Making handle information

[Brian Knop]

I am going to try and make a bowl scraper. Where can I get some information on how to make the handle?

Thanks Brian

[Kenneth George]

I pretty much replaced all my non-Sorby tool handles with ones I have made myself. I wrote a tutorial on it while I was making them. I have since started buying unhandled tools and make all my own handles. Perhaps it will help you on your quest.

http://www.theturnersshop.com/turnin.../thandle1.html

[Jim Becker]

Get thee to a tool store, such as Woodcraft, so you can fondle the tools and find out what kind of handles feel comfortable to you, both in diameter and length. Making them is a piece of cake...it's just simple spindle turning...and you can make ferrules inexpensively out of copper water pipe.

[Kenneth George]

See now I come from the other school of thought that believes you should buy cheaper tools to practice on. Especially when experimenting with different grinds and angles. I have found that I like the PSI tools quite a bit and I use there scrapers all most all the time. Just simply hard to beat a ¼” thick by ¾” wide box scraper for $16.50. I have used the cheap PSI spindle gouges to perfect my grind that I use all the time on my Henry Taylor spindle gouge as my preferred tool. I have also used the PSI gouges to practice and find the right side grinds before experimenting on a $50 Sorby tool. I do believe in a jig though and I love the Wolverine. Learning to sharpen your tools takes practice and it sure hurts less to grind away a cheap tool. But then again I also only grind my good tools when the need reshaping and hone the rest of the time.

Just my thoughts.

(I don't know why this posted here I was replying to the tool grinding question. And was reading it when I hit reply, strange..)

[John Shuk]

The new issue of American Woodturner has a great article by Alan Lacer on the subject. I went to a turn a thon recently and borrowed a spindle gouge from Andy Barnum with handles very much like what Alan shows in his article and they are not only different than what you will find available but they are just elegant to look at and handle. I am certainly going to be turning my own handles in the future.

[Brian Knop]

Thanks for the good information. Nice Web site George, full of good stuff.

Brian