Benny has a large shop at his farm on Upper Hurricane Creek next to the stone church he and his wife, Laura, attend. Ferrell works up to 12 hours a day in the shop creating bowls, vases, and rolling pins, but adds that he can craft "just about anything that is made out of wood."
Benny uses local and imported wood such as redheart, yellowheart, imbuya, shedua, purpleheart, Chechen, satinwood, zebrawood, morado, Indonesian rosewood, African rosewood, Brazilian cherry, American walnut, Peruvian Black Walnut, leopardwood, lyptus, Osage orange, mahogany, curly maple, birdseye maple, red oak, white oak, ash, hickory, American cherry, poplar and black limba. He even uses Corian, the practically indestructible countertop material, with the Ringmaster.
Once he has the raw wood in the shop, he flattens it, planes it and runs it through a huge sander. Ferrell then cuts the wood into strips and laminates them together into particular patterns. He then uses these "boards" that he created to make wooden rings, which are then glued back together in the form of either bowls or vases, with only about five percent of wood waste, thanks to the Ringmaster. Once his creations are sanded and finished, they are transformed into brilliant works of art.
Customer Woodworking by Benzel
430 Hurricane Creek Drive
Stewart, TN 37175
