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ST. GEORGE —Using domestic and exotic hardwoods, one craftsman is handmaking Lazy Susans, charcuterie boards and more. And they’re solid.
“I just like to make things,” Bill Pantely, owner of Bill’s Woodworks told St. George News. “If you’ve got the tools, you can make anything. A craftsman works with his hands. That’s what makes you a craftsman.”
Pantely said his love for wood originally started with his father, a barber and cabinet maker, who taught him the craft. He continued his creative side in high school woodshop, making a wide array of unique items, including a jewelry box his wife still uses that he gave her at the age of 15.
While the couple lived on a family farm in Wisconsin, Bill Pantely built a separate 900-square-foot building specifically for his craft. From dressers, tables, shelves, entertainment centers and more, he never made a profit and gave everything away.
“I never took orders from anyone but my wife and kids,” he said. “Because once I started taking orders, it now becomes a job. And it was supposed to be fun.”
The couple moved to St. George eight years ago to relax and enjoy retirement. With no room at their new house to build a shop, he left his woodworking tools behind.
“My old workbench, which I built, would take up our entire garage,” he said. “There was no way I was going to get a woodworking shop here.”
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, he found himself fixated on a broken patio table the couple had brought from Wisconsin. Finding the cost of new patio furniture outrageous, he bought redwood and decided to fix the table by hand. That restoration sparked his creative flow, and he began making smaller items such as a Lazy Susan and cutting board for the first time.
Other than the initial cut with a table saw, Pantely said he makes everything by hand – from the sanding process to the use of hand planes. After creating the piece, he gives it a food-safe “mineral oil bath” and then finishes the product with a mixture of melted beeswax and mineral oil, which is melted in a crockpot. The product dries overnight and the beeswax is buffed off, creating a beautiful, food-safe finish.
“He made so many I had to buy steel shelving so we could start stacking them up,” Bill Pantely’s wife Deborah Pantely said about the cutting boards and Lazy Susans. “Because what do you do with them? And I definitely didn’t want to discourage him from making them.”
One day, a friend of hers saw a cutting board in their home that she had to have. Shortly after, more of her friends began asking if they could buy his work. When someone suggested Bill Pantely sell his items at the Modern Farm and Artisan Co-op, he was hesitant but decided it was time to officially offer his items to the public.
“What people don’t understand when it comes to my work is that I love knots,” he said. “I specifically look for knots. I leave the cracks, too, and fill them with resin to keep the piece true to its original form.”
The added bonus to handmade woodwork? He said it also has allowed him to lose almost 40 pounds.
“There were a couple of cutting boards where I spent six hours for two days each, just sanding by hand, and that takes a lot of weight off,” he said. “Plus, I’m not sitting around eating and snacking, and it gives me something to do besides drinking and smoking cigars.”
To purchase work by Bill’s Woodworks, visit the downtown Modern Farm and Artisan Co-Op, browse his MoFACo shop online or email him for specific orders and questions.
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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.
Jessi Bang was born and raised in Utah and has a passion for nature and the great outdoors. She graduated from Kaplan University in California with a degree in criminal justice. She has extensive experience in marketing, content creation, photography and copywriting. You can find her showcasing outdoor adventures through her blog, “The Rambling Raccoon.” In her free time, she enjoys climbing mountains, trail running, working out and cuddling her two lovable pups.
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