/usr/web/www.marshallindependent.com/wp-content/themes/coreV2/single.php
×

Iowa man has been making toys, other items out of wood for 30 years

TRACY — For 30 years Ted Homan has been making “all kinds of things” using just wood.

“I make them all,” Holman said, as he stood at his vendor site inside the Veterans Memorial Center Saturday during the Prairie Women’s Expo.

His work was on display on rows of shelving, including airplanes with propellers, various types of trucks and tractors. All kinds of tractors.

And a barn set complete with silo, cows and lambs. And the doors to barn slide open and shut.

He often gets the question “how do I make them?”

His answer is simple. “One piece at time,” he said laughing.

“I always make tractors. Usually make six tractors at time. And I probably can get six tractors done in 12 to 15 hours. Some days I don’t do as well as others,” he said.

Homan lives in Granville, Iowa with his wife, Marsha. But he grew up in Canby and left home at age 16 in 1959 to start working at a dairy farm in Iowa.

“If you want to eat, you got to go to work. So I worked,” he said. “I have worked 61 years. Not one day without a job.”

The woodworking started out as a part time while working a county job. After retirement it became a full time endeavor.

“Farm toys are still the best kind of toys,” Homan said, adding that tractors are the most popular item.

“If somebody wants one, I will make two of them. Then I got one for myself and one more to sell. A lot of times somebody will ask me if I can make a certain tractor. I said, ‘well yea, but I need some kind of pattern.’ So they will find a small toy or something, or they have one at home, and they will bring the toy and I will copy that.

“I will look at a toy and study it for awhile. Sleep on it for a couple nights. Then I build it.

“Most of my toys are my own (pattern). Like the big fire truck and combines. I have patterns for them. The tractors, they are my patterns. The small trucks, I make all those patterns. I have been making trucks for 20 years.”

The barn is his favorite product. He said it takes him about two days to make one.

“There’s a lot sanding on a barn like that,” he said.

He said the cheaper farm tractors are usually toys, while the more detailed tractors are for adults.

“The big combine, that’s the only pattern of farm toys I have with an actual pattern,” Homan said. “My combine is the most complicated piece. I built them this past winter. But I said I’m not doing them again. Sometimes you have to quit.”

Homan admits making something out of wood isn’t for everybody.

“There’s no profit in it. I mean you do a lot of work, you tie up a lot of money,” he said. “Ten thousand dollars doesn’t go far. You are buying lumber, tools. Tools are so expensive and there’s no sense in buying a cheap tool, because you are going to need it again next week. Might as well buy a good one.

“I just like doing it,” he said, smiling. “The toys are my favorite.”

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

Starting at $4.38/week.

Subscribe Today