Early Access Video: Make Custom Tool Handles
Added 2020-07-25 11:00:03 +0000 UTCFriends:
When you're buying, making, and restoring tools, you are going to need to replace some handles. Axes, hatchets, and hammers often come with great heads and terrible handles. Luckily, making handles isn't hard. If you understand a few basic ideas, you can make a handle that's much BETTER than what you can buy in a store.
And, you can customize that handle to the way you work and your own hands. Handle-making opens up a new world of ergonomics and efficiency where your tools are perfectly balanced and have just the grip you need.
Hope your enjoy this tutorial on an essential part of the craft.
Happy Saturday!
--Rex
Comments
Michael! What a generous offer. I think you should make a post over on the discourse. I'm sure someone will take you up on this! https://rexkrueger.discourse.group/
Rex Krueger
2020-08-10 11:03:11 +0000 UTCThis a little off topic but it is about restoring a tool. I have an old Delta Homecraft bandsaw that needs restoring and I am not interested in doing it. If any of our people are near Mobile Bay in Alabama you can come pick it up. I do not need money for it but perhaps if anyone wants to make a donation to a charity like Feeding America instead of paying for the saw. Set your own amount. If this should have gone to another page, sorry. I am still learning my way around this site.
Michael Bragg
2020-08-09 22:43:09 +0000 UTCI think the best thing about making your own handles (or modifying an existing handel) is you can fit them to how you work and fit them to your hand. I bowsaw I made I cut contours to fit my thumb and fingers. Made the grip comfortable and maybe made the sawing more consistent.
Mark Diaz
2020-08-01 18:49:28 +0000 UTCI'd seen this but never tried it either, so for shits and giggles I just grabbed a piece of scrap and my torch. Wow that's easy. And if you decide you really don't like the way it looks if your careful it doesn't burn so deep that you can't sand it out. Really makes the grain in cheap pine pop.
MyEvilBanana
2020-08-01 13:35:21 +0000 UTCYou know, I think you'll get the hang of it really fast if you just try it. Start with light passes and just see what the wood does. Make long strokes and don't let the torch stay in one place.
Rex Krueger
2020-08-01 12:31:38 +0000 UTCFinished the toy sword. My wife loves it. She uses it to point to my car keys when I say I can't find them. Next is the axe with a new handle. She'll love it. Great videos, the drill press is right on target. I'm catching up on missed videos
Dennis Archuleta
2020-08-01 07:32:38 +0000 UTCHey Rex, do you have a full uncut video of the burning that you could post? I'm just wondering how long it takes and how light/heavy the passes were.
Tim Etkin
2020-07-29 19:18:24 +0000 UTCShou-sugi-ban seems to have become a super trendy finish over the last year or so. It's eminently practical so makes perfect sense for tool handles, but it's not my favorite look. It also makes a hell of a mess. :(
A1BASE
2020-07-27 15:31:44 +0000 UTCI'm delighted to hear that.
Rex Krueger
2020-07-27 12:04:44 +0000 UTCWelcome! We're all glad you're here.
Rex Krueger
2020-07-27 12:03:38 +0000 UTCThank you!
Rex Krueger
2020-07-27 12:03:21 +0000 UTCI'm proud to say that hammer was hand-forged by my friend Mike Barton (@poisonivyforge). He's an artist and that hammer makes me feel like Thor when I swing it.
Rex Krueger
2020-07-27 12:02:05 +0000 UTCThat's a really good question and I think I'll do a video on that soon. (It's a big topic).
Rex Krueger
2020-07-27 12:00:56 +0000 UTCYou should watch his video on cutting curves without a bandsaw: https://youtu.be/LX-0DDYRfcc He explains it in auite a bit of detail.
Tsani Rósenov Sábev
2020-07-26 21:16:24 +0000 UTCNewbie question, what is the difference in bevel up vs bevel down when using a chisel?
Bill Finizia
2020-07-26 16:59:33 +0000 UTCIs that a Rotovor (sp?) rounding hammer? Whatever it is, it's a sexy beast!
Gary Fetrow
2020-07-26 00:23:23 +0000 UTCNice video and very encouraging, as usual.
Trinidad Regaspi
2020-07-26 00:19:39 +0000 UTCThanks for the awesome video. I am just starting out in woodworking and it has been a blessing for me to have found you! Keep up the good work and I can't wait to see what magic you can come up with next. Best wishes and continued success!!!!
Craig Linville
2020-07-26 00:15:47 +0000 UTCAs always Rex a pleasure to see your work, makes Sunday morning my time much more enjoyable
Wayne
2020-07-25 23:07:43 +0000 UTCHi midnight here and it was still in the back of the car, here are some poor images of it next to a UK 3 pin plug. Small in size longer than expected in length and quite distorted. Cardiff is a dock town and the surrounding area was coal mining. As you know there are many deigns and uses of hammers. https://photos.app.goo.gl/4VujnprHU9szJ7DXA My dad kept his cross peen anvil hammer in the water bucket to stop the head getting lose. In winter the water tank used to freeze, different hammer needed that day in Lancashire. On our tea breaks in winter we used to stand outside in the sun to warm up since the workshop was like a freezer - no point in running the heater the condensation would have made everything rusty. SO work harder keep warm ;-))
John Harrison
2020-07-25 23:06:23 +0000 UTCI wouldn't mind seeing that.
Rex Krueger
2020-07-25 22:38:57 +0000 UTCToy sword. No doubt.
Rex Krueger
2020-07-25 22:38:14 +0000 UTCDid you consider making an offset handle for the Hewing axe. A few years ago at the blythsteamshow.com I watched a guy prep a long beam and when he had a rest he played his tin whistle. I was visiting from the UK. I have a few tools from the family blacksmith shop that started in 1890s my Monday sledge handle is a bit short but it does work in the garden since the workshop is no more. I do have an unusual adjustable spanner to alter the gap you pivot another shim, I will see if I can find it and upload an image in the next month or so. Here is a photo of a 1930s micrometer my granddad made out of a wagon 1/2 shaft. Here he is working on a large shoe ;-) and behind him are the shaper and thread turning geared lathe https://photos.app.goo.gl/hL3ZiXWp2RJGmiQz9
John Harrison
2020-07-25 21:32:34 +0000 UTCToday I found a lump hammer head in the road so I went back for it, also it was a bit dangerous lots of big vehicles on the dock road (it would have been hit by a wheel soon), the faces are very mashed and it looks an old design shape.
John Harrison
2020-07-25 21:02:50 +0000 UTCHickory is nice but here in kansas i can get osage orange sapwood pieces big enough for hammers and axes. That stuff rocks and when i see someone clearing a fence line i try to pick up a few branches large enough to split and dry
James Boatright
2020-07-25 17:29:43 +0000 UTCBig end down for work like smithing where impact strength is paramount. Generally true for hand held hammers for wood, although there its really a coun flip. Big end up for wedge holding on long handled objects like axes, or tools with offset handles that will experience rotational force so that the offset force is countered by the wedge strength. Or tools tat experience a lot of centrifugal force while being swung.
James Boatright
2020-07-25 17:22:34 +0000 UTCGiant hint. Finish something, else you end up with a mess.
James Boatright
2020-07-25 17:16:37 +0000 UTCIt's Saturday, I'm anxious to get to my wood plane project, I see this and think this would be fun. I am so confused... too many fun choices. Do this or finish the wood plane, workbench, or toy sword project.
Dennis Archuleta
2020-07-25 17:07:31 +0000 UTCVermont really is a special place (I actually grew up in the South, Alabama to be exact, so English is a second language). Where we are at the lake has a lot of white oak and maple so similar to VT but a lot more pine and hemlock which I am not fond of. Like you, I have trouble coming up with hickory for tool handles. It grows up here but just isn't common so I have not come up with a source. I am tempted to ask a friend who does timber cutting to keep his eyes open for some hickory but I am afraid he will leave me a 14' long hickory log in the driveway!!
Michael Nix
2020-07-25 16:52:41 +0000 UTCThat's absolutely the right thing do if you're going to be working on larger pieces where your hand might come very close to the wood. I plan on using this one to make smaller and narrower pieces where my hand should clear the work with no trouble. I modeled my handle on Peter Follansbee's axes and he goes with a straight (ish) handle.
Rex Krueger
2020-07-25 15:06:59 +0000 UTCVermont sounds like the place to have a shop. So lovely. So many trees.
Rex Krueger
2020-07-25 15:05:02 +0000 UTCOpinions do differ a bit on this point. Most of the smiths I know say the larger opening goes down and most of the vintage hammers I have re-handled support this orientation. The hammer in this video had it's original handle and the head was oriented with the large flare down. Of course, this is not definitive and nothing bad will happen if you do it the other way.
Rex Krueger
2020-07-25 15:04:06 +0000 UTCSince that hatchet is a broadaxe pattern, wouldn't you want to bend the handle so it's offset away from the work? From experience, I can tell you it saves a potload of knuckle skin.
gary turner
2020-07-25 14:40:50 +0000 UTCRex - my compliments on a super instructional video. As always, I picked up some great tips to incorporate into my own tool re-handling projects that I have been sharing with the community this fall/winter when I am back in my Vermont workshop.
Michael Nix
2020-07-25 13:44:17 +0000 UTCRick - For those hammers measure the opening top and bottom. The smaller opening is the bottom. I also make orientation marks with a felt tip or wax pencil marker on the hammer head while I am fitting just to make sure I don't accidentally flip it. Those marks come right off the steel.
Michael Nix
2020-07-25 13:40:16 +0000 UTCOn some hammers the top/bottom is obvious (claw hammer) - but others not so much. Is there a way to determine which surface should be the top (if it matters)? I have re-handled a number of hammers that I had to guess. Maybe the hour glass shape of the eye is different on the top side?
Rick Prosser
2020-07-25 13:33:42 +0000 UTCIt was on plane handles, so not an overlap. Just an amusing coincidence that I couldn't resist. https://youtu.be/t4-WN14P3_k
Matthew Leigh
2020-07-25 13:23:04 +0000 UTCI'm glad! It's not hard.
Rex Krueger
2020-07-25 13:22:03 +0000 UTCDid Paul do one? I hadn't seen it.
Rex Krueger
2020-07-25 13:21:53 +0000 UTCPerfect timing, I just came across an old hatchet that needs a handle
Bill Previte
2020-07-25 11:24:33 +0000 UTCSellers vs Krueger, head to head and tool to tool!
Matthew Leigh
2020-07-25 11:12:57 +0000 UTC
