Coal Crafting is now in 

Pikeville, Kentucky

An old tradition has been renewed.  Kentucky Coal Crafters (KCC) is now under new ownership and the operations have moved to Pike County Kentucky.    Kentucky Coal Crafters will still make “handcrafted” coal figurines similar to the ones previously made and crafted by MidWest Crafts in Whitley City from 1975 until the business closed in 2002.

In the spring of 2002 “Buddy” Wilson and Alvin Powell were talking.  Alvin was ready to get back in the “crafting” business and thought that the business should reopen.  Thus a new partnership began and Kentucky Coal Crafters was born.  The new partnership purchased some of the “mixing secrets”, molds, and equipment from the old MidWest Crafts and started the move from Whitley City to Stearns, KY which was the heart of coal country for McCreary County for well over four decades. Michael Johnson is the new owner and has been trained by Alvin Powell to produce the same quality figurines started in 1975.  Pike County was once the state's largest coal supplier in the state and it is great to have part of that heritage back in the county. 

 At one time in the 90's there were a few coal crafters in the area. At this time Michael believes Kentucky Coal Crafters is the only one still operation.  Michael is excited to take over the operation and still make and sell the items KCC is well known for as well as adding new products to the already large catalog. 

Alvin says the “coal crafting” process is a combination of using coal, coal dust and a resin binder to hold everything together so that it can be molded and formed.  Due to the resin in the mixture and the peroxide catalyst which is added to harden the object, the objects come out of the process a grey color.  To give the object a natural coal appearance, they are power sprayed with a black lacquer.  While it may seem odd to have to spray paint coal to get it to look like coal, the entire process starts with and has as its base…COAL.

Alvin, who has worked at perfecting the process for over twenty years, has told Michael he can cast trim and paint about 40 of the larger pieces  and a hundred plus of the smaller objects on a good work day.  We have everything from Coal Miners, Mountain Madonna, which are about 11 inches tall, to small Kentucky magnets about 2 inches long...numerous animals, Lincoln’s, and trains…all made from  Coal.   Alvin is great at what he does, and he has taught Michael how to do a reproduction of almost anything and reproduce it  and craft from coal…In fact we hope to be able to do custom orders for individuals and companies that would like to like to have their logos or objects crafted from coal.