Saskatchewan based Jason Travers of Why Knot Woods? applies his skill and patience to create custom furniture from rough pieces of exotic wood.

Those of you with deep enough pockets to own good custom furniture know that it's basically functional art, a creative expression for both the furniture maker and the owner.

Wood is either classified as hardwood or softwood. Hardwood comes from (flowering) broadleaf trees. Softwood comes from cone bearing trees (conifers).

For furniture maker Jason Travers of Why Not Woods?, it's also an expression of pure will, producing superb work for his clients while every day battling the effects of severe injuries sustained in his former occupation.

Jason's shop is in his backyard. But his interest in working with wood goes much further back, all the way back to Newfoundland in fact, where he used to help his father build boats.

Dad still gets in on the act, sometimes along with Jason's wife, helping out with the painting and staining.

Jason's not yet had a job request he couldn't do. Along with his recent business education, Jason's done his fair share of attendance at the school of hard knocks.

After losing money when a client backed out of a fifteen thousand dollar job Jason had just completed, he decided to charge a 30% deposit up front.

The office furniture manufacturing sector has shown the strongest growth of any furniture sector during the past decade.

Overall though, Jason says starting a business, while scary, has been a valuable personal growth experience as well as a good source of income. It's got him out there with the public and improved his ability to deal with people and with public speaking.