Did you every asked yourself by looking at a nutcracker, how this piece was made and through how many hands it was passed? If so, you might find here some interesting facts about this topic and some answers. We wish you fun while reading through this.

The basic material of a nutcracker is wood. So first the wood must be chosen which comes from the right altitude. Trees grown too fast will have wider growth rings, hence softer wood. Trees from the high altitudes have slow growth making the wood more difficult to work. So the forester who chooses the trees is a very important person within the process of making a nutcracker. After the wood is cut down, it have to dry several years outside. Than it is cut to certain dimensions and is dried inside for several more years. Today some of the manufacturers do not handle this process by their own. Since this process takes not only a lot of room but also pretty much time, they buy their wood already dried from special suppliers.

After the wood gains the right condition, it will be cut into different sizes depending on whether it will be used for bases, bodies, arms, legs or accessoirs. Those wood parts, which will to be turned into round pieces have to be first trimmed of its corners to make it easier for the lathe to produce the perfect circular piece. After that most of the wooden parts are cut, sanded and stored in bins, boxes, and buckets to await assembly. Many of the pieces will be traditional turned on automatic lathes. These very expensive and innovative machines do cost over a million dollars. These have to be individually programmed by experts each time a different form will be produced. Other pieces will be shaped individually by hand on lathes by workers who have had several years of training in wood carving. In former times the complete nutcracker was done by hand - but today regarding the large demand and the hunderds of designs this is not longer possible.

If you take a closer look within the production process you will see a certain step by step process. First the body part is turned. Additionally it must also be cut for the handle, and holes drilled for the dowels to hold the pieces together, the head must be cut for the eyes and the teeth, even the feet must be shaped. These work steps do require a different process. Even though the machines are used for all these various pieces, a nutcracker is still considered crafted by hand because of the overall amount of skilled workmanship involved. There is an average of about 40 pieces of wood for each nutcracker, which has to be prepared in different ways.

Due to the fact that most nutcrackers are painted - even if today more and more designs are issued just in their natural wood colors - the legs and arms have to be painted first. Then they will be stacked on dowels to get dry. Before painting it is very important that each piece, no matter how small, must be sanded. Some of them are sanded by sanding machines others by hand. The painting process itself will be done in many different ways. Larger pieces are painted in painting booths before they got assembled, others will be handsprayed after several parts are glued together. Many pieces are painted by hand and some of the tiny pieces are placed on a stick, inserted in a can of paint. After the nutcracker is assembled, there are eyes to be placed, eyebrows, teeth, and mouth painted as well as other decorations like hair and beards that may be applied. To finish the nutcracker the individual accessories have to be glued - like hats, other cloth pieces, with trims, braids, guns, animals or drums.

Bevor the finished nutcracker is packaged in a box, they got stamped and labeled by the manufacturer. Some of them also got signed - which is for sure something special. Each nutcracker do come with a so called hang-tag, which shows the brand of the manufacturer and / or the wholesaler. Than it will be placed on shelves in the shipping room to await delivery to the wholesaler, then to the retailer and eventually to the hands of the collector. Finally when the nutcracker is purchased by someone it will hopefully be displayed in the living room over the year or especially during Christmas Time somewhere near the the Christmas Tree.