Charles Horner lives on his family's 140-year-old homestead in the community of Westel, Tenn., near Spring City. For decades his ancestors worked that land; Mr. Horner chose to work in wood.

The 76-year-old craftsman has built a national reputation for the resonant violins and mandolins he makes by hand in his mountain-stone-and-cedar-shake workshop at the base of the Cumberland Plateau.

Mr. Horner said he made his first violin at age 15 with a pocketknife, a few wood chisels, a saw and a plane. All he knew about the instrument was the sound he heard on his family's 1940s radio and pictures in books.

"All I had was the idea and the desire. I was just blundering around in the dark; wouldn't known a good one if it bit me," said the craftsman.

"The first one would've give you nightmares to look at it. The first dozen or so were terrible. I collected them up and burned them, didn't want nobody to see them," he said with a chuckle.

Sixty years later, his violins and mandolins are sought after my musicians playing the Opry to symphonic orchestras around the world. His work has been exhibited in venues from Dollywood to the Smithsonian.

This spring he was one of nine recipients of the state's highest honor in the arts, the Governor's Arts Award, chosen from 55 nominees. Also among the honorees were Chattanooga arts advocate Jack Murrah and former Chattanoogan Bets Ramsey.

"His work is extraordinary," said Rich Boyd, executive director of the Tennessee Arts Commission. "When you see the intricacy and the delicacy of the craftsmanship, then understand this is done in his workshop behind his house, not manufactured with the most sophisticated equipment, it is a labor of love," Mr. Boyd said.

The craftsman said it took 10 years of experimentation -- minus a four-year tour of duty with the Navy -- before his ear told him he had a product worth selling in 1958. In the meantime, his woodworking supported him as he built cabinetry, furniture and wooden toys.

In 1969 he made his first mandolin. He has since created and sold 236, all modeled on the elite Gibson F5 model played by the late Bill Monroe.

"In its heydey during 1922-24, Gibson built about 200 mandolins that have never been matched since. You could have bought one in the early 1970s for $1,700. Now that same mandolin would be $150,000," Mr. Horner said.

Borrowing one from a friend who owned one of the rare instruments, he used it to make a pattern to replicate the F5 in his work.

Musician Kenny Sears owns two of his mandolins; the late John Hartman played a Horner mandolin. Opry member Mike Snider, and Mel Tillis' musicians Paul Justice and Jim Buchanan all play Horner mandolins.

His violins have been purchased by fiddlers as well as classical musicians in Australia, England, Canada and across the United States.

Mr. Horner said all of his instruments are made of maple with spruce tops. He buys his wood from loggers, who have learned over 60 years what he needs.

Each violin and mandolin takes about 100 hours of work to make. It is a meticulous 20-step process. He handcuts mother of pearl for inlays, handcarves circular bands that collar his handmade tuning pegs. He takes pride in using scraper, not sandpaper, to smooth his instruments' wood.

"The scraper just leaves the grain of the wood showing so much prettier than sandpaper."

Just as no two Horner violins are alike in appearance, neither are they in sound. He keeps several on hand in his workshop for customers to try. He also refuses to publicize his prices and won't even discuss money "unless you're ready to buy one."

"I don't do this for the money. I do it because I enjoy it. I'd be a lot better off building birdhouses if I was going to make money," he said.