Dowel Rods Wood Sticks Wooden Dowel Rods - 5/16 x 36 Inch Unfinished Hardwood Sticks - for Crafts and DIYers - 25 Pieces by Woodpeckers

I needed a large number of 5/16" diameter dowels for a unique project, as inserts into the slots of a large piece of extruded aluminum furniture I was building. The dowels were going to be painted black and then gold wax used to give them a brass metal look which required the dowels to be relatively grain free, without defect, and exactly 5/16". I originally went with a large purchase of dowels from Home Depot because they were very cheap, less than $1 per 4 feet, but the size and quality of these dowels was all over the place. About a quarter arrived broken or chipped or with voids or knots and another quarter were either larger or smaller than 5/16". I returned them and after reading the reviews of these, purchased a box of 100 4' segments. I am glad I did. I'll say first that of the 100, about 10 were bent enough that they would not lay flat on a surface. That did not make a difference to me as my dowels were being inserted into metal channels which straightened them out and frankly, 1/10th being bent is still a far better success rate than HD/Lowes/etc. All of the dowels were free of defect, well sanded and ready to use immediately. I did no prep at all on them except spray primer and they took paint and wax very well. If you plan to paint these but want a smooth surface, you will likely need to use fine grit sandpaper to knock the grain down after painting. That would be the case of nearly any raw hard wood though and I found a few passes of 400 grit did the trick in no time. If you need to cut these, I would highly recommend a thin kerf pull cut dowel/dovetail saw. Any small cheap one will do but you definitely want a pull blade, a push blade will cause splinters. Yes these are soft enough you can cut them with tin snips or even the mini saw blade on a multi-tool, but the end will be slightly deformed. If you have any furniture or arts and crafts that requires good looking dowels, these are the ones you want to get. Don't even consider the big box store.

Good quality and worked great for a project I was working on!

just the right size for plugging old ski binding holes with epoxy. good quality. a lifetime supply for very little money.

Overall, I really liked these, they are useful for my purposes and I would recommend them to anyone who needs a small diameter dowel. Many good points. However there are some (very) minor issues I would point out. Good: The dowels are all a nearly uniform 12" length. They are sturdy birch wood and stand up well to normal use. They came intact and without damage. Good quality wood product. Again, I would certainly recommend. The minor issues: 1. The dowels are a slender 1/8" (read they are VERY slightly less than 1/8" in diameter). If you need a snug fit, you may have to adjust. In case you don't know, variance like this is very common in any milled piece. 2. There were not exactly 100 dowels in the bag. There were 96...again very minor. 3. Being hardwood, there may be some bow in the wood. Nearly all of the dowels were perfectly straight. However, there is some warp in some. The good news is there are many methods to remove this bow and it isn't a show stopper. The bow was minor and wouldn't affect most uses. My particular use requires nearly perfectly straight pieces. 4. Some other folks have mentioned splintering. I saw none of this other than very minor milling burrs. What I do before I use any of these pieces is rub several pieces vigorously together in the palms of your hands. Similar to how many people rub wooden chopsticks together before using them to eat. This is a good method to eliminate any little burrs left on the wood from the milling process. Again, overall a great product that I have bought on two occassions and will buy again when needed.

They seem to be a good quality for the price! Smooth and straight and very uniform. However the package only came with 93 dowels instead of 100 which was unfortunate because I needed exactly 100 for my project, which is the reason for star deduction!

Perfect for our art project!

Bought to attach blow up toys to for an Easter Event. Worked great!!! These were the right length for the blow up bunnies and Monkeys I bought.

These folks have the most responsive costumer service folks I've ever worked with. Great company, ships fast, quality products.

Exactly as described

These came so much faster than I expected. They are perfectly straight and exactly what had hoped to received! They're going to be great for upcycling various Christmas decorations

Don't recommend at all

Its exactly what I wanted was delivered promptly

Je recommande