About Welding Wood
A veteran, a set of tools, and a garage behind a pub. That is where this started.
Welding Wood began the way a lot of good things do, with a hard decision and a full U-Haul.
Jake Kerr came home to Southern Pines a few years back with his tools, a couple bags of clothes, and about two thousand dollars in steel and wood. He had just left the Army, where he had served as a Major, gone through West Point, earned his Ranger tab, and deployed more times than he can easily count. He had reached the point where he could write his own ticket. He chose a different one.
"I had done everything I wanted to do in the Army. I wanted to build something of my own, close to my family, in a place that felt like home."
That place was Southern Pines, a town he first got to know while stationed at Fort Bragg. He called his old landlord, took over a run down garage behind O'Donnell's Pub, put on a new roof, new windows, and new doors, and got to work. Welding Wood was born in that garage.
Wood, steel, and epoxy. Under one roof, on every project.
Jake learned to weld as a kid, taught by his father, who took up the trade after leaving the Marine Corps. Woodworking came later, and somewhere along the way the two came together. That combination is what sets Welding Wood apart. Most shops do one. We do all three.
We build custom, and only custom. No inventory, no blueprints, no two pieces alike. Each build starts as a picture in Jake's head and ends as something you will keep for the rest of your life.
Friends, firefighters, and lumberjacks have all had a hand in what we build.
We could have set up anywhere. We stayed here because of the people. Jake came up alongside a tight group of guys who went through West Point Prep, West Point, Ranger School, and years of deployments together, and who now all call Moore County home. When a job needs an extra hand, they show up.
That local thread runs through everything. Our wood is often cut and milled right here in Moore County. A tree felled by a neighbor becomes a bar that goes back to the pub down the road. We are proud of that story, and we build it into every piece.
The shop is growing. The standard has not moved.
We have already outgrown that first garage. A new, larger workshop is going up on our own land nearby. The work is growing, but the standard has not moved. Handmade. Local. Built to last.
Want to be part of the next build?From the ranks to the workshop, and every day in between.
