About The Owner

My brother Barry's been building things as long as I can remember. As a kid he searched for stuff we could strip to parts just to have something to build. Be it a supportive or self-serving gesture, Dad hauled us to a hobby shop where rows of models packed with hundreds of parts still connected to thin plastic injection mold frames lay await. Snap out the parts, anyone age 10 and up could supposedly assemble a 1970 Dodge Challenger, a P-51 Mustang, a Sherman Tank, or a Fletcher Class Destroyer. Easy-peasy. 

Within a week I knew I preferred my toys preassembled. But my brother was hooked. Cars and planes filled his room along side a Pine Wood Derby collection artfully sanded into vintage 1950s Indy car replicas parked beside their trophies. He continued parting things around the house too until one summer he shredded his bicycle to its last bolt, restored it, and hauled it to a Madison bike shop. On that day, his pass time landed his first paid job taking things apart and putting them back together. The store manager hired him on the spot. 

Fixing bikes led to a stretch selling bikes for the then-small start-up Trek, but he eventually returned to the trades preferring a small cabinet shop and mill where he honed his craftsmanship to masterclass before launching Prairie Hardwood Manufacturing in 1988. 

Prairie Hardwood's residential and commercial hardwood products and specialty commission jobs quickly earned a loyal following including a local businessman with an attractive proposition. In 2017 Prairie Hardwood MFG was sold and rebranded as Prairie Hardwoods LLC. Barry would stay through the transition consulting management and training new millworkers. 

Now days he can still be found walking through the LLC shop discussing machine set-ups. His life-long hobbies also continue. His RC aircraft fleet tripled and he raised a new woodshop on his rural Sun Prairie homestead. His most recent venture into model kitting brings it all home--He's opened Prairie Hardwood MFG again, but reimagined and wrapped in his childhood passion. Our model kits aspire to be on that virtual shelf waiting discovery by a new generation of builders. A lot's changed since the '70s plastic kits though. Our kits are crafted from high-end hardwoods hand-cut mostly by Barry. Applying years of woodshop experience and a shop-full of precision tools he's removed all of the danger so no builder looses a finger. Just as important, he's left specific finish tasks in the hands of the builder to turn random piles of wood into personalized works of art, all with lofty goal of inspiring and building tomorrow's builders. Barry Thoma, Owner Prairie Hardwood MFG