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Thread: BigHorse Tap Handle

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    north, OR
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    1,160

    BigHorse Tap Handle

    Buddy who's the brewer at a local watering hole asked if I could make some tap handles for their portable system (he left the design pretty open - "nicer than what we have", the bar wasn't very high as the current ones were ancient and had been to a few ?hundred? beer festivals ). I decided to take a shot at trying to do something based of their logo so I munged it up a bit to fit onto a tap handle and set to.

    Not perfectly happy with the eyes (partly because for some strange reason I was confused in my head on what they were supposed to look like).

    There are some silver ferrules that will go on the bottom, adding those after the finishing is finished.

    IMG_20130831_131214.jpg

    IMG_20130831_190955.jpg

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    NW Indiana
    Posts
    3,078
    I normally do not read this section but have started as I have found some amazing work done here.

    The tap handles are really nice...wish I could do something like that....

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    north, OR
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    1,160
    Quote Originally Posted by Larry Frank View Post
    The tap handles are really nice...wish I could do something like that....
    Honestly Larry these ones really weren't all that complicated to do (especially compared to some of the work here which is MUCH more difficult). Most of being able to do something like this is an irrational belief that you can, sufficient patience to plug through it, and a willingness to accept how it turns out. If I can pull this off I'd say most of the folks on here can do the same or better with a modicum of practice.

    In this case I started from an existing logo with only minor modifications (minor modifications which were honestly the hardest part for me to get close to what I wanted) and scaled it to full size. From there it was more of less just tracing lines, about the only part that wasn't is I cut the mane back so its only about 1/3 as thick as the rest (which doesn't show real well in the photo I suppose) but that wasn't super hard either (and on the face which I didn't take a picture of I went kind of abstract "impression of a horse" just to fill the space - you mostly can't see when its in use though).

    The rough order of operations was:
    1. Draw the picture and print it with a duplicate flipped so I could glue it to both sides of the workpiece - again I started from an existing logo and just removed the body of the horse and followed the other lines around then copied the image and flipped it on the horizontal axis. I used the free Gimp (kinda like photoshop but free) program to do this.
    2. Cut out the mirror images and glued them aligned on the back and bottom.
    3. Rough cut on the bandsaw (a scroll saw or a coping saw or even just a handsaw cut to the lines and then chisel away would work also).
    4. Center punched and drilled 1/4" holes for the 5/16 hanger bolts to go in for the attaching to the taps and screwed them in - that allowed me to attach the ferrules and trace the outside of them so I knew how much to take the shaft down.
    5. Rough cut the mane back to 1/3 the thickness with a backsaw (cut down towards the body and then just took the sides off in several cuts - easier than using a chisel in this case at least as this wood really wanted to get all splitty on me)
    6. Used an iwasaki file, a wood file and a bench chisel to round over the image to the lines from the picture (just don't take to much from the middle of the cut and kind of work it down slow until you get a feel for what needs to come off of where
    7. The I used a small flexcut V chisel to do the veining. I pretty much just followed the lines except where I figured they'd be to close then used a little artistic license to adjust as needed. For most of the cuts just work your way down - I take a light cut maybe 1/4-1/2" from the end and then just keep working my way back - this helps keep the cut mostly straight and lets you correct a bit as you go deeper.
    8. I also used felxcut #11 sweep to do some of the circles like the nose - might not be the perfect tool for it but its what I have so.. make it work.
    9. Clean up the curves with some 150 grit. Maybe do another pass with the V chisel in the parts that don't have enough definition. Polish up with some 320 (I try not to sand the carved parts much because it wrecks the definition - sometime you have to take another light pass with the chisels to make it "pop" again).
    10. Slap on a coat of finish (I'm using waterlox here partially because I have some that needs using and partially because it handles being used roughly like a portable beer tap will be pretty well) - sand with 320 or 400 between coats.


    So not a lot of special tools - a bandsaw, drill press, handsaw, two somewhat special carving chisels, one bench chisel a rasp (I really like the iwasaki as it leaves a pretty clean surface that doesn't need a lot of work after), a file and some sandpaper. Part of the trick is making sure all your chisels are extra super sharp otherwise its just a straight up exercise in frustration.

    My advice is to just go right ahead and give it a shot, the distance from wishing to doing is,
    I'd bet, a lot smaller than you'd think. The first couple of tries probably won't be what you expected but they may turn out interesting nevertheless. Don't get to discouraged when everything seems to take days, these took me most of a solid day to do - I'm not very fast so I have to ponder everything a lot . Some of the other stuff I've done has taken over a week for even a small piece (not saying its any better just that sometimes you gotta plug along). As you practice and look at what others do you get faster and more confident and better at figuring out what to remove where and how (and thank you to everyone who shows that because I've learned a lot from y'all).

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    south jersey
    Posts
    355
    I'd order a pint based on those taps. your a marketing genius.

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