Andy Tullis / The BulletinFelly Smith at his shop south of Sunriver with a walnut panel used in making stringed instruments.

SUNRIVER — The first thing a visitor to Felly Smith’s 1,800-square-foot workshop on Blue Eagle Drive notices is the aroma of freshly cut wood; the second thing is how neat and organized he keeps everything.

“The trick is to clean up your station when you’re done,” said Smith, 45. “A clean environment is an efficient environment.”

Smith’s mainstay is making custom kitchen cabinets for Ridgeline Custom Homes, a Bend firm, but he describes himself as a woodworker with the tools and skills for any job.

“He’s the only cabinet-maker that will ever do our cabinets,” said Nate Connolly, Ridgeline owner. “He’s amazing. He basically brings old furniture-making techniques and wood presentation into the production of cabinetry that’s pretty much not found in the industry right now.”

Smith, who grew up in north Florida, learned woodworking from his late father, Richard Smith, he said. He moved to Eugene in 1995 and worked for a furniture-maker before moving again in 1998 to a spot just outside Sunriver. He came to Oregon for the skiing and mountain biking and knew early on that Bend was his ultimate destination.

“From the time I moved to Eugene, I wanted to move again to Bend,” he said. “But I wasn’t able to swing it for three years.”

Making cabinetry is only one facet of Smith’s woodworking talent. He’s also an accomplished maker of ashiko-style tapered hand drums, crafting instruments for musicians like Mickey Hart, drummer for the Grateful Dead, and Cougar Estrada, of Los Lobos.

“The biggest compliment I ever got was from Mickey Hart, who told me that his drums seemed to play all by themselves,” Smith said. “As a musician, I know what that means.”

Smith also uses maple, walnut and other woods to make the thinly sliced tops, backs and sides that he sells to makers of custom stringed instruments such as guitars, mandolins and ukuleles. He operates that part of the business as Fiddleback Woodshack. In addition to his ashiko drums, Smith also plans to start a line of snare drums made in a fashion similar to his hand drums.

“It’s just a hobby gone wrong, this instrument stuff,” he said. “I collect a lot of wood, and I’m really into woodworking for the sound — that’s what the drums are all about.”

He started in woodworking by selling drums and small tables at craft fairs in Gainesville, Florida. He built the shop in Sunriver in 2007.

“Twelve-foot ceiling, all the outlets where I want them,” Smith said. “I built this building for these tools,” he said, motioning to the power saws and other equipment. “I had it wired for these tools.”

As a cabinet-maker, Smith said he looks for distinctive types of wood with which he can work in an artistic way. A glance at his own cabinets and works in progress show an eye for graceful, natural lines in wood, like cherry. He also works in oak, alder, myrtlewood and other types of wood.

He obtains much of his raw material in the Willamette Valley, where it’s cut into rough stock he stacks himself and ages until it’s ready for use.

He organizes his wood by grain the moment it comes through the shop door, eyeballing each piece and thinking what purpose it will serve.

“I have a system that I’ve developed over many years to achieve a furniture-grade front without having to put a whole ton of extra time into it,” Smith said. “I can just look at it and know more or less which parts of that board will end up where on a job.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7815, jditzler@bendbulletin.com

Q: What are your favorite types of wood to work in for cabinetry?

A: I will work in whatever they want. Most people pick wood by the color, and so cherry is pretty popular because people like the rich amber tones, and it grows to be more amber over time due to exposure of light.

Q: Where do you see the business in five years?

A: I like things the way they are, and I would simply like to perpetuate providing high-quality kitchens and interior woodworking to the community. I want to continue to source high-quality materials sustainably, and I have an interest in getting back into drum-making. My next venture is snare drums. The goal is to produce snare drum shells for other companies and to not deal with the retail end anymore.

Q: What are qualities that homeowners should look for in custom cabinetry?

A: It’s a much higher quality box made of interior-grade maple plywood. It joins better and results in a box that doesn’t sag or cause misalignment over time. Another thing would be the highest quality hardware, and a third thing would be the attention to detail.