My story begins in 1995 when I packed a 70-pound box of wood in Northern Sierra Leone, drove across the border to Guinea, hopped an airplane to Amsterdam, then to Detroit and eventually Grand Rapids, Michigan. The box of wood made it into my sister’s attic and sat there until 2007. I wanted to do something with this wood that would be worthy of its patience. I built a guitar. The wood complied. I was hooked.

I lived and worked in West Africa for 21 years. First growing up, then as a wildlife biologist. Africa is where I conducted my graduate research in large mammal behavioral ecology. The behavioral part is where you study the animal, the ecology part is where you understand what part of an ecosystem that critter inhabits and why. I studied five species of frugivorous forest antelope. Which means I know lot about their habitat, feeding patterns and excretions and why chopping down the trees upon which these critters rely is not good for their existence. Much of the tropical woods we have on this continent have left some critter without an essential resource.

So how do I live with myself as a woodworker using tropical woods? I search for wood everywhere. Old wood. I live in Michigan, a state with a rich history of furniture making, boat building and automobile production. Yes, wood was used in the auto industry. Mahogany to be precise. Lots of it too. Over the years I have amassed enough old forgotten wood from garages, basements and barns to keep me busy for a long time. I rarely purchase tropical hardwoods from first tier suppliers. My tropical hardwood comes from people who bought it long ago and never got to using it. Each piece of wood in my collection has a story, some of those stories begin in the 1920’s with a dream boat that never left a basement in Bay City, Michigan.

I have been woodworking for over three decades and have been building guitars for 17 years. Along the way I have had many mentors who were generous with their knowledge. The learning never ends and each new guitar teaches me something that the last build didn’t. Like learning, building is a process and I enjoy both immensely. My greatest hope in this endeavor is that my instruments bring joy to their owners - as their making did to me.

-Aaron Kortenhoven