About us

If you watch HGTV, you may have seen me tell my story on an episode of The Good Life or you may have read newspaper articles by The Boston Globe columnist Nathan Cobb or Knight-Ridder's Mary Beth Breckinridge. I've also been one of Del's Folks at WKYC in Cleveland.

For a decade,  I worked in Cleveland for a national distributor of integrated circuits based out of New York. When I was hired by that company, it was family-owned and its priorities were understanding and servicing customers and nurturing employees. When I resigned, it had become a small part of a multi-billion dollar conglomerate out of Great Britain that cared mostly about profit margins and bottom lines. I grew up with that company and learned much about customer service, distribution, marketing,  sales and manufacturing. It was a great experience, but my heart just wasn't in it anymore.

In 1989, after doing much soul-searching, I made the decision to take the road less traveled. I traded in my high heels, brief case and company car for jeans, a tool belt and a pick-up truck. I needed to nourish my soul and control my own destiny. I decided to create a small business offering something that was nearly extinct: handcrafted wooden screen doors and and old-fashioned service.
 

Ever since I was very young, I have enjoyed working with tools and with wood, so I decided to indulge my inner woodworker and start this little business.  We are a very small shop tucked back in the woods of Portage county, Ohio, where there are dogs at our feet (or in our laps) and there is sawdust in the air. I am very proud to say 2010 marked our 20 year anniversary and we're going strong.

Tina & Tinky

Update: A New Chapter

On October 18, 2011 a fire destroyed the original home of Touchstone Woodworks. It was, of course, a devastating event, but we were fortunate in so many ways: no one was hurt, we were well-insured, we had an off-site backup plan in place that saved our precious data and we had a partially equipped second shop already up and running where we performed the initial stages of production. And, lastly, we received tremendous support and encouragement from our customers, vendors and families.

We had a strong backlog at the time of the fire, but we only received one cancellation.  Our customers hung in there and waited for us to get back on our feet. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of my crew, we were able to start shipping again in 3 months.

In February of 2012, I found the perfect shop space for our new home and closed at the end of March. Right after the fire, one of my customers told me that his business had burned down years ago and they ultimately emerged better and stronger than ever.  The silver lining was that this was, indeed, a “do-over” opportunity, a new chapter. This time, I had 22 years of experience under my belt as I spent the next 3 months carefully planning the layout of the new shop.

Our beautiful, new shop is 4100 sq ft, open and airy, with high ceilings, white walls, great light, radiant floor heat and well-equipped with an industrial spray booth and dust collection system.  We spent most of 2012 juggling our time between production and getting our new shop set up.  We officially moved in at the end of October 2012, a year after the fire, and finished up the the last of our building improvements in February of 2013.
 

We welcome the opportunity to return our focus to production and service and building you a custom, handcrafted screen-storm door or three season porch that you can proudly proclaim was “Made in America” and know that you are supporting a small business in Ravenna, Ohio that is very grateful for your business.

Tina R. Walters, Proprietor
Touchstone Woodworks

E-mail: tinawalters@touchstonewoodworks.com

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