· Who are we: Wes and Hannah Stevens (husband and wife duo that have managed not to kill each other while working in the shop). We were both born and raised in the Brandon area. Wes is a Driver Engineer/Paramedic for the Tampa Fire Rescue and Hannah is a former teacher turned full time mom and wood worker. She can now pee whenever she needs to and the only child she’s responsible for is their son, Morgan… and on occasion, Wes. Wes gets to go to work, save people, spray some water on things, run calls all night, then come home to assist in wrangling the toddler and keep the business running.
· What machines do we use: We have 2 cnc routers as well as 2 100 watt CO2 lasers. Essentially, the cnc’s “carve” and the lasers “cut” or “engrave”. In addition to these, we use a variety of spray paints, sealers, tools, air compressors, and more.
· How did Black Axe Designs get its start:
o Wes has been wood working for several years as a hobby. He started by making cornhole boards for friends, a few furniture pieces, and then began using a hand router to carve department logos and names into flags as retirement gifts.
Long story that leads to the short story:
In 2018 Wes tested his hand at fractal burning. He had made a few really cool pieces, until our eyes were opened to the dangers of fractal burning on December 6th when Wes was shocked while working on a project. He had done everything like he had with prior projects, but this time something went wrong and the jumper cables that he used to attach to the wood ended up sending a shock from his hand through his heart and out the other hand. He was knocked unconscious and without a heartbeat for a terrifying 17 minutes! HCSO and HCFR showed up on scene and ended up having to shock him 3 more times to get a heartbeat back. From there he was rushed to Tampa General.
MEANWHILE….Their son was due any day and his very (very) pregnant and swollen wife was trying to keep it all together. Afterall, she was already on leave from teaching and had only left to get lunch. Coming home to a dead husband was not part of the plan. Once Wes was revived he was kept intubated and medicated to allow his body to flush the toxins from the electricity. Once his levels improved he woke up and was able to remember who we were, but had no recollection of the accident or how he ended up in the hospital. The first thing he wanted to make sure of was that Morgan (unborn son) and Hannah were okay. After he woke up he had to be on heavy pain meds, have a skin graft from his arm to one of his hands, and ended up spending 11 days in the burn ICU.
His still very pregnant wife, ended up being induced at TGH and delivered on 12/9. As if a half dead husband wasn’t enough, she hemorrhaged during delivery and almost ended up in trauma herself! Needless to say, we had a very full plate toward the end of 2018!
Short story:
After his accident and once he was able to make a FULL recovery!!! He made flags for each of the officers and paramedics that responded that day. After that word spread of his work and we started to get more and more orders for flags. Like every business, over time we have grown and improved, and we are BEYOND BLESSED for what we have today and all the possibilities that have opened up after our “blessing in (a big scary) disguise”!
We hope you enjoyed the read and thank you for your time. We’ve had an interesting start to say the least, and Black Axe has helped us both on many different levels.
-Wes and Hannah