I sold my first reamer in 2004 or 2005 for about $40. Compared to the reamers we make now, it was a pretty rough affair; I ground the blade from a Stanley compass-saw blade and made the body from a maple blank for a Windsor chair leg. Since then, the price of our reamers has skyrocketed, and for good reason. We’ve been improving them for twenty years, and this has only increased the time it takes to make them, and the expense of the materials. But I wouldn’t be able to afford one of my reamers if I was a 17-year-old kid getting into woodworking now.
Because of this, I’ve decided to try selling a new product: Reamers in the Raw. They are the same as our finished reamers, but they still need a finial fitting to make them cut evenly. They also need the ends trimmed and a handle made (the blade comes sharpened and ready to use). They can then be finished to your specifications (or left unfinished). Included with the reamer is access to the second half of my online reamer-making video which details the steps needed to finish these reamers.
This is not a money-making venture. Rather it is an attempt to make our tools more accessible to people who will use them. So I am selling these reamers for half the price of a finished reamer: $70. If there’s interest in them, we’ll keep offering them (and maybe offer Travishers in the Raw as well).
I like this offer. I already bought a blade at Handworks: what if I’d just like the wooden body?
I’d be happy to sell you a body for $50. But the blades may not be interchangeable. The tapers are all the same, but the widths can vary. The adjustment screw can probably handle the difference, but that’s not always the case, so it may take some fiddling to get it to work.
Great idea! I’ll be getting one right away. And yes, please, a travisher in the raw would be great too!
I love that there seems to be a movement amongst chairmakers to make green woodworking assessable to all and I so appreciate you being a big part of that! I am fortunate enough to own a nice reamer, but a travisher is a tool that is currently pretty out of reach for me and I would jump at the opportunity to pick up a “raw” one. Keep me posted and thanks again!
Hello! Is your reamer tutorial pretty much up to date with your current state of improvement? I would think about getting the ‘raw’ reamer as a teaching aid to the video.
Yes, the video is pretty much up to date.
I love this idea! But can one buy dowel stock the right diameter for the handle or would they have to have the ability to turn one?
The handle can be whittled with a drawknife and spokeshave just like you’d make a chair spindle.