Pat, I have some made 2 different ways.....first, these are 3/8 made my Ken 75 running them through a dowel cutter....second I will rip my walnut 1/2 X 1/2 inches and then turn those into octagons on my belt sander....then take the octagon down to 16 flat sides, then I sand them by hand to round. It's way easier with a doweling cutter I'm thinkin. By keeping everything "flat-plane till I hand sand it's real easy to see if I'm off any over the length.
Not very sofisticated but I can get them done that way.
rich