Wood Turning

A bit of history...I started making wine stoppers in 1988 and since that time, I have made more than one quarter million.  I managed to pay my mortgage for more than fifteen years by turning these little guys.  Not really sure why anyone needs a wine stopper because when I open a bottle of wine, I do my best to finish it.

I first became interested in woodturning after watching Tim Yoder on PBS. I watched how organic and creative the process was and it just looked fun. I saved up some money and bought a midi lathe which is what I still turn on today. At first, I didn't really want to make anything structured, like pens or bottle stoppers (even though I eventually learned to enjoy them).

Creating the graceful slopes of a spindle and thin-walls of a bowl are just two of the many tasks the Ultra-Shear Round Carbide Insert Turning Tools handles with ease.

Create smooth handles in even the toughest materials while using our 45° shear scraping with this round tool. 

Turning the Wall Street II Pen
By George Snyder

Gift giving seasons tend to sneak up on me. Everyone in my family expects hand-made gifts at every opportunity. Now, it’s late Spring, and by some twist of fate I have a rather large number of high school and college-aged nieces, nephews and neighbors all graduating within a few weeks of each other. I need a bunch of nice gifts, and I need them now. My “go-to” gift for these situations – particularly when I need a bunch – is the Wall Street II pen kit (also called the “Sierra” depending on where you buy it). The Wall Street II is one of the easiest pens to turn. It only takes one half of a standard pen blank, and the finished pen writes nicely and has great balance. What’s more, with a wide variety of trim styles and finishes, unless you’re an experienced pen turner, you would never guess that they’re all the same inside. 

Curiously enough here at Woodpeckers, we pride ourselves on the marketing we do for our tools, but every once in a while we miss, and the Ultra-Shear Square Insert Turning Tools are a good example.

These excellent woodturning tools have been on the market for over a year now, and we haven’t shown their full potential. The video below shows the versatility of our tools — the only ones on the market with the Ultra Shear capability. Jeff Farris, the developer of the Ultra-Shear line of woodturning tools, shows the Square tools ability to rough, make tenons for scroll chuck turning and turning the outside of the curve, even in very detailed work.