Hands on the Wheel

How Lexus makes its handcrafted, wood-carved steering wheels

To make a premium steering wheel, you need premium materials. Lexus' solid-carved steering wheels (one of two types found in Lexus vehicles, the other being the wood-finished style) are made from pure walnut and birds-eye maple. After the wood pieces are selected, they first undergo a “stress process”—a weeklong alternation between humidification and dehumidification, which minimizes the possibility of warping and essentially “freezes” the wood's innate quality. Next, the wood is cut into smaller pieces, fixed to the cutting machine table by suction, not clamps, to prevent scarring. The wood pieces that go into a single Lexus solid-carved steering wheel all come from the same piece of wood, both for aesthetic reasons and for uniform strength. And because every board is different, with a different grain design, every Lexus solid-carved steering wheel is a one-of-a-kind creation. Now the craftsmanship begins to shine, as the pieces are carved into curved shapes, which will be fitted around a metal core. Lexus' steering wheel manufacturer, Miroku Technowood, has been a master of wood- and metal-working since the Meiji era, when the company's founder began making products for a 19th-century shogun. Today, Miroku is the world's only maker of carved-wood-over-metal steering wheels, and Lexus is the only automaker to use them. Here, the solid carved wood pieces have been fitted to the top and bottom of the core-metal interior, where they're glued around the wheel, forming the basic form. To ensure the quality of the final finish, Miroku purposefully uses glue that matches the shade of the wood. Next, a woodworker fine-tunes the final curves of the steering wheel's wood pieces, using a ball-end mill with a rounded tip; here the craftsman is carving finger rests at the 10-10 hand positions, subtly adjusting the blade's rotation speed to achieve uniform grooves.
Next up: the polishing station. Anyone who's worked with fine woods knows that polishing raw wood is a high art form. Hardness, density, and color will vary, even on a single piece of wood, and if the entire surface is sanded in the same way, say by machine, the result can be a slightly uneven surface. So, to achieve a fine, uniform finish, Lexus steering-wheel wood gets hand-sanded by artisans, who can evaluate the variables as they smooth things out. After the raw-wood polishing, the wheel's wood pieces advance to a filler process, also done by hand. Here, another artisan carefully brushes in the filler, evaluating by sight and touch where the most application is needed to fill in microscopic holes inherent even in fine woods. After the filler dries, the wheels receive a sealer coat, followed by a colored paint layer—applied very thinly to ensure that the natural wood tones aren't lost. The color's main purpose is to match the shade of the wood trim inside the vehicles. Finally, a thin clear basecoat is applied, followed by a thin final layer of clear paint, both to protect against UV light and scratches and to give the wheel a decorative, mirror-like finish. Finally, true to the extraordinary lengths Lexus goes to make sure all vehicle components are carefully, and personally, examined, the finished wheel undergoes hand and eye inspections before advancing to a Lexus assembly plant to receive electronics, airbags, and other components. The finished, and assembled, solid-wood-carved wheel, in a Lexus RX.
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