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Carving a niche – Bighorn Custom Woodworks

Sometimes it’s life’s worst moments that lead to the best decisions.

For David Arnold, owner of Bighorn Custom Woodworks http://www.rusticlog.net/ , that moment was a car accident on New Year’s Eve four years ago. The car he was riding in hit a patch of black ice, and he was thrown from the vehicle shattering his face and knee.

By KAYLEY MENDENHALL, Chronicle Staff Writer

http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2004/09/20/news/02backroads.txt

"I broke my knee in 23 places," said Arnold, 39, who had worked at Pierce Flooring. "I couldn’t kneel on it anymore."

Without the ability to kneel, Arnold could no longer work laying hardwood floors for a living. So, he opened his own shop out of a building behind his Belgrade home and started making custom furniture.

Last spring, he and his business partner, Brian Odermatt, introduced their custom, hand-carved fireplace mantles and they’ve been busy ever since.

"Once we introduced them, they went over like gangbusters," said Arnold, who grew up in Oklahoma and still has a slight southern twang to his voice. "We may have to end up hiring some more people eventually."

The mantles are custom built by Arnold, but the difference in Bighorn Custom Woodworks mantles and other fireplace mantles lies in the details. Odermatt sketches out scenes of grizzly bears fishing for spawning trout, of elk bugling and even of snowboarders doing tricks in front of a mountain backdrop.

He then hand carves and paints the pictures on each mantle making every piece unique.

"The attention to detail is incredible and the craftsmanship is excellent," said Kath Costanti, head designer at Gallatin Valley Furniture Design Center in Big Sky. "For custom work they have limitless creativity."

Arnold and Odermatt’s mantles are featured at Gallatin Valley Furniture Design Center and at a few other shops in the area. They are in the process of making a mantle for the new Greater Yellowstone Flyfishers store in Four Corners and are working on several pieces for a woman who lives in Virginia and wants to market their work in her state.

"That’s a really good thing for us," Arnold said of the Virginia connection. "The average home is $1 million and is sold in less than 20 days. That’s our market, that and Big Sky."

The mantles start out at about $1,800, but Arnold said, he can envision pieces that would cost up to $10,000 depending on what the customer wants. He’s considering coming up with a way to mass produce a limited quantity of the same mantle design to sell it at a cheaper price.

But, he said, he will never give up the custom work.

"That’s what we like to do, the custom stuff," he said. "You want you and your dog on there, we’ll do it. We’re that good."

Arnold started out woodworking in Oklahoma at a cabinet shop, but said the work became too repetitive.

With his new niche, he never gets bored.

"We have the greatest job in the world," he said, gazing out past his horse pastures to the Bridger Mountains. "We both live here. We get up every morning, feed the horses and go to work."

Kayley Mendenhall is at [email protected]

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