“Modern antique” may seem an oxymoron, yet this is how Frank Hucek describes the custom furniture he produces at Hucek Woodworks.
From nightstands covered with intricate inlays to desks containing secret drawers, his creations harken back to before sandpaper and metal rollers had infiltrated production processes. They’re also built to last beyond a lifetime.
“I really focus on bringing the traditional craft back,” Hucek said. “There’s a lot of cabinet shops out there, but not a lot of guys are focusing on the traditional woodworking tools. I’m using hand tools regularly.”
These hand tools include countless varieties of chisels, saws and planers that he stores in a self-made chest in the woodshop that has taken over his garage. The 29-year-old Hucek is a software engineer by day who began exploring carpentry four years ago as a way to restore his 19th century home on Heber City’s southwest side. A bookshelf for his son’s bedroom was his first piece. Now his kitchen is entirely done in cherry wood, and a crib for his newborn daughter may be his next personal project.
“Six years ago, we bought a nice historical home that was built in the 1890s, so it seemed appropriate to put in woodworking that, although it’s not antique, was made in the same kind of style,” Hucek said. “That’s led itself into its own niche: handmade, heirloom furniture.”
Winning a 2023 Society of American Period Furniture Makers award in the beginner division for a Queen Anne desk was an early boost of encouragement, and Hucek began working on commissions after he had finished most of his home. Passion for the craft and eagerness to develop his skills often lead to him often spending as many weekly hours on carpentry as he does on his day job.
“Funny, because I’m a software engineer, I stay completely away from computers,” Hucek said of his carpentry process. “This is a computer-free zone. I do all my sketches by hand with graph paper. I have yet to have something I can’t sketch and something that a client totally doesn’t like that we can’t work from.”
A corner desk for a Park City client has been a months-long project, one of his largest, and was days away from completion. It is made from white oak and features wood-on-wood drawer contact made by planing down oversized drawers to a perfect fit. Hucek sourced this timber from a friend in Pennsylvania and also utilizes MacBeath Woodworks in Salt Lake City, both of which meet his standards for quality.
“I only use kiln-dried wood,” Hucek said. “Naturally dried wood is OK, but it takes much longer to dry, and it’s actually more prone to issues like cracking and warping later on. A properly kiln-dried hardwood is the best material you could possibly use for making furniture. It’ll last the longest.”
Though he is a relative newcomer to carpentry, Hucek has long been fascinated with craft techniques. He grew up on a horse farm northwest of Chicago where he taught himself how to make stained glass and built a blacksmith forge at age 14, then took ceramics classes when he was attending Case Western University for his computer science degree.
“A lot of guys get involved with stuff like this and they get turned off because they don’t feel like they can master it fast enough,” Hucek said. “It took me a very long time. The hallmark of craftsmanship of a woodworker is how well you can cut handmade dovetails. My dovetails now are way better than they used to be, but did I let that stop me way back then from making nice pieces? No. It’s continually a process.”
The process consumes time, sweat and blood, an occupational cost that he planes out to remove. Pieces can demand hundreds of hours, which leads to price tags in the thousands of dollars. While hand-planed edges and drawers may be subtle touches most noticed by aficionados, Hucek believes these fits and finishes create a subconscious draw even to the less informed.
“All the little gaps and little features, 100 years from now when that piece is surviving beyond the Ikea furniture, people will look at it and see that they’re hand cut,” Hucek said. “They won’t care about the little gaps so much as the fact that someone took the time to hand cut these instead of using a router to just zip through it.”
Hucek is currently accepting commissions for the later half of this year and also sells his furniture at Heber and Midway farmers markets. Interested parties can reach out through HucekWoodworks.com.