ABOUT

Howdy. I’m Zac. I’ve been working in Texas as an engineer for the last 7 years. I attended college at Texas A&M University in College Station for a degree in Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering Technology.

After college I worked in the oil and gas industry as a field engineer where we built oil rigs on the beach near Corpus Christi, Texas. Long hot days were spent on the beach rummaging through endless fields of metal pipe and pieces of what would eventually become a massive floating vessel. These were the largest engineering projects I have ever seen!

After that I worked in the semiconductor industry as a field service engineer. Here I spent five years working on giant machines called scanning electron microscopes. This was the smallest scale I have ever dealt with. Some of our high-powered microscopes were even capable of imaging at the atomic scale.

After four engineering internships and two jobs I wanted to do something more hands-on and more personal. Building furniture in my garage became an escape that was almost like therapy. Having full control of the quality of the project and the freedom to be creative is something I wanted in a job. I wanted to learn new skills at my own pace.

As for the name, Kumiko Fox Woodworking:

Kumiko is a Japanese technique of assembling wooden pieces without the use of nails. Thinly slit wooden pieces are grooved, punched and mortised, and then fitted individually using a plane, saw, chisel and other tools to make fine adjustments. The technique was developed in Japan in the Asuka Era (600-700 AD)

I enjoy doing Kumiko as a hobby. It feels very relaxing to me to fit together many small pieces together like a puzzle. This work is very precise and tedious so it feels very different from other forms of woodworking.

Fox is a call-back to my days spent in the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M University. My unit in the Corps of Cadets was F2, Fighting Fox Company. We were called the “Fighting Foxes”.

The Corps of Cadets is a student-led, military-style organization at Texas A&M. It is the oldest student organization on campus and was established with the university in 1876. While participation in the Corps of Cadets was at one time mandatory for all who attended Texas A&M, participation in the Corps became voluntary in 1965. However, the Corps of Cadets is a large, visible part of the university and continues to play an important part in Texas A&M’s traditions and history.

The men and women of the Corps of Cadets form the largest uniformed body of students outside of the United States service academies. While Texas A&M’s Corps of Cadets consistently commissions more officers into the country’s military than any other school in the nation except the three service academies, membership in the Corps carries no military obligation.