Kentucky Knows was started by Lexington, Kentucky. native and former Marine Tony Davis in his barn. Davis began crafting cutting boards from bourbon barrel heads as a hobby, and as a way to highlight Kentucky history through bourbon. “I wanted to be able to tell the story of our people through word of eye,” Davis told The Whiskey Wash on a recent visit to his shop in the former James Pepper Distillery.

Davis originally got the idea for crafting bourbon barrel art during a visit to California when he was in the Marines, where he saw spent wine barrels being…