This story originally appeared in the September 2024 issue of Town&Gown magazine.
Nine years ago, John Wert retired from West Penn Power after 42 years as a lineman and then supervisor. Retirement gave him a little more time to do what he loved—crafting beautiful things out of wood with his grandfather’s tools—but he never imagined it would grow into the business it has become today.
“I started making things like dry sinks and drop-leaf tables. I bought more tools and a little bigger shop. My boys would bring something home and say, ‘Dad, can you make this?’” he says. “After a while, they said, ‘You should be selling this stuff.’ I’d never really thought about it until then.”
One of the things that his sons asked him to make was a cheese cutter: a wire cheese slicer embedded into a cutting board. It was the perfect foray into his new business, fitting into his philosophy of making functional, beautiful things.
That first cheese cutter led to the creation of Wert’s Woodworking, the business that John and his wife, Janice, run from their home in Spring Mills, creating functional wooden art, from cutting boards to cheese cutters to pens and even doll furniture. It’s a team endeavor—John selects the wood, then he and Janice build the piece. After it’s built, John sands each piece and Janice gives it a food-grade finish and gets it ready to sell.
“It’s a hobby that has turned into more than a hobby,” he says with a laugh. “At this point, it’s a good pastime that keeps me out of trouble. In the winter, I select wood and make items, and my wife finishes them, and in the spring and summer, we sell them at festivals.”
In addition to building with his favorite wood—walnut—John likes to build with cherry and oak. He also builds some of his pieces from exotic hardwoods like padauk and purple heart. “I like to see how the grain is running, and see colors like brown, green and gray naturally show in the pieces that I’m building.”
Some of his cutting boards are made from end grain, where the wood grains are perpendicular to the cutting surface and not parallel, as in traditional cutting boards. “It’s a time-consuming process but it leads to a sturdier board that is easier on the knife and does not show wear as quickly as other cutting boards,” he says.
A majority of Wert’s Woodworking sales happen at festivals like People’s Choice Festival, but John says that many people take his card and reach out for special orders after events.
“We have a booth at the Fall Foliage Festival in Bedford every year, and a man talked to us for a few years before he came back with a design for a custom board that he wanted,” he says. “It was a 30-inch board with cheese slicer, grooves for crackers and carved initials for him and his wife. A customer who we met in Bloomsburg later ordered a six-foot-long cheese board along with a noodle board for his stove, in wood to match the rest of his kitchen.”
It’s a busy life, but John says he wouldn’t want it any other way. “I enjoy working with wood, and I enjoy making things that are useful. It’s fun to get special orders and figure out how to make something new. Sometimes people say that our things are too pretty to use, but they are made to be used! We want people to enjoy using beautiful things.”
Wert’s Woodworking is based in Spring Mills and exhibits at art festivals throughout Pennsylvania. For more information about upcoming shows, contact information and photos, go to facebook.com/Wertswoodworking or email [email protected]. T&G
Cara Aungst lives in Belleville with her husband and five kids.
