The current owner, Richard Dukart, began his work with George Steffes in 1961 and purchased the business in 1965. Richard developed several styles of padded church seats. The original oak pew and padded designs have been modified over the years and continue to be the basis of our current product offering. In addition, we are renowned for our unlimited custom design work. Shortly after taking over the business, Richard was informed by his lumber supplier that there was a surplus of white oak lumber available.
White oak is harder, tighter grained, and has more consistent grain for color than red oak.
The majority of our pews are manufactured with white oak though red oak is used when specified. The pew press, support press, gang saws, contoured planers, and sander were all custom-designed and built by George and modified throughout our 43 years by Richard and his craftsmen. We continue to use the original butcher block system because it allows us to eliminate slivers, knots, soft and other undesirable wood in the finished product. The butcher block design process uses a 150 pound psi compression to produce a flat and super durable back and seat. In addition to white and red oak, we have used maple, walnut, birch and even juniper for various projects over the years.