Cape Breton woman makes one-of-a-kind pens from reclaimed wood

A wood turner in Cape Breton makes handcrafted pens from reclaimed wood, and offers customers one-of-a-kind keepsakes.

Fay Wambolt is the owner of Full Circle Wood Turning. She says the local, repurposed wood is what makes her pens unique.

Wambolt said she has wood from Sydney Steel, Holy Angels High School, Senator Mongomery’s house in Prince Edward Island and church pews from decommissioned churches in Cape Breton. Some samples come from further abroad, including a piece from a bog in Ukraine that is more than 5,400 years old.

“The reclaimed lumber idea came from when my father was alive he worked at the steel plant and he would come home with maple stakes used on the rails in his lunchbox,” Wambolt said. “Some of those maple stakes were still lying around our garage after my father had passed away.”

When Wambolt started pen turning she used the maple to make pens for her siblings so they would have a memory of their father.

“When I saw their reaction I thought, people would love this,” Wambolt said.

Most people think Wambolt uses smaller equipment for the delicate work, but she said she uses full size tools in the complex process.

“You have to cut it into blanks. You have to measure it. You have to drill it. You then have to glue in brass tubes. Then you have to square those tubes and that blank. Then you actually have to turn it and then you have to put it all together.”

Wambolt said customers at craft shows have cried while watching her work with wood from meaningful places like Holy Angels or Sydney Steel.

“Right away they say, ‘my father worked there his whole life,’ and there’s tears in their eyes.” Wambolt said, “They’re happy tears of memories.”

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