Pottstown Wood Works opens
Pottstown Wood Wurks offers hand-made, refinished furniture
POTTSTOWN » You could say wood-working is in his blood.
His dad is still building grandfather clocks at the age of 92, so it was almost inevitable that Harold Shankle Jr. would return to the area to open Pottstown Wood Wurks, at 217 High St. in Pottstown.
Shankle refinishes items for people in the back of the shop, and he creates new woodwork pieces and custom pieces.
“I try to do things the correct way,” Shankle said. “They (customers) can’t believe the products they get back and what they look like.”
On display in the store is a small side table that one of his friends found in a dumpster. It has since been refinished by Shankle.
“It had no finish on it. It was falling apart,” he said. “I put it back together, sanded it, put a coat of finish on it … and then put a top coat on it.”
Pottstown Wood Wurks isn’t Shankle’s first area business. He previously operated Affordable Furniture, which strictly sold furniture. Shankle retired to Arizona where he had a refinishing and furniture-repair business with his son, Todd Shankle. They called it “The Furniture Doctor.”
In 2007, Shankle moved back to the Pottstown-area for his grandchildren. Todd Shankle was injured in a severe motorcycle accident after the move, and has since been recovering.
“Nobody ever thought he would get this far,” Shankle said of his son’s recovery, adding that at one point they were told to “get their son’s affairs in order.”
“To now: ‘Get him set for home to actually start his life again,’ which always brings tears to my eyes, but it’s hard to believe,” he said.
Shankle mentioned that he thinks his son will be able to move back home by the end of the year, and he’s planning for
his son to join him at Pottstown Wood Wurks.
“He’s 38 years old. He’s never going to be able to go back to work,” Shankle said. “But he can do this. He’s as good as I am, at refinishing things,” he said.
So now, with 25 years of experience, Shankle has brought his skills back to Pottstown.
“I truly love this town,” Shankle said, adding that he would like his business to be part of Pottstown’s revitalization.
Shankle has made a variety of other products including bird houses, a unique rack meant for fishing rods and a side table that has a hidden drawer for television remotes.
“Of the things you see in here that are built — half of them came from customer suggestions,” said Shankle, who added that he likes that he gets to work next door to his wife, who works at Cole Tobacco.
Pottstown Wood Wurks is open Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“This is like therapy for me. I’m just so delighted to walk in here every morning,” Shankle said. “I love refinishing furniture and building furniture … I don’t think I’ll ever be able to retire.”
Shankle’s work and prices can be found on his website at www.pottstownwoodwurks.com, or he can be reached at 610-906-4204.