John McLeod

John McLeod was one of that small group of people who had the good fortune to have made a dream for life come true. John started wood turning when he was 10 years of age after his father gave him a birthday present of a small treadle wood turning lathe. The actual lathe is pictured here.

John had an established career as manager of the largest plumbing and heating engineering company in Scotland. The dream of having his own wood turning business was always there.

In 1967 John decided to emigrate to Canada but before doing so he visited Vermont, and that was when he decided this was the place where he wanted to make his dream come true, and so in a borrowed workshop he set about making his first group of products and samples.

They were well received by the market, and in fact a display of his woodware was in the window of Georg Jensen on 5th Avenue, New York, in 1967. In addition to his wholesale business a retail store was opened in Wilmington.

By this time he was engaged in constructing a house from an 1836 barn and the workshop was in the basement.

Well time moved on and the basement was no longer big enough so the property at our present location was purchased.

The present-day, 15,000 square foot facility has developed from the property in the adjoining photograph.

In 1996 John decided to develop a method of woodturning which would marry the traditional skills with advanced technology.

This coupled to the prior years of experience and development has contributed to the unique character of our products.

None of that of came without a great deal of hard work and commitment, but the end result made it all worth it. 

While John never fully retired (there were just too many new and exciting things to pursue!), he was able to relax some with the help of Tommy, who started with him at a young age and worked his way up to Vice President, taking over many of the day-to-day tasks. 

Of course, we can't leave out Mary Ann, John's wife who stood by him for over 25 years, and brought her own experience in retail, as a store owner in her own right in California and later worked as a buyer for other major retail shops, as well as being a master gardener, making sure the storefront always looked beautiful. Sadly, Mary Ann passed away in December of 2024.

John himself passed away late 2025. Fortunately, Tommy will continue the business, and, under his guidance, the company will continue to provide the same quality products and customer care John prided himself on for over 50 years.