Woodturning Trade Turning

Alongside his commitment to fine design Tobias Kaye has spent many years honing his skills on more everyday pieces. Proud of his skills as a production turner Tobias can boast commissions including organ knobs for Buckingham Palace, sofa feet for other palaces and famous hotels across the world, and chair legs for film stars, as well as small repairs for local householders, balustrades for builders, columns for architects and baths for joineries.

Yes, Baths. Tobias Kaye is equipped with the machinery and skills to take on some of the most demanding work, even up to two metres in diameter or five metres long. Joineries, Architects, builders and furniture makers commission with confidence outsized and unusual pieces.

If you have need for parts for any project or work in hand Tobias will be happy to quote on turnings large or small.

Every item is hand made. No copy-lathe parodies of once fine designs come out of this workshop. Tobias holds that one of the important aspects of making things by hand is the very fine differences that such skilled copy work creates. Differences such as the untrained eye does not notice, yet the effect of hand made work is that each piece has a subtle character of its own.

This effect has been commented on by many leading furniture designers. Most famously Professor David Pye, for many years head of furniture design for the Royal College of Art, in his books on the nature and art of design and workmanship describes how the uniformity of machine worked surfaces contributes to the deadness of modern spaces.

In a long chain of similar components such as a balustrade the slight differences of hand working lend the run an interest and almost unconscious delight, avoiding the all too common deadness of modern balustrades where each piece lacks any interest once you have seen it’s neighbour. I must stress that the differences are not outstanding. This is not a matter of inaccuracy, differences are as small or large as those between two adjacent beech leaves on a tree. Nature is full of such variation. That is why nature is so full of interest and beauty. Machines cannot reproduce this subtle variegation of similar components. In this fact lies much of the sad ugliness of modern buildings. Hand turned components by Tobias Kaye will take any design to it’s full potential.

To submit your plans for a quotation please contact Tobias either by email with a PDF, DXF, or JPG of your designs or telephone to discuss any work. Alternatively you may post any pictures to Tobias at