Steinbach Christmas Nutcrackers

It has been nearly 200 years since the Steinbach wooden nutcracker company started producing hand carved nutcrackers. After all this time, Steinbach continues to make nutcrackers using time honored traditional ways. The Steinbach Company has two nutcracker factories, one in Hohenhameln and another in Marienberg, Germany. They not only make nutcrackers, they also fabricate incense smokers, music boxes and ornaments.
Steinbach smoking men, or incense smokers, are lovely items. They are quite similar to nutcrackers, but they separate to hold a cone of incense inside, allowing the smoke from the incense to drift from the mouth. They all depict a wonderful character. Some smokers also hold music boxes in them. Some smoking men even having moving parts, which are caused to function by the playing of the music box.

Ornaments are tiny 3″ wooden creations, designed specifically by Steinbach, to be hung on a Christmas tree. Just because of their tiny size, don’t disregard the detail and quality that go into manufacturing them. There are many collectors who collect Steinbach ornaments, just as there are those who collect Steinbach nut crackers. Steinbach also produces little nutcrackers, which are miniature copies of the full size ones. There are collectors for them as well. It seems a collector can be located for any Steinbach product. Some nutcracker fans have over 500 of them!
Owning a hand crafted Steinbach item can be a wonderful experience. They are unique, special decorations to put on show during the Christmas holiday season.See the choice available at Steinbach nut crackers. They decorate and add festivity to our homes and delight us with their music. They add to our happiness and feeling of goodwill.

They can also be quite profitable. Steinbach wooden nut crackers improve in value with age. Some difficult to find, limited editions have been known to fetch for more than $1500. That’s quite a profit for the original purchaser, who had the foresight to make the first purchase. Of course, parting with a Steinbach nutcracker or smoker might be a difficult thing to do.

Steinbach Wooden Nutcracker – Steps of a Quality Nutcracker

If you are fortunate enough to own a Steinbach wooden nutcracker, you already know all about their excellent quality. When held up against a cheaper import from China, there is no comparison in quality. Unfortunately, weakly made nutcrackers are cheaply available at big discount stores at Christmas. These are turned out in masses, rather than being manufactured step by step by a true artisan. A Steinbach wooden nutcracker may take 3 years or more to complete, starting with the drying and curing of the wood.
Steinbach only uses the top quality German wood and materials to make their nutcrackers. There are over 100 steps involved in crafting a single finished piece. It takes an artisan with a true knowledge of woodworking to finish such a detailed nutcracker. It normally takes about 6 weeks to finish a nutcracker, once the actual turning of the wood on a lathe begins.