Matt uses woodworking to help struggling veterans

As a former military vet, Matt teaches other veterans new skills and helps bring them back from the rock bottom he's experienced

There's something great about helping others, especially those whose experiences you can most relate with, says Matt. 

He's the owner and founder of Burlwood Supply Co., a slab-cutting business from North Carolina, but that's only part of what he does. He's also used his shop to help teach other veterans, like himself, new skills.

He says it hasn't just helped bring some struggling veterans back from the brink but also inspired them, and it's one of the many ways he wants to give back to others who have served in the military.

"When we started doing that, we noticed that the veterans started living better lives," says Matt.

Combining veterans and woodworking

Matt says when he first started woodworking, he had hit rock bottom. He had no money, no workshop and no tools.

But on a whim, he decided to try to make himself a candlestick. He sold it for $10 on Facebook Marketplace. He split that $10, and put $5 towards a hot meal for himself and donated the other half to Wounded Warriors.

It was a small and humble start for Matt, who would go on to found Burlwood Supply Co., where he uses his Woodland Mills HM122 Portable Sawmill to cut amazing, distinct wood burls, which he sells to customers all over, who turn them into all kinds of funky creations.

The concept for Burlwood Supply Co. started when Matt says he was working at a tree service. One night while watching TV he saw a show where some guys were making money selling burlwood.

Realizing that he'd probably chipped thousands of dollars' worth of wood, he started saving some of those trees and selling them instead, quickly realizing just how profitable it could be.

"I made double my daily pay on two pieces of wood than I did out there trekking through the briars up in a bucket truck, risking my life for $12 an hour."

But always conscientious of other veterans, Matt says he's constantly tried to pay his success forward and help out others. When he started making money and got his own woodworking shop he began inviting other veterans out, spending the day milling lumber and making projects.

Some of these guys had no idea what they were doing, barely able to read a tape measure, he says, but that didn't matter. At the end of the day, they'd walk away with a final product they'd be able to sell.

It wasn't about the money, he says, instead it was more focused on teaching veterans new skills, being around other vets and connecting about their shared experiences.

He says it's helped so many people who were at rock bottom, something he's well familiar with, and he's been able to connect and save lives with his woodworking.

Paying it forward

"I've struggled myself," says Matt, sharing that he knows what it's like to live that life. As Matt talks about spending time with other vets around the workshop, you can see a big smile on his face.

Sometimes he says some other vets end up being really good at things like wood carving and it unlocks something inside of them.

When their projects end up selling, Matt says it's "not about the money" but instead about the joy and satisfaction that it brings others and how it can help give their lives new purpose.

"When we started doing that, we noticed that the veterans started living better lives," says Matt. "Teach a dude some woodworking, you give them a platform and you give them a team and they tend to heal. And to be a part of that is enormous."

And all that's on top of Matt's incredible woodworking, too. Some of his burls are jaw-dropping to look at and to see them end up all over is a testament to not only his skill, but also his successes as a woodworker, a veteran and a supporter of others.

Well done, Matt, a craftsman, a veteran, and an inspiration.