Mohammed Steyn
They call him Crafter Mo.
Mohammed Steyn is Crafter Mo. He designs and builds custom kitchens and wooden furniture, turns on the lathe, and takes on work right across South Africa. The workshops are in Tzaneen, Limpopo, and in Margate on the South Coast.
Wood Crafter's
Still the one on the tools.
Mo still makes the pieces himself. You bring him a kitchen, a room, a sketch, or a slab of timber, and he will tell you what he can do with it.
The work goes out as Crafter Mo and Wood Crafter's. He is still the one on the tools. Before a piece leaves, his CM mark is burned into the timber.
He works with the grain in front of him, keeps a live edge when it belongs, turns spindles and barrels on the lathe, and puts old silky oak back to work. The benches never really get cleared.
As long as it's wood, it's worth it.
The mark
His signature, burned in.
Mo puts this burn on his designs and products. It is his unique signature. Same crest, same hand, pressed into the wood before the piece goes.
Look for the CM mark on the timber. That is how you know it is his.
Family
From Father to Son.
Family is the heart of the work. Mo's father, Luke Steyn, is his teacher. What Luke teaches at home is still how the timber is worked.
The family crest belongs with Mo because this is a family craft. The name, the teaching, and the making are one line. From Father to Son.
Family first. From Father to Son.
Nationwide
Tzaneen, Margate, then everywhere else.
Two workshops, and work that goes well beyond them. Mo takes on jobs right across the country from Limpopo and the South Coast.
Limpopo workshop
Tzaneen
One workshop is in Tzaneen, Limpopo. A lot of the making happens here, close to the timber and the old shop floor.
South Coast workshop
Margate
The other is in Margate on the South Coast. Between the two shops he can build for clients anywhere in the country.