No. 226, "The Widow Tarkington" | Handmade French Rolling Pin

A French style rolling pin, tapered from the center out to each end and turned from a single billet of hardwood. No handles and no bearings to wear out, just one solid piece of wood.

The taper is the point. It lets you steer the dough by rocking the pin instead of fighting it, so you feel the thickness under your hands and can work a circle without flipping the dough every pass. Once you use one, a handled pin feels like a rolling brick.

Turned, shaped and sanded smooth by hand in East Tennessee, then finished with food safe mineral oil and beeswax. The color is natural. No stain, no dye.

Hold on, there are four of these?

Caught me. I go around saying no two are alike, and here sit four pins looking like siblings.

Here is the honest version. Setting up the lathe takes longer than turning the thing. Once the tool rest is dialed in and my hands know the shape, stopping at one would be the crazy part. So they came off the same run, out of the same board, on the same afternoon.

They are still not identical. Put them side by side and the grain argues, because one end of a board never matches the other. But I am not going to stand here and tell you these four are strangers. They are cousins.

When they are gone, the next batch comes off a different tree and looks nothing like them.

Care

Wipe it clean, do not soak it, and keep it out of the dishwasher. Oil it when the surface starts looking dry.

Details

• Solid hardwood, turned from one billet
• Tapered French style, no handles
• Food safe mineral oil and beeswax finish
• Made by hand in East Tennessee