The amazing wood kid

[Beth n Rod]

The amazing wood kid
By Rob Golub

RACINE - Give Nick Roy, 15, some wood. Stand back. Results follow.

After you visit the blinds, bathrooms and builders at the Home Expo today, you'll find teenage entrepreneur Nick Roy in the basement of Memorial Hall.

He's selling his labor of love. He's selling yet more stuff he's made out of wood.

What's interesting about his carpentry is that he picked it up with absolutely no training whatsoever. No books on carpentry. No home repair TV watching. He just made it all up.

It all started when, one day, he asked his dad to build him skateboard ramps in their Racine backyard. When dad said he didn't know if he had the time, Nick asked dad if he could at least have the wood. Much to everyone's surprise, Nick then went ahead and built a small skateboard park.

That was sixth grade.

Now, as a freshman at Case High School, Nick finds he's the expert. "We're learning how to make boxes now in shop class so I'm a little ahead," he admitted.

Nick's father, Charles Roy, 42, gave his son some space in front of his Memorial Hall booth, CCC & W Deck Cleaning & Power Washing. Nick displays smooth, professional-looking and hand-made wooden boxes at a small table at the front of the booth.

Nick sold a $45 box Saturday, his first-ever sale. "It feels great," he said.

"At first I wanted to be an architect and then I found out I wouldn't be able to build stuff so I decided I want to be a carpenter," he said. "I want to start my own carpentry business. When I grow old that's what I would like to do in life."

Why wait? Nick wants to start up his business now, at age 15. Forget boxes. Next, he wants to try building and selling cabinets and entertainment centers.

http://www.journaltimes.com/articles...iq_3446479.txt

[Beth n Rod]

Note: The young man in this article is the son of Charlie Roy, a member here on TGS. Charlie, thanks for sharing this with us. Hope you don't mind that I wanted to post it here for posterity. Great article!

Beth

[charlie]

No problem Beth. The wood he uses is exotic wood for his pieces. The best part of this is that he had 25-30 people come up to him and said they came down there to see him. He also got two more orders.

Charlie

[Beth n Rod]

Charlie if you have any photos of his work, post them, with prices of the items. Some of the wood lovers here might be interested in them.

[reed]

Congrats Charley, and MOST OF ALL, CONGRATS NICK.

Love it when the youth of today have theirs talents put forth and not sitting around the computer games.

As they say where I was raised, You done good by him Charley.

Reed

[charlie]

Here is his website. users.wi.net/~ed95

Charlie

[Beth n Rod]

Charlie - can you provide the full URL? The partial you gave didn't work for me, and I might just need to purchase an original Nick Roy!
Beth

[RyanH]

Sounds like my cousin. He was making skateboards in junior high, guitars in high school, violins, cellos and some REALLY fancy exotic wood furniture since. Top notch quality with no formal training. I think since then he's turned his attention to masonry work. Amazing stuff, though none of it made it to me. It's cool when people like these guys seem to have these amazing natural talents. i'm more respective of that type of talent than just about any other personal trait.

[charlie]

Beth

http://users.wi.net/~ed95/

Charlie

[Beth n Rod]

Thanks Charlie!
Let's also welcome Nick Roy to the BBS. Looks like he joined.
Nick, we would love to learn more about your craft, and the beautiful work you do.
Beth

[newlook]

Charlie and Nick...welcom aboard. I was on your site. Outstanding work. As Reed said, it is good to see youth doing something positive and productive.

[Nickscustomcarpentry]

Well thanks alot everybody. I love making exotic pieces of art and having my own bussiness I can do that and earn some money for other tools and expand my shop. Right now I'm tring to learn how to make mini cabinets and end-tables and I should have those out early summer.

[Howard]

Welcome Nick and Charlie

Nick, Nice work, good quality wood work is very hard to find. Have you ever thought of making Cigar Humidor's? They're not much bigger than what your making now. Just a thought.

Again very nice work.

Howard

[charlie]

I told him he should make earns for people loves one.

Charlie

[Nickscustomcarpentry]

Yea i have thought about humidors. I have to do a little research on how big most cigars are and what kinds of wood is best for cigars.