About Wise Owl Joinery Co.: Richard Cormier

Wise Owl Joinery was founded in 2001 by Richard Cormier, a skilled and conscientious craftsman from Nova Scotia.

In the late ‘80’s, Richard headed west to pursue his dream of log building by taking a course at the B. Allan Mackie School of Log Building in Prince George, British Columbia. He spent the next five years in the beautiful Shuswap outside of Salmon Arm, B.C., learning and honing his skills with Ed Campbell and Associates. During this time, he was also fortunate to bring his passion for building to Japan on two occasions.

In the spring of 1991, Richard took Tedd Benson’s timber framing course in Port Townsend, Washington and “got the bug”. During the winter of 1992, he worked on a custom dovetail house on a private island off Vancouver Island.

To further enhance his skills, Richard and his wife moved to Ontario in 1993, so he could attend a one-year traditional millwork course outside of Ottawa. For the next four years, Richard worked with Northern Timberhouse in the Haliburton Highlands of Ontario.

In the summer of 1998, he and his family migrated back to Nova Scotia, and after a few years of working for small local shops and traveling to work under contract for companies in Ontario and New Brunswick, Wise Owl Joinery Company was born.

Over the years, Richard has studied chip carving under the following masters: Edward Schmidt from B.C., Canadian champs Dennis and Todd Moore from Ontario and World champion Wayne Barton (originally from Switzerland and now living in Illinois, USA).  Richard himself has been invited to teach chip carving at one of the North American Timber Framer’s Guild conferences.

Richard is a member of both the Timber Framer’s Guild and the International Log Builders' Association. He makes a point of keeping in touch with his peers from all his travels in order to stay abreast with all the latest trends and information.

Our company is located in Port Williams, Nova Scotia, where Richard resides with his wife, Lisa, and three children.