BUCKFIELD, Maine — Simon Varney pre-ordered extra hardwood from Canada in February when President Donald Trump threatened broad 25 percent import tariffs on goods from that country. The next month, the administration exempted that wood.
That left Varney, co-owner of Wells Wood Turning & Finishing in Buckfield, spending more money ahead of time and holding onto extra inventory, eating into cash flow. Ironically, the pearlescent gold pigment the company purchased from its Vermont supplier to make its famous wooden eggs for the White House Easter Egg Roll — a color specifically requested by the president in both of his terms in office — had to be imported from Germany and falls under Trump’s tariffs.
“The tariffs were a real concern because they basically would raise our wood costs by 25 percent, which is pretty significant,” Varney said. “The wood manufacturing business is not a high margin or high profitability business.”
The president’s frequently changing tariff policies — including when he cut off trade talks with Canada last Friday and restarted them that Sunday — have left Maine businesses uncertain about whether to invest in new product lines or markets.
The state’s traditional wood-turning companies, which make toy parts, rolling pins and other items by shaping them into wood spinning on a lathe, are a unique case study. Maine had 40 in 1970. They were decimated by Chinese competition in the mid-2000s. The remaining three commercial mills are again facing a headwind as they cope with the stop and start of trade policies and the ensuing economic uncertainty.

Where the tariffs fall could make a big difference in how competitive U.S. companies are. Maine Wood Concepts in New Vineyard, another wood turner, experienced that firsthand. The company expected that 145 percent tariffs announced against Chinese products in February would make its wood turnings price-competitive. It did, briefly. But renewed interest from dealers fell off when the Trump administration dropped the Chinese tariffs to 30 percent before pausing them until July 9 for further negotiations.
The third remaining company, Kingfield Wood Products in Kingfield, tries to buy only from U.S. suppliers, but it faces stiff competition from cheaper Chinese imports, its owner said.
The instability of duties also is rippling down to materials suppliers to wood-turning companies. That includes C.E. Bradley Laboratories of Vermont, which provides paints and lacquers to all three Maine companies. Previously, the company ordered pigments for its finishes based on its production schedule, said Bob Rowinski, vice president of marketing. Now, he is buying pigments “just in case,” because they may not be available later or be more expensive in the future.
So far, Rowinski has not passed along price increases to customers. He has talked with his suppliers about splitting the costs of tariffs.
“We need to share the pain here,” he said.

Maine’s wood turners got a break in March when the president exempted imports, including hardwoods, under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the 2020 revamp of the North American Free Trade Agreement that Trump championed during his first term in office.
Wells Wood Turning of Buckfield buys about half of its square and dowel-shaped wood from Champeau, a sawmill in Quebec. Maine has no sawmills left that can cut the amount of boards it needs at an affordable price, Varney said.
The tariff also would have made it difficult for Wells and Champeau to keep doing business, said Kaven Fauteux, sales manager at the Canadian company. About 40 percent of the sawmill’s business is with U.S. customers, including Wells and Maine Concepts.
Kingfield has not made any purchases so far as it keeps seeking U.S. partners for its raw materials, owner Phil Kennedy said. Maine Wood Concepts, which has its own sawmill, is buying less from Champeau now. Business is slow because consumers don’t have much discretionary income to spend on wooden toys, owner Jody Fletcher said.
Wells Wood Turning avoids direct competition with Chinese wood-turning products, whose quality has risen over the past 25 years. Low labor costs allow wood turners in China to price their products up to 50 percent less than U.S.-made ones, even including shipping, Varney said.
Instead, Wells is branching out into small batch, high-end products including wooden champagne flutes and custom gym equipment handles that bring in more money. The company also received money from the state to add technology to manufacture some products more quickly and precisely.
Maine Wood Concepts also is expanding with more expensive, custom products including salt-and-pepper shakers and rolling pins. The 54-year-old company has made 100,000 different products over the years, Fletcher said, but some 80 percent still are common items such as axles and wheels for toys that compete with Chinese goods.
Investing for growth is tough, especially when tariffs may make the difference between being competitive or not. Fletcher turned down a broker’s suggestion that his company start making dowels, an expansion that would have cost Maine Wood Concepts at least $2 million.
“Who is going to invest millions of dollars knowing that it’s probably going to come to a point where you’re going to get knocked off again?” Fletcher said.
The Trump administration would have to place at least a 50 percent tariff on Chinese products or U.S. companies will not be able to afford manufacturing the less expensive, high-volume items, he said.
Mark Kemp, owner of wholesale crafts dealer Kemp Enterprises in Farmington, said he is not sure what Maine’s commercial wood turners can do to compete, because Maine and the country have lost so much manufacturing capacity. He buys from all three of Maine’s wood turners, but recently has had to purchase some products overseas.
“I’m doing what I never imagined,” Kemp said. “I’m buying some wood-turning products from China that I can’t get in the United States or that are too expensive here.”

Kemp worries that the price disparity for wood-turned products made here and in China, allowed by lopsided tariffs, will drive the remaining commercial wood turning companies in Maine out of business in the next couple years.
Kennedy of Kingfield Wood Products agreed. He is committed to buying raw materials and sawmill services only from U.S. businesses. But he has had to more than halve his company’s workforce from 55 to fewer than 20 over the past five years because of high manufacturing costs and less customer demand.
“I will continue to make my products in America, but it certainly does not look good,” Kennedy said.
Lori Valigra reports on the environment for the BDN’s Maine Focus investigative team. Reach her at lvaligra@bangordailynews.com. Support for this reporting is provided by the Unity Foundation, a fund at the Maine Community Foundation and donations by BDN readers.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)