ABOUT SAL

A former engineer turned woodworker/carpenter, Sal is a craftsman focused on crafting high-quality custom casework, built-ins, and furniture, along with woodturning and woodcarving (mainly for fun). He combines creativity with his past engineering and project management skills to produce fine home interiors with custom built-in cabinets, fireplace surrounds, wainscoting, and crown molding, as well as wooden bowls and other turned objects.
Sal’s woodworking and finish carpentry philosophy is simple: he sweats the details because the small stuff does matter — it’s what differentiates quality work from the ordinary. In the gallery, you will find examples of his work and see what that means. Whether it’s a simple shoe molding, a custom built-in, or a turned light fixture, the goals are excellent results and the craftsmanship of days long past. Sal doesn’t just build and install; he also engages with you in a collaborative design process to customize your home’s interior.

A recipient of the Windgate Fine Woodworking Award and a participant multiple times in the Echo Lake creative collaborative, his design inspirations are varied and include classical forms of architecture as well as simple forms, geometric patterns, and nature.

Background and Experience
Initially interested in a career as a physicist, Sal switched gears and studied electrical engineering and then worked in wireless communications for over 30 years in various capacities ranging from design engineering to systems engineering and analysis along with business development and sales/marketing support roles. Always most comfortable and satisfied with hands-on work and always learning how to improve his craft, he had designs on something outside of a 9-5 office job long before retirement was an option.

His first experiences with woodworking and carpentry date back to helping his father work on the family’s Dutch Colonial Revival home in NJ in the ’70’s. Nothing elaborate, just basic remodeling, maintenance, and repairs — at that point, he was mostly just fascinated by tools. Years later in his first home, his first remodeling project was installing a tongue-and-groove oak floor. This was followed by crown molding and then trimming the doors and windows with simple casings and pediments to give it the look of a house from the earlier part of the century. He couldn’t see it yet, but the reinvention of his career was taking shape.

An opportunity to restore columns and moldings on a circa 1870 Second Empire home’s front porch provided traction for the idea that being a woodworker was more gratifying than being an engineer. With this experience and remodeling his own home under his belt, he then built a spec house during which he gained more valuable experience in terms of knowledge and skills, as well as estimating time and material. He also acquired an eye for what works visually. After many years as an engineer, he indulged the yearning to work with his hands and began a sideline business in finish carpentry. His second career as a woodworker/carpenter was underway.

After studying historic preservation and building conservation at Bucks County Community College for several years, he began studying fine woodworking there in 2010 under the creative guidance of Mark Sfirri. He added custom built-ins to his repertoire and then further evolved into more creative woodworking as a furniture designer/builder as well as wood turner and carver. Before long he’d left engineering behind as he found woodworking to be a profession that suited him so well.

Education

• Stevens Institute of Technology, Bachelor of Engineering, 1982
  Concentration in Electrical Engineering
• Bucks County Community College, Historic Preservation, 2005 – 2008
• Bucks County Community College, Fine Woodworking, 2010 – present

Contact
Located in Doylestown, PA, and serving clients within a roughly 20-30 mile radius in Bucks, Montgomery, Lehigh, Mercer, and Hunterdon Counties.
If you have any questions or comments or would like a quote, please contact Sal at 215-340-9368 (between 9 AM and 7 PM) or [email protected].

You can also find Sal on Facebook and Instagram
Registered home improvement contractor (HIC # PA113064) in the state of Pennsylvania since 2014.