Good morning ladies and gents. I just picked up a delta mini lathe over the weekend seeing as it looks like delta is trying to blow them out (they were $199 at rockler down the street, and I see they're as cheap as $159 on the web).
I also picked up some kingwood and lignum vitae to turn handles. Both probably not the first things I should try turning, but I have already. It's hard to get a #2 morse taper into the lignum - that's for sure.
Anyway, the only reason I got a lathe is to turn tool handles as my attempts at getting the taper correct to fit the sockets just takes too long and isn't accurate enough using a rasp.
I am trying to find hornbeam blanks to make handles, but haven't found any local. Where is a good place to order online? - there are tons of places with blanks, but hornbeam doesn't seem to be a popular one. And knowing that you can strike Maine hornbeam with a steel hammer without having a hoop at the end of the chisel, is there any other wood that performs as well?
I guess I'll use the kingwood to make paring handles - I can't imagine that too many of the dalbergias wouldn't chip if they were hit with a hammer.
Anyone with experience with lignum vitae for handles? Will it tolerate hammer strikes? I can get it for about $3 for each handle.