Tucked into the hills of Weatherly, Bradford Ltd. has been producing handmade clocks, memorials and other specialty wood products since 1961.

Bradford Ltd. has two divisions, Bradford Clocks, which produces mantel, wall and anniversary clocks (service award clocks, marking an employee’s 20th or more work anniversary, remain popular), and more; and Bradford Memorials, which produces pet and cremation urns, memory boxes, flag boxes. Together, the two divisions use sustainable-sourced, PA-preferred wood in all of their wood products.Each piece is handmade and begins as a raw piece of lumber in Bradford’s warehouse.“It goes through a series of operations, from rough lumber to the finished product,” said Dan Humenick, who is co-owner of the business with his brother, Leo.Dan noted that while the company uses top of the line equipment, it isn’t necessarily state of the art. The best handmade wood pieces are often made by using precision and handheld tools.Each piece is cut to the proper width using a rip saw, then cut to length with a crosscut saw. A radial saw adds angled edges. If the finished product features an embossed design, it is made using lumber that was embossed off site using several standard designs.Once each piece has been formed to its basic shape, it must be sanded using a belt-driven sander or hand sanding tools.“Anything that is shaped needs to be sanded before it is stained,” Dan added.A CNC lathe is also used to drill holes for connecting dowel rods, and other holes and cavities needed for the design, at the same time.Each step of the shaping process produces a substantial amount of wood shavings and dust, which is captured through a dust extraction system. This system filters the air and collects the dust to burn in the business’s heating system.Once shaped, drilled and sanded, each piece must pass through an inspection booth. Pieces that have any gouges, splits, knots or roughness are rejected or taken back to an earlier production stage to be perfected. Pieces that have passed inspection are cleaned and hand sprayed in a staining booth and hung to dry.While Bradford Ltd.’s products are primarily sold to local and website customers, their woodwork has also been showcased in several high-profile venues, including the Dolby Theater (home to the Oscars) in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles. Bradford Ltd. supplied the wooden components to the Dolby Theater’s theater seats in 2002.Bradford Ltd. is also working with the Penn State University to produce jewelry and keepsake boxes and mantel clocks for the Penn State Elms Collection, a unique line made using wood harvested from Penn State’s trees affected by Dutch elm disease and elms yellows.“They’re cutting down and replacing trees on campus, but what they cut down is going to use,” Leo said.“The alums love it, because they’re able to own a piece of campus,” Dan said.Bradford Ltd. works with companies to produce individual pieces, and also sells to the general public and publishes a full catalog of products online at

www.bradfordclocks.com.The company is also busy with its full-service cleaning, service and repair business.“If you’re going to sell clocks, you need to know how to service them. It’s blossomed into its own side business,” said Dan.Bradford Ltd. was founded in 1961 by Leo Humenick Sr., when his sons were 8 and 10 years old.“There were a lot of different products that we made before we settled on clocks,” said Dan. “We’ve been doing this all of our lives. We are both Penn State graduates — we came out of school and came right back here. We’ve been here ever since.”