Range Makers

Story and photos by Jerry Burnes

At Jim Whitlock’s shop in Chisholm, it is a woodworker’s paradise of lumber, scraps, tools, machines and ongoing projects large and small. 

Then there is the boss. Addison, the pint-sized foreman with a shock of red hair, who keeps the activity running at Twisted Woods. 

On this day, “Punkin” as her dad calls her, is ready to film their next social media video. She climbs atop the table, puts on her blue shop gloves that match the outfit of the day, and Whitlock hooks up the wireless microphone connected to his phone to record.

“This is a daily thing,” he says. “If she wants to be involved, I let her. If she doesn’t, no big deal.”

The family aspect is deeply rooted in Twisted Woods. It dates back to more than a decade ago when Whitlock’s oldest daughter, Alexandra, needed a new bedroom set. Furniture store prices, he recalls, were “crazy” and the designs simple enough for what they wanted.

Whitlock had done some small projects to that point. He would buy a tool and make what he could to sell and buy the next one. His shop had more space then, with a spiral saw and table saw among the few power tools in his arsenal. 

As he tells this story, he pulls them out and sets them on a worktable in the shop. A series of notebooks follow, some worn and tattered by the years, and flips to the page with the hand-drawn layout of a bedroom set. 

Then there is the picture. The true start of Twisted Woods. It shows their small garage with a propane heater, Alexandra leaning over Whitlock, who is behind a half-finished hand-built dresser like the one in his notebook.

“It was one of those ‘Ah, I could build that,’ and I’m that guy, like, ‘I can build that,’ and I did because I knew I could,” Whitlock says. “I didn’t have a crazy amount of tools. I didn’t have a straight edge or none of that stuff, but it was just the point of ‘Alright, kiddo, let’s get in here and do it.’”

****

Arriving at the Twisted Woods shop, it is what one might expect for a home shop. 

The house is right in front, with two dogs barking from their window perch. A garage is off to the left with the vapors of heat emanating from it, a sign someone is home.  It is a nondescript building to a business that has just kept growing. Project by project. Build by build. Sale by sale. Tool by tool. 

Whitlock opens the door of the shop. Stepping inside is a different world from what one can see from the driveway. 

There is wood and projects abound. Machines everywhere. A laser engraver is now part of it, which during this visit, is customizing coasters for a customer. There are hums and whirrs of machines. A shop that is alive at this moment.

As Whitlock describes the evolution of his business, it is easy to see how it all came together. A man with a plan that kept expanding and growing from simple wood-based projects to something more complex. 

Whitlock says he started getting more requests that tested his creativity as Twisted Woods grew. He started with the laser engraver, but later wanted to innovate his designs with metals. 

A trip to Las Vegas connected him with Langmuir Systems in Texas, a company that manufacturers plasma cutters. This was the necessary next step, in his mind, and the Vegas trip helped cement things.

He met with Langmuir, and the partnership felt like a good fit. The investment gave him pause. It was not  that long ago he was paying for tools with only his profits. Now, he was weighing a massive purchase.

Sitting on his bed at The Mirage, Whitlock recalls telling himself that this was Las Vegas, and he should make the bet on himself. So he dialed up the Langmuir associate and ordered one, birthing the metals side of the business that has taken it to another level, without losing its beginnings.

“It’s called Twisted Woods because I twist my woodworking in many different directions,” Whitlock said. “I start with a piece of wood and I can make almost anything. Being able to have freedom of creation is huge. Not many people get to do that.”

****

“Take two. Take two.” Something was off on the first.. He adjusts the phone mounted on an extended tripod. The angle is right, he is in frame and the microphone is on. Time to record again..

The video is a short how-to on aligning the laser engraver for a project. The machine etches a square on a scrap piece of wood, the perfect size match for the coaster project. On top of being a creator in the woodshop, the business calls on Whitlock as a content creator for YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram.

That is the nature of running a business and trying to grow in 2026. Twisted Woods shows off projects, does tutorials, sales and gives a glimpse into Whitlock’s life behind the scenes. That is where the boss shines, of course, chasing her dad with an active air hose in one outtake and opening a sandpaper order in another. 

Social media led to the big breakout for Whitlock and Twisted Woods. The business is in full partnership with Langmuir, producing videos about the plasma cutter shared broadly by the Texas company and the Twisted Woods pages. On occasion, he’ll share the upward trajectory of social media traffic to thank followers. 

“They gave me an opportunity that a guy just cannot pass on, so I owe a lot of my online presence the last year to them quite a bit,” he says. “It’s a good partnership. I got a good team, good marketing team behind, and I’m very fortunate. Never thought in a million years I’d be where I’m at, doing what I’m doing.”

Twisted Woods’ growth over the past year has also given Whitlock an option unforeseen when he and Alexandra first made her bedroom set. This business could be a career as the future of his day job becomes less clear.

Whitlock is a longtime member of the United Steelworkers Local 2705 at Hibbing Taconite. The mine has a moving-target expiration date. It is running out of ore. Last March, layoffs hit 250 of his coworkers and another 45 in January. The reduced production at the mine may ultimately keep its closure at bay — which could have happened as early as this year — but it will not save the mine.

The industry is a driver of the Iron Range economy, and memories of past closures resonate as if they were yesterday. A handful of years ago, Whitlock and his wife confronted this inevitability while the Covid-19 pandemic raged, stifling much of the nation’s economy and idling some mines to an extent. 

“There was a ‘Babe, what are we going to do if I lose my job?’ moment” he says. 

His wife returned to school in Bemidji. He worked and was home with the kids as they took it week by week. She finished school and is now a registered nurse at the hospital in Hibbing, the region’s largest employment sector that is also not immune to its own threats in Greater Minnesota.  

Still, the decision is not an easy one. His job as a millwright and maintenance mechanic pays well and provides good benefits through the union. It is what he has known, but the unknown future places him at this crossroad.

“It’s very scary to be working [at Hibbing Taconite] because you don’t know what the next day is going to be,” Whitlock says. “We have a good group of guys we work with and the leadership we directly work with is amazing, but on the other side, there’s so many questions that aren’t being answered.”

He continues: “It's kind of what spurned the idea of this whole thing — people taking control of their destinies and doing what they know. The biggest thing for me is, I had to figure out a way to build my future. Not even for me, but for my family, my kids.”

****

Punkin has her own office in the Twisted Woods shop. The benefits to having dad’s side project operating at home. There is a mattress, a ladder to reach it, and a window with shudders. All built right there in the shop. 

“It’s my favorite,” Addison says “It’s my playhouse.”

Whitlock calls her presence in the shop a “full circle” moment from building the bedroom. The custom build led to her spending more time in the shop. Sometimes it is a napping spot or a place to watch something on a tablet. Other times, she helps him out with handing over screws, marking his measurements, and being in the videos. It drives home the family beginnings of this business.  

“Punkin, she’s a spit fire. She’s just like me,” he says. “ I never would have thought in a million years that I would have another kid, and that I would be able to do woodworking with that kid.”

The original dresser and nightstand made by Whitlock and his oldest daughter are still with the family. The other parts were damaged over time. 

Four years after the first build, he had a request for a bedroom set build. It was the same one they built. The one in the picture. The one logged in his notebook. 

“It was off a picture they saw somewhere, and asked if I could make it again,” Whitlock says. “I was like “You know what? I think I still have all my original prints,’ because I’ve been keeping track.

“It was crazy. It was cool.”

****

About Twisted Woods

Twisted Woods can be found at www.twistedwoodsllc.com, or through Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and X. They are located in Chisholm