Tool handles, how do you make yours

[Reed Gray]

Well, I just got back in town from a week off visiting family and found this one. For handles, I prefer straight wood cylinders, no bumps, no humps, and fairly large diameter. The thin wall aluminum handles just feel too light. The shot filled handles are way too heavy. Wood is just right. Just about any species of wood will work, but hickory is one of the best. I have a lot of madrone handles, some ash, cherry, walnut, and even a couple of ones made from gluing up some 1/2 inch by 13 veneer layers of plywood. For round tangs/shafts, I drill out round holes. For scraper and skews with rectangular tangs, I make a sandwich handle (video coming soon) where the center piece is the exact same thickness as the tang, and I cut out a mortice for the tang, then glue the 'bread' onto the outside. Round holes just don't work right for me, even if I glue them in to place. No square peg in a round hole.

I like the thick, as in about 1/8 inch wall thickness brass for ferules. I have a number of the old ash handle tools from Craft Supplies. One cracked when a friend had a good, well maybe bad catch. I have a couple of others that have cracked from stress from the indent they use to keep the ferrule from coming off. The ferrule is to add strength to the weak part of the handle. You have a piece of metal going into wood and it is in line with the grain. The solid piece of wood is way stronger than the piece with the hole in it. Once the hole is drilled, you have a round splitting wedge that is also kind of a fulcrum point. If you do nothing but gentle bevel rubbing high shear angle cuts, never get any type of catch, and your blanks are all running true and round before you cut, you will most likely be safe. Scraping cuts will add more force to the handle, and roughing out chain sawn blanks will do the same thing. So, if you don't want to use a ferule, you are taking a risk. I did take a trip down to Arizona once with my tools, and all of the ferules came loose. Even during the wet season up here, they are a bit loose. I may have to epoxy them back on some day. There is seasonal movement with all of them, and even without taking them to Arizona, some get loose.

robo hippy

[robert baccus]

Copper ferrules are necessary on many tools--anything with a tang for sure. Most of my 63 tools have one by me or the factory but long round shafts as from like Thompson's allow some variation. I practiced forestry and played with wood tech for many years--this is not for beginners for sure. The price is not a factor--I have a drawer full. Woods vary greatly in their many properies and can be referenced.

[Marvin Hasenak]

On my bands I pin them on. I turn the tenon a little oversized at the base and the top on the money. Then force fit the band on, then drill 3/32" holes about 3 times, I only drill the hole about a 1/4" deep. I use 3/32" brass brazing rods for my pins, they come in 36" lengths, then cut them in 3/4" long pieces. I round one end of the pin to go into the drilled hole. A drop of CA in the hole and drive the pin in, snip off the excess and file smooth.

If you do all of this before installing the chisel, you can also remount the handle on the lathe and clean up the brass pin heads, and sand and polish the bands. This is how most duck callmakers pin their bands on duck calls. Weather doesn't effect them, I have some that have been on a duck call for over 50 years.

Want to make pretty snazzy ferules, use schedule 40 PVC, and pin them on the same way. The schedule 40 PVC has the same structural strength that a piece of plumbing pipe has.