About Cutting Edge Woodworks
Bob Batura, a New Jersey native, grew up within a gifted arts and crafts family. His exposure to the arts and trades included carpentry, masonry, folk art, painting, fabrics and reproduction pine furniture. Chances are his true calling came during his first tree fort construction at age 12. He progressed to high school ‘Woodshop 4’ …even though they only offered 2.
After receiving a degree in forestry from Virginia Tech, Bob worked as a forester for five years with a pulp, paper and lumber company in the coastal plain of North Carolina.
Shortly after starting his own business in Raleigh, he attended sessions at the Penland School of Crafts where he studied under Rhode Island School of Design woodworking masters Tage Frid, Doug Sigler and Skip Johnson.
Bob is an exhibiting member of Carolina Designer Craftsman Guild and has won awards with Raleigh’s Artsplosure, Durham Arts Council Centerfest and Boylan Heights Artwalk.
Contact Bob Batura of Cutting Edge Woodworks at 919-832-8717 or use the contact form.
Bob Batura in the shop at Cutting Edge Woodworks
Throughout my years as a woodworker I’ve always favored the woods that “speak a little louder.” I have featured species with vibrant colors, figured grains, mineral blemishes and mutated growth patterns to present eye catching beauty released from below the ordinary bark. I then compliment the figured patterns with uniform-grained solid species such as walnut, maple, cherry and mahogany.
Many of my prized woods begin with the actual harvesting of standing, fallen or rotting timber. For the past 20 years I have located some of the finest burls and figured woods Mother Nature has to offer from Pennsylvania to South Carolina. After the chainsawing, milling and lengthy drying process, some of the wood sections are sliced into thin veneer sheets, glued as a bookmatched pattern, and then sanded and coated to a clear durable finish. I treasure the process of revealing the true beauty of all raw wood materials from the earth to create furniture and cabinetry pieces that are artful as well as functional.
My passion. A labor of love.
He who works with his hands is a laborer.
He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman.
He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist.
–Francis of Assisi