Where It All Began: A Father-Son Story

This Father’s Day, we decided to relive the story of where it all began. What originally started as a father sharing his love for woodworking with his son, has grown over the years into what Stumped is today!

About 5 years back, Russel Burland our co-founder, took his son Lluc along to our factory to help make a gift for mom. As they were sifting through different pieces of wood, Russel decided to make it fun for Lluc and show him the process of turning an unrefined piece of wood into something special.

Lluc was about 6 years old at the time, so Russel decided that the manual drill press would be the safest machine for Lluc to operate. They started by smoothening out a piece of wood which Russel cross-cut into equal blocks so that it would be easier for Lluc to handle. Russel then showed Lluc how to measure where he would like to drill the holes and they got started with the drilling. Little Lluc got such a thrill from using the drill press that he wanted to do it again and again, so with dad’s help they made 10 symmetrical holes all the way around the first block.

After that they continued to do the same on the other blocks until they had a bunch of wooden blocks with holes in them. Russel then had the idea to join the blocks using small dowels and he and LLuc started building with their fresh-cut blocks. Lluc loved building them so much that he took them home and continued to use the blocks as a toy, et voila, the Knock-a-Block was born!

We love how our founding story was simply a dad sharing his passion with his son and passing down skills that his own dad had taught him. We continue to encourage this with our DIY kits, where our children learn how to think practically and use tactile building skills as they assemble something of their own. We hope you have a wonderful Father’s Day with dad!