About · Portland, Oregon
One maker, one bench, no shortcuts.
Chisel Studio is a one-person furniture shop. I design, mill, join, finish and deliver every piece myself.
Ellis Ward · founder & sole maker
The maker
I learned joinery restoring a barn. I never left the bench.
Twelve years ago I apprenticed with a timber framer in the Willamette Valley, cutting mortises with a slick and a mallet. The barn is still standing. The habit of cutting every joint as if it holds up a roof never left me — even for a box that holds letters.
Chisel Studio opened in Portland in 2016 with a secondhand bandsaw and a simple rule: one pair of hands touches every piece, from the lumber yard to the living room. No employees, no outsourcing, no production runs. Six dining tables a year, four smaller pieces, and three apprentices trained along the way.
12+
Years making
200+
Pieces placed
3
Craftsmen trained
He measured our light before he measured our room. The table fits the house the way the house fits the hill.
Principles
Four rules pinned above the bench.
One maker
The person you email is the person who planes your boards. Nothing is delegated, ever.
Air-dried lumber
Boards rest 24 to 36 months before the first cut. Dry wood is a promise the piece keeps.
Hand-cut joinery
Through-tenons and dovetails where it matters — cut by hand, fit to a shaving's tolerance.
Oil & wax only
No film finishes. Surfaces stay repairable for life — I refinish any Chisel piece, always.
800 square feet, one bench The workshop
Visit any time the door is open.
The shop sits in a converted SE Portland garage: a workbench older than the business, racks of Valley walnut, and a wall of hand planes tuned within a thousandth. Clients stop by for dry-fit reviews; makers stop by for sharpening arguments.
Open-shop Saturdays run the first weekend of every month. Come watch a dovetail get cut, or just smell the shavings.
As seen in