Handcrafted Shuffleboard Tops Made with Pure Michigan Hard Maple

When I tell people what kind of business I am in, the first question they ask is,” where do you get your wood?” We get our hard maple almost exclusively from Michigan, from local dry lots. These are the kilns that purchase wood from the saw mills. Then they sort, process and grade the wood. Below is a dry lot from one of our local suppliers, who is just a 30 minute drive from our factory. Not very many factories can say they are located that close to the kiln that selects, grades and insures all the lumber has the perfect moisture content.

Todd McClure with Dan Hall at Wolverine Hardwoods

Many shuffleboard brands claim to use maple wood and many whose factories are actually located in China claim they manufacture boards. I know of no other factories that are actually located in the geographical area the wood is grown in. I also know of no other factories who make boards totally from scratch the way McClure Shuffleboard Tables does.

Most factories buy their parts and components, such as cabinets, from China and butcher block from other manufactures. Some are even large pool table manufacturers who make the cabinets themselves but buy the butcher block top from another factory. This is similar to going to the store and buying a cake mix you go home and add water to and then saying you baked a cake.

Michigan Maple from Wolverine

At McClure we “bake our cakes” from scratch, like grandma used to do. We don’t assemble component parts purchased from other vendors. We don’t have an assembly line cabinet building process. We don’t use automated CNC machines to make our component parts. See the truck, below? That’s a load of hard Michigan Maple from Dan’s dry lot. We’ll soon turn it into fine hand crafted shuffleboard tables for your home. If you are a ‘wood’ person you will be able to grade this wood from these pictures. Wood is graded not by the quality or type of wood. The grade is for color and also to some extent the amount of defect or variation in color.

Hard Michigan Maple Wood Soon to be Shuffleboard Tops

I have seen manufacturers claim that their shuffleboard tops are made with local wood and then their factory is located in California. They might want to look at the map below. The green areas are where Maple trees grow. Hard maple grows in the cold Northern climates.

Please read the claims of our competitors carefully. Pay attention to the source of the woods they use. Where does it come from? Many shuffleboard tops are made with birch and even soft maple and they will advertise them as made with Canadian Maple and the consumer assumes that it is hard maple.

We are not trying to say that other manufactures are being deceptive. It is just marketing hype to make their factory produced products sound like something more than what they are; consumable goods made in mass fashion with cheaper materials and automated assembly line techniques. They are not hand crafted works of art coaxed into existence by master artisans practicing their craft. If you are going to buy a shuffleboard table, why not buy one made from scratch, they way your Grandma or Grandpa would have wanted?