“The very first thing lots of people ask me is ‘are you able to smoke it?’” laughs HempWood founder Gregory Wilson. However he doesn’t have any curiosity in farming the hashish sativa plant as a business intoxicant. In reality, it’s form of the alternative motive he began working with hemp.
Wilson lives on a 171-acre natural farm in Murray, KY, rising hemp, mushrooms, berries, garlic and extra whereas elevating cows, chickens and pigs. He cares about the place his meals comes from and what goes into his physique—and he thinks the identical stage of warning and care ought to issue into what goes into your own home and its constructing supplies.
He spent 14 years in China engineering wooden flooring from bamboo—a course of that makes use of formaldehyde to bind the filaments collectively. “I’ve obtained all types of well being issues due to that,” he says.
Wilson, who’s an inventor as a lot as he’s an entrepreneur, was completely positioned to utilize hemp as a wooden flooring product when the plant grew to become authorized. The method he developed for HempWood makes use of a soy-based adhesive which didn’t work as effectively with bamboo—a plant with a waxy, oily outer layer.
When hemp grew to become authorized in 2018, he filed some patents on it and moved to the small metropolis of Murray in an space of the Bluegrass State that traditionally yielded plentiful hemp crops courting again to pioneer days, till it was banned in 1970. It was there that he launched HempWood and constructed a product that may be awarded “Coolest Factor Made in Kentucky” in 2024 by the Kentucky Affiliation of Producers: a carbon-negative, zero-waste, zero-VOC (risky natural compound) hemp lumber and flooring product that’s each stunning and of top quality.
HempWood grows their very own hemp—roughly 300-400 acres yearly, and likewise sources from different native hemp farms. As soon as harvested, the hemp stalks are changed into lumber and any hemp waste is recycled as a warmth supply for manufacturing.
In August 2025, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) carried out the ceremonial “board-cutting” to have fun the corporate’s addition of a second manufacturing unit on the Murray campus—one for the creation, sawing and drying of HempWood (the block mill, 16,450 sq. ft.) and one for reworking the wooden into flooring, panels, tables and customized mill work (the flooring mill, 12,840 sq. ft.). Even so, HempWood is just originally of its story. “We’re nonetheless the brand new child on the block,” Wilson says. “Solely about six % of America has ever heard of HempWood.” However for Wilson, who first developed a profitable hemp wooden materials in 2010, it appears like eternally.
The HempWood product has so much going for it. It’s wholesome, sustainable, eco-friendly, US-made, 20 % stronger than hickory, is billed as a “100-year flooring” and prices about the identical as home lumber to fabricate. But it faces distinctive challenges as a result of it’s derived from a plant with ‘hashish’ in its title. “That is far more worrying than bamboo was,” Wilson says.
Wilson, who says he largely abstains from politics, figuring out as a “libertarian greater than something,” finds himself in an business frequently triggered by political domino results that make folks unsure of hemp’s favorability.
Public colleges had been large clients for some time (the VOC-free nature of the wooden makes it a safer possibility for schoolchildren) however these initiatives have been paused for the reason that Division of Training froze Kentucky colleges’ $87 million funding this previous summer season. HempWood was additionally specified for 2 USDA buildings, however the federal authorities froze the challenge attributable to budgetary constraints. “All the things obtained frozen and shocked,” Wilson says, revealing his farming thoughts. “However it’ll come again.”
And why shouldn’t it? Hemp can go from seed to lumber in lower than six months. There’s no arguing right here—bushes, even softwood bushes that develop quicker than hardwood, want a long time to develop mature sufficient to create lumber. Bamboo is far quicker however nonetheless takes about three to 5 years.
“About 30 % of the inhabitants hate it as a result of it’s hemp,” Wilson says. “One other 30 % adore it for that motive—he estimates their wooden is in about 200 dispensaries nationwide—and the remaining are solely motivated by value and high quality. And what Wilson’s created is definitely high quality. The lengthy strands of hemp bestow the wooden with a meandering “grain” that permits woodworkers to attain a fab, nearly cork-like look to their initiatives.
So, no, you may’t smoke it—however think about what else you are able to do with it.
HempWood founder Gregory Wilson likes to showcase the initiatives that woodworkers make from his product—simply test their Instagram account. Two years in the past, Wilson positioned an order with Marc Lauver, a buyer who makes bows and arrows from HempWood. Wilson despatched Marc additional wooden with the order and requested him how a lot a bow would value for himself. However shortly after, Marc took a hiatus from making bows after a well being difficulty. When he came upon, Wilson despatched a care bundle whereas Lauver was in restoration. This yr, on his birthday, Wilson opened a bundle from Lauver—it was this bow. “It’s the good factor that occurred to me this yr,” Wilson says.
This story was initially revealed in difficulty 52 of the print version of Hashish Now.
The put up HempWood: The Way forward for Sustainable Constructing appeared first on Hashish Now.
