Musing about shop made handles for store bought turning tools

Shafts, flutes, grinds, edges and steels of the 'business end' of turning tools are a never ending topic for discussions on rcw. This rarely leads to arguments that threaten the thin veneer of civility most here try to keep glued on, but opinions are argued with more heat than those about the other end; the handles. Of the two ends, I reckon the handles play a much lesser role in our turning, maybe even less than rest height and shape, but they probably influence our turning much more than just being comfortable.

I've tried padded iron pipe, shot filled aluminum tubing, inserted lead weights, crooked limbs, checkered oval or octagonal hickory. I've used handles for removable shafts held with set screws or hose clamps. I've finally come to smooth, round hardwood cylinders with the same diameter end to end; no ferrules, finish, coves, beads tapers or checking and no sharp or bulbous ends. I like a fixed wooden handle with a color id. for each tool. Yep, I have far too many tools. Most of us do. The rest soon will.

A cylinder suits me, but what about its diameter and length? I have often gone overboard as a reaction to the ridiculous handles that came with the tools by exchanging excessive 'long & thick' for inadequate 'short & thin'. To be fair, some manufacturers have begun to offer robust handles as standard, even realizing that micro tools aren't held in micro hands. I wonder if the OEM handles were designed to please tradition, engineers, the accounting office or the shipping dept, certainly not to please me ...but then some of mine don't either.

There are some professional turners so busy that turning handles isn't cost effective. Also many of you prefer and can afford and justify buying the elegant speciality ones. Excluding these types, do you use the tool's original handle? If you don't, what did you change to? Why?

Turn to Safety, Arch Fortiter

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Reply to
Arch
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Reply to
robo hippy

Excluding these types, do you use

Well Arch I started with a set of Record chisels that were carbon steel and had waisted small handles. Didn't do much turning, in fact the Rockwell Beaver lathe and the chisels were bought for me by a client wanting to replace a railing around the "widows walk" on the roof of his house. 25 years later I got the urge to do some rec. turning and my first tool purchase was a Henry Taylor L&S HSS 1/2" bowl gouge. The handle is a large waisted one and was such a joy to use that I replaced all the Record handles with copies of the Taylor and even did the same for later tools that I made. My Oneway Termite came with a long straicht cylinder in ash and I find it adequate, but not as comfortable to use. There is something about the waisted shape that gets you to grip the handle in the right place and also gives a sense of security without using the "clutch of death"

Reply to
Canchippy

Reply to
Ralph Fedorak

"Grip of Death", the "Clutch of Death" was on my 55 Chevy.

Reply to
Lobby Dosser

When I was making my own tools, I made the handles from shovel handles from the local hardware store. Or it may have been rake handles or something else. Anyway I cut the handle into thirds, drilled a hole in one end and epoxied the tool shank in. Before assembly I mounted the handle in the lathe and rounded the end.

Reply to
Gerald Ross

Check out the August issue of Popular Woodworking. It has a very good article on making lathe chisel handles.

Reply to
Tom

I try to buy all my tools unhandled. I turn a fat handle from dead dry branches of Celtis occidentalis (hackberry). None are simple cylinders. I use copper pipe for a ferrule and epoxy the shaft in. If I can't buy the tool unhandled and it comes with an acceptable handle (substantial & fat) I leave well enough alone. Otherwise I split the handle off and turn one.

Reply to
ebd

Good one! ROTFL Also applies to my 99 CRV!

Reply to
Canchippy

I always buy unhandled tools if they are available, mostly because they are usually too short for my liking (exception: the Sorby "Texan" tools are nice and long...not often available in the US, I buy them and most other tools from the toolpost.co.uk which ends up being cheaper than US companies, even with shipping!).

I experimented for a short while with different shaped knobs at the end, but end up just using a kind of hourglass or very subtle S curve, flared gently at the end so my hand knows when it's near the end without having to look.

I have made a ferruled tool, and will probably do more of that in the future with some aluminum tube I bought, but usually use pipe clamps and make a slot for it near the tool & cut grooves along the shaft so it clamps down good and hard on the tool.

I have some big chunks of oak that are begging to become the new super long tools for roughing out the big outboard pieces I'm planning. I want to stand well away from them.

I've sketched a "meta-handle" too, a 6 or 8 foot long handle with fingers to hold other woodworking tools in a tight grip, for the bigger outboard things, but I am not sure if it will work.

Reply to
Mark Fitzsimmons

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