Now more than ever, Canadian woodturners are seeking out Made-in-Canada products and tools for their wood lathe projects. As a Canadian small business, William Wood-Write has your back! We know how important it is to our customers to source materials right here at home because it’s important to us too. There are many ways to shop domestically, whether you’re turning custom pens, kitchen utensils, bowls or something else. In fact, you can turn quite a few pens and projects from start to finish using all Canadian materials!
Canadian tools and kits for your wood lathe
We source our stock in Canada whenever we can. This includes some of our customer’s favourite tools and kits:
- Chisels: Pen Master Accu-Cut carbide chisels are excellent for fine details in pen making and other lathe projects.
- Ring making supplies: We carry JDG two-piece ring cores with expanding ring mandrels and separation tool as well as one-piece inlay ring cores.
- Bushings: When turning between centers, don’t forget your bushing adapters and non-stick delrin finishing bushings.
Pen blanks and project blocks made in Ontario
You can trust that many of our pen blanks and project blocks are local because we make them ourselves right here in our shop! Pearlux is a hand-poured colourful line of resin blanks, and our unmatched selection of fusion hybrid blanks come in just about every shade you can think of. If you’re looking for stabilized wood in either natural or colourful hues, we make that too! Choose from curly maple, box elder burl, maple burl, buckeye burl, birdseye maple and soft maple. Some of these are also available in knife and project blocks for those bulkier projects.
Canadian-made wood finishes
Whether you like a glossy CA glue finish for your custom pens or a more natural option, local companies deliver. CEC-Corp C-bond brand is a reliable choice for different consistencies of CA glue with accelerator sprays in both aerosol and spritz bottles. This brand also makes epoxy for those tricky gluing situations. For abrasive paste, we recommend Superior Grit Canada which is available in original and microfine grit. Or, apply your choice of Clapham’s products for a nice natural finish: beeswax polish to give your wood a natural shine or hemp wood wax for food-grade products.
Wood that grows in Canada
This list wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the most important thing of all… wood! Lucky for all of us, Canada has some of the most beautiful and plentiful wood species growing right outside our front doors. You might find Maple, Box Elder, Ash, Cherry, Ironwood, Osage Orange, Walnut, Yellow birch, Buckeye or Sycamore. All of these make great pens and lathe projects!
Pen making products exclusive to our Canadian business
The popular and patriotic Maple Leaf pen kits, along with the Luxor and Wilfred kits, are only available from our Ontario business. If you’d like to try making a purely Canadian custom pen from start to finish, use a Pen Master Accu-Cut carbide chisel to turn a fusion blank paired with a Maple Leaf pen kit! Don’t forget to follow William Wood-Write on Facebook and Instagram for woodturning tips, giveaways, auctions and more.
