Wondrous crosses
Nov. 26—JAMESTOWN — Charles Guyn can't help but see the symbolism in his craft.
The 70-year-old Jamestown man, who moved here from Kentucky 2 1/2 years ago, takes the staves, or wooden slats, from used bourbon barrels and fashions them into elegant crosses, a fitting illustration of the new life promised by the Christian faith.
"I think the symbolism — the meaning of the cross — is the appeal for people," says Guyn, who sells his crosses exclusively through The Soap Lady gift shop in Jamestown. "I think it's that, plus the uniqueness of what the cross is made out of."
Guyn made his first cross around Christmastime two years ago.
"I was watching some YouTube videos and came across this one of a guy making crosses out of bourbon barrel staves," he recalls. "I thought, 'I might try to make one of those.' So I ordered some barrel staves and made one, and it turned out pretty good."
That first cross now hangs on a wall in his living room.
More than a year and a half passed before Guyn decided to make another cross, largely because he was still making a lot of trips back and forth between Jamestown and his previous hometown in Harlan, Kentucky, where he was closing out his accounting business. This past September, officially retired and looking for something to do, he got out the miter saw his wife, Kathy, bought him last Christmas and began making a few more crosses.
At the invitation of Susan Stringer, who owns The Soap Lady, he offered the crosses for sale through her store.
"She called me and said she'd had more responses to the crosses than anything she'd ever put in her store," Guyn says. "It was sort of amazing. I had made about three of them for her, and she sold all three the first weekend. They just sort of all of a sudden exploded."
Now Guyn is busy building up his inventory — not only for The Soap Lady, but also so he can try to sell his crosses at a few craft shows in the spring.
"I can do general carpentry stuff around the house, but I'm not really much of a woodworker like a lot of people are," he says. "But these crosses are something I can do, and I enjoy making them."
The process is more involved than you might think.
The first step is to buy a deconstructed bourbon barrel from one of the numerous distributors selling them. The deconstructed barrel typically has anywhere from 25 to 32 white-oak staves of varying sizes, as well as the top and bottom barrel heads and steel hoops that wrapped around the barrel.
The back of each stave is charred — it's an essential part of the bourbon aging process — so Guyn scrapes off as much char as possible with a wire brush. After that, he applies polyurethane to prevent any remaining char from coming off on his or anyone else's fingers.
"Then I sand them by hand to get the rough spots off, especially the rust where the steel bands were," he says. "You can't get it all off, but it does add to the character once you've finished it."
Then he uses a pocket-hole mechanism to attach the side arms of the cross, applies more polyurethane, and fastens a hanger on the back of the cross for hanging it on a wall.
Each cross comes with a tag identifying Guyn's enterprise, which he calls KGD (Ky. Gentleman Designs), and words of inspiration: "The cross is a sign of God's love and faith that can fix your past, present and future."
The crosses come in two sizes — about 35 inches tall (selling for $65 apiece), and about 18 inches tall ($35 apiece).
Having grown up in bourbon country, Guyn says his crosses not only represent his Christian faith but remind him of home.
"Am I a bourbon drinker?" he says. "No, but I've always been fascinated by the bourbon industry, so this is something that interested me. There's been some trial and error along the way, but it's something I really enjoy doing."
jtomlin@hpenews.com — 336-888-3579
