Furniture built to outlive the trends that made it.
We make a small number of pieces each year — by hand, in solid Canadian hardwood, joined to last a century. No flat-pack. No veneer. Just timber, patience, and the quiet certainty of a thing made well.
A catalogue of commissions.
Each piece begins as a single conversation and a tree. Tap any work to see its materials, dimensions, and the story behind it.
From standing tree to finished grain.
Four unhurried stages. Most pieces take eight to fourteen weeks — the wood sets the pace, not us.
Sourcing
We buy whole logs from sustainably managed BC woodlots and mill them ourselves, air-drying each slab for two to four years before it earns its place.
Joinery
Mortise and tenon, dovetail, drawbore peg — no screws hold structure here. Joints are cut by hand and fit so tight they need no glue to stand.
Shaping
Surfaces are worked with hand planes and cabinet scrapers until they read like silk. We chase the grain, never fight it, leaving subtle facets that catch light.
Finishing
We finish in hard-wax oil rubbed in by hand over many days — food-safe, repairable, and warm to the touch. It deepens with use rather than wearing away.
Twenty-two years, one bench, no shortcuts.
Fraser Joinery is the work of Eli Hartmann, who left a furniture factory floor in 2003 convinced that almost everything made there would be in a landfill within a decade. He apprenticed under a Danish cabinetmaker in Chilliwack, learned to cut a dovetail in the dark, and never went back.
Today he works alone from a converted dairy barn outside Abbotsford, taking on a few dozen commissions a year. He answers every inquiry himself, mills much of his own lumber, and signs and dates the underside of every piece that leaves the shop — because a name is a promise you can read in fifty years.
Fraser Joinery, est. 2004
Three steps to something made for you.
A commission is a collaboration, not a transaction. Here is how the conversation usually goes.
The conversation
Tell us the room, the use, the feeling you want. We talk species, proportion, and budget honestly — and you receive a hand-drawn concept with a fixed quote. No charge until you say yes.
At the bench
We select boards from our dried stock, sometimes inviting you to choose the very plank that becomes your tabletop. You receive progress photographs at the milestones that matter.
Delivery & the long life after
We hand-deliver within the Lower Mainland and crate for shipping beyond. Every piece carries a lifetime structural guarantee and a standing offer to refinish it, for the cost of materials, forever.
Kind words, in print and at home.
"The walnut dining table Eli built us is the first object I'd run back into a burning house for. It is, quite simply, the finest thing we own."Marisol & Devin AuclairPrivate commission · West Vancouver
"In a region full of weekend woodworkers, Hartmann is the rare maker whose joinery would pass muster in a 19th-century cabinet shop."Western Living"Makers of the Coast" feature, 2024
"We commissioned a credenza and received an heirloom. Three years on, the oil finish has only grown lovelier. Worth every week of the wait."The Foothills HotelLobby commission · Harrison Hot Springs
Tell us about the piece you're imagining.
There's no obligation and no pressure. Eli reads every note personally and replies within two business days, usually with a question or two of his own.
Thank you — note received.
Eli will read your message himself and reply within two business days. In the meantime, the wood waits patiently.