Octagonal chisel handles

[chamfer]

Greetings,

A couple of weeks ago on another forum, a question about making traditional octagonal chisel handles came in from a fellow who was frustrated by his first tries. Hoping to help him out a bit, I decided to do a brief write-up of my efforts along these lines. It is intended to be more suggestive than formulaic, and is somewhat preliminary. If interest warrants, I intend to rewrite it to some extent, and make it available as an article on our website.

Since, a couple of people have suggested that folks here might be interested in the write-up, so I thought I'd make mention of it. It is a PDF file, and should download to your computer by clicking on this link (211 k):

http://www.planemaker.com/docs/octhandles

Incidentally, it doesn't cover boring the hole for the tang of the chisel. I usually do this by boring two or three "stepped" holes of varying widths and depths, then using the square tang as a "reamer" until the tang is within an eighth of an inch or so from being seated. Then a few smart raps on the end of the handle, with the chisel tang entered in the hole, will usually seat it. I would be interested in other's approaches to this. (It is often suggested that tangs were heated and "burned" into the handle, but I've never seen any evidence that this was a common practice.)

Hope this will be of some interest.

Don McConnell
Eureka Springs, AR

 

[cbentzley]

Don,

Thanks for your post and instructions on this subject. It is quite an exacting approach that you take. I guess that comes from years of discipline as a maker of high-end wooden planes. My approach is a little cheesier, but let me run it past you. When I started working with Bob Whitley a few years ago, I noticed that about 80 percent of his tools had homemade octagonal handles. I just figured it was because he’s the frugal type. After a few hours of hands-on with these tools, I realized there is both a comfort level and a mechanical advantage with octagonal handles. I questioned Bob about this and he proceeded to show me how he was taught to make them by an old-timer over 65 years ago.

First you need a blank about 1” thick and about 1-1/4” wide. The length needs to suit your hand. For me it’s about 5-1/2”. Drill a small hole (about 1/8” diameter) centered in one end to the total depth of the tang. Next, measure the width and thickness of the tang at the mid-point (if they differ, average them out) and drill to that depth in the handle with the larger bit. If the edges of the tang are fairly sharp, you’re good to go. If they are rounded, hit them on a grinder to sharpen them up a bit. Put the tool in a vise with padded jaws and start twisting the handle on. The sharp edges of the tang act as a reamer to help taper the hole. When you reach about 2/3’s of the total depth, stop. Clear the hole by tapping it a few times then spit or put water in the hole. Now reinsert the tang into the hole and continue twisting and reaming until you’re about 1/8” from bottoming out. Then drive it home with a few smart raps.

The shaping is done on a 12” disc sander after the handle is on the tool. Layout your curves on the top and shape, layout your curves on the sides and shape, then mark the facets which form the octagon with a pencil, using your finger as a guide in a marking gauge fashion. Sand the facets on the disc sander, round up the end free hand and you’re done. I can usually handle a tool in about 10-15 minutes from start to finish. Admittedly, the cross sections aren’t perfect octagons (see photo) but I actually prefer them this way. I usually put a coat of oil on; Bob prefers to leave his raw. I use just about any hardwood scraps I have laying around at the time. I find that different woods make the tools easier to find when I’ve got a lot of stuff on my bench. Just for kicks, I tried to knock one of these handles off and I ended up having to split it off. Maybe it’s the spit.

I really like your curves so the next time I have to handle a carving tool I’ll give your design a shot. Thanks again Don. Your insights are invaluable.

Craig

 

[pampine]

Don, that's definitely not pdf. The only application I have that reads it is Quicktime, and that only handles the first page.

Pam

 

[cbentzley]

Pam,

I just saved it on my hard drive and opened it with Adobe Acrobat 7.0. Give it a shot, it worked for me.

Craig

 

[MikeWenzloff]

Hi Pam,

For what ever reason if you click on it, the link wants to run as an ActiveX control.

On a PC--no idea about a Mac--if you right-click, choose Save Target As...
it will save to your harddrive but without the .PDF extension. You can at that point add the PDF extension to the end of the file name or choose to simply open it in Acrobat.

Take care, Mike

 

[pampine]

Thanks much, I appended ".pdf" to the file name and Acrobat handled it with no fuss. I'd tried opening it from within Acrobat, but it wasn't recognized, should have remembered that Acrobat is very sensitive to extensions.

Pam