More wooden knobs and pulls

[Jamie Buxton]

A while ago I wrote an article for SMC about wooden knobs and pulls. (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/articles/9/) This post is essentially chapter two for that article.

I’ve been thinking about pulls for an armoire. The style of armoire is on the modern side, so the pulls should be in that style too. The doors of the armoire are 20” wide by 50” tall, and the drawers in the base are 40” wide by 11” tall. Therefore, the door pulls might be 8” tall or so, and the drawer pulls a little smaller.

Below are some designs I’ve been playing with. All of them fasten to the door with 8-32 machine screws from the back.

[Jamie Buxton]

This pull is somewhat curved. The pull on the other door would be a mirror image. I bent-laminated to get the curve, and carved with chisels to get the details. I left the chisel marks to texture the surface. The wood is bubinga. It has no finish at all. It is just burnished to emphasize the tool marks. In a next iteration I think I’d make one end of the swoop wider than the other, so it is more like a comet tail.

[Jamie Buxton]

This pull could be a drawer pull to go with the previous pull, or it could be turned vertically to be a door pull. It too is bent-laminated, then carved

[Jamie Buxton]

This is a big oval knob. Notice the size of the penny in the picture. The knob nearly fills my palm, and feels quite nice. I think that a next iteration would make it a little bigger in height and width, but not protrude from the door quite as much. I carved the knob mostly with a 4” right-angle grinder. I started with the Arbortech scary blade, then went to sanding discs. When it was well-shaped, I moved to a ROS and then hand-sanding. The wood is black acacia. It has one coat of wiped-on varnish.

[Jamie Buxton]

This pull doesn’t really fit the style of this piece of furniture. However, it was on my mind because of this thread --- http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...highlight=pull . This example is built exactly like the drawing in post number 13. This example is jatoba with a coat of wipe-on varnish.

[Jamie Buxton]

This pull is made of ash. The arch is bent-laminated, and the blocks behind are butt-glued on. I shaped them before I glued them on. This has a coat of Deft from a rattle can.

[Jamie Buxton]

This pull is also made of ash. The arch is bent-laminated. The blocks behind were glued on, and then final shaping was done. Again, there’s one coat of rattle-can Deft.

[Jamie Buxton]

This pull may be the most interesting of the bunch, but I don't have the skill to photograph it well. It is very free-form. One shot is a front view, and the other is a top view which shows how the pull swoops away from the door. This is made from honduras mahogany. The primary carving was done with the Arbortech, followed by power and hand sanding.

[Dewey Torres]

Nice display Jamie.
I tend to resurrect your thread from time to time when drawer pulls come up.

[Jason Whitaker]

those handles are my inspiration for one of my first commissions....Thanks!! They are lovely and I just got some Jatoba in the shop too!

[Jeff Hallam]

Are you concerned about the durability of the end grain to long grain joint in your first ash pull? Great inspiration for pulls BTW!

[Jamie Buxton]

Are you concerned about the durability of the end grain to long grain joint in your first ash pull? Great inspiration for pulls BTW!

Despite the appearance in the photo, the grain direction of those blocks is left-right in the photo, just like the grain direction in the arched part. Like you, I wouldn't trust a glue joint which is only end-grain.