ACTIVITY: Custom Toolmaking
INVOLVING: Konrad Sauer of Sauer & Steiner Toolworks
LOCATION: Kitchener, Ontario

Konrad Sauer's career path took a new direction 16 years ago, when someone positioned a cherrywood cupboard next to the booth of an antique tool dealer. It was then that he decided to learn how to build furniture. After being an art director and then a furniture designer, he is now a successful full-time custom toolmaker.

The average price of his planes is around $3,000. His customers are serious furniture makers who put a lot of work into their pieces (sometimes with complex inlay designs). The final step of smoothing the surface must be done without any flaws. And like the fine furniture they help to create, these planes with their exotic wood infills are works of art in themselves.