Woodcut Tools

     
Woodcut Tools has been making woodturning tools in New Zealand since 1990. The company motto says it plainly: for turners, by turners.

Founder Ken Port started designing turning tools in the 1970s, frustrated with what was available while running a souvenir business and turning much of the stock himself. He refined his designs with fellow turners for almost two decades before offering them for sale in 1990. Ken is still involved in product design today, and the company remains family owned, now by the Hewitt family, based in Hawkes Bay.

Every Woodcut product is developed the same way: by listening to customers and working with professional turners until the tool is right. Turners like Phil Irons, Colwin Way, Terry Scott, Nick Agar and Mike Mahoney have all helped test and shape the range over the years.

The range covers the jobs turners care about most. Bowlsaver coring systems cut a nest of bowls from a single blank instead of turning the inside into shavings. Pro-Forme hollowing tools make deep hollow forms manageable, with cutter heads that move between shafts. The Tru-Grind sharpening system has kept grinds simple, accurate and repeatable for 25 years. Pro-Tip gouges pair a solid, vibration-free shaft with a replaceable tip, so the tool lasts a lifetime. And the Mill Drill Universal makes producing pepper mills simpler and faster.

Woodcut products carry the New Zealand FernMark, and cutters, tips and parts across the range are replaceable. A Woodcut tool is bought once and kept.