can claim fame to hand-carved wooden masterpieces all over the West, including inside the Mt. St. Helens visitor center and a public art building in Tillamook, Oregon. “Like everything else in life, it was a matter of timing,” he explained. “I wanted to reproduce my carvings and Martin happened to have the CNC machine to do that.”

CNC, which stands for Computer Numeric Control, is a massive table saw-type machine that specializes in specific cuts. Not a typical woodcutting machine found with the average sawyer. Nor is Martin a typical Eugene business owner with his Scottish accent and a background that involved once producing fiber optic signs on Times Square.

“The other Joe and I were using the CNC to create parts for blimps,” Martin said. “After air restrictions tightened following 9/11, the blimp market declined, so when Joe the woodcarver came along, we were more than happy to team up with him to make exact replicas of his wood carvings.”

What this entails is not rocking chairs, corncob pipes, and lazy afternoons whittling away on the front porch, but rather expensive computers that require an intellectual understanding of three-dimensional drawings.

“The computer is a modern day drafting board,” said Joe, pointing to a monitor screen that displayed a 3-D picture of a carved motorhome window valance. “I use the software to create the design and print out a spec sheet for the client.”

In this case, the client happens to be Monaco Coach Corporation, and specifically, the design team that is always on the lookout for state-of-the-art products to lend a unique touch to the motorhomes.

“The interior designers at Monaco are very style-specific on what look they want the woodwork to affect,” Joe said. “Each new design involves quite a number of revisions being faxed back and forth.”

Once the design is agreed upon, and Joe has worked out the specs, all that information goes to Martin, who programs the coordinates into one of their six CNC machines. “In the early days, we had just one CNC,” Martin said. “To keep up with demand, I had to reload the machine every four hours around the clock.” Now the process allows for 12 hours of uninterrupted production time, resulting in the ability to produce additional inventory, as well as giving Martin enough semblance of a personal life that he recently became engaged to be married.

The “how” of reproducing woodcarving on a CNC machine is as follows: Wood pieces are lined up on the flat top surface and secured into place using vice grips. A series of small cutting tools positioned over the table are instructed through a computer program on how exactly to carve each piece. The tools slowly work their way up and down the length of the wood to carve in that design.

“There’s a margin for error, just as with everything,” Martin says, motioning toward a can stuffed with discarded wood. “Unexpected flaws in the wood may not be exposed until after cutting has begun, or the tools may be just having an off-day.” Malfunctioning of the machine is also a common occurrence, and in an effort to get a CNC machine back up and running as quickly as possible, the partners built a machine shop on site to hand-craft parts that might otherwise take weeks to receive from a manufacturer.

When everything goes off without a hitch, what ends up on the CNC machine is a carving that is still a bit rough around the edges. The pieces are moved to another section of the building and stacked on shelves. These aren’t just random creations, but specific pieces that stay on the shelves until a purchase order labeled with a specific coach number requires certain carvings to be retrieved from one of the shelves.

Now is where the machines let off and the age-old practice of handcrafting comes in as a small cadre of workers stand under bright lights and perfect the detail in each piece using rotary tools with diamond bits. Once the piece is smoothed to perfection, the orders are assembled, wrapped in clear plastic, marked with the coach number and shipped to Monaco’s production facility where they will be installed in the motorhome.

One thing I did know before tackling this assignment was that when these woodcarvings are coated with finish and installed inside the motorhome, they gleam with jaw-dropping beauty. Learning how these fabulous carvings can be reproduced and made available to RVers is a lesson in modernization, but that is only half the story. The real key to success that has made Heartwood Carving and Monaco Coach Corporation perfect partners is the ability to take fine artwork and add pride in craftsmanship to create woodcarvings that are fine-tuned to perfection. Just like the coaches they adorn.

For more information on Heartwood Carvings, and inquiries into custom orders, visit www.heartwoodcarving.com, or call the company at (541) 868-0666.