CRAFTSMANSHIP

A GLIMPSE BEHIND THE SCENES

With loving attention to detail, the turner makes each FLOW lid by hand.

The bottle lid is made by hand in a Swiss turnery using locally sourced beech. Every lid is carefully turned and completely unique. The rings and the grain give each lid its individual character.

The door to the turnery warehouse slowly opens and the scent of wood fills the air. This is where the treasures from the surrounding area are stored, soon to be fashioned into shape by the turner. The foresters and farmers in the region supply the turnery with various kinds of wood – from the apple tree to the oak, it is all here. And, of course, beech. That is the wood used to produce the lid for the FLOW drinking bottle.

Sawing and drilling

In the first step, the long beech planks are sawn into small cubes in the workshop. This is precision work – if the plank is warped and not a consistent height throughout, it can no longer be corrected later on. The experienced turner measures the height and gives a satisfied nod. The saw buzzes and the small wooden cubes are soon dropping into a container. The lid’s round form only appears at the end. That’s because the straight edges are better suited to clamping the wood for the next stage of the process. After the saw comes the drill: every lid is drilled by hand, creating the opening where the thread and the seal for the bottle will subsequently be incorporated.

The blanks made of regionally sourced beech wait to be worked on.
A manually operated milling machine ensures the opening is exactly the right size for the seal.
The lid has been branded and is now being given the finishing touch.

Turning

The workpiece, which still has straight edges, is once again clamped into the lathe. The turner fashions and cuts each one by hand until every cube has gradually been rounded and finally takes the typical form of the FLOW lid. Once this step has been completed, the lid is branded with a laser. Freshly «christened» with the characteristic BULB FLOW logo, the lid returns to the turnery, where the turner carefully smooths it down to remove the burn marks from around the logo and give the lid its pleasing and natural feel. After the lid has passed the quality control process, the turner places it with the others.

Unique

Around 800 bottle lids are made in this manner. Since the year 2000, artistic wooden creations have been produced in the turnery – from pepper mills to chopping boards and creative one-off pieces. It takes the team roughly half a day to produce a FLOW lid. Firstly, the machines must be calibrated before the work can begin at each station. Sawing, drilling, turning, cutting. The team is experienced, the atmosphere relaxed. Among the employees are two former apprentices and some part-time staff members. The company founder also offers people with unusual CVs a future career. Every tree is unique, every lid one of a kind. The tree rings vary depending on the location, the grain and the character of the wood. And it is no different when it comes to the employees’ CVs.

Each lid is unique in terms of its colour and grain and each bottle is one of a kind.
The turner uses all his experience to create each handmade lid.

Recycling

Nothing is thrown away in the turnery. On the contrary, the waste wood is recycled. Offcuts and the wood shavings are shredded and pressed into wooden pellets, which are then used for heating. And all machines are powered by the energy from the company’s own solar plant. This cleverly conceived energy cycle is certainly impressive and fits in perfectly with our FLOW concept.

https://www.drechslerei-ruff.ch/

GET YOUR FLOW

  • Swiss-made
  • Carbon-neutral
  • BPA-free
  • 600 ml (Tritan)
    540 ml (glass)
Buy now Tritan
Buy now Glas
To the Blog