Handmade Knobs and Pulls

[Ethan O'Neil]

Anyone know of any websites or books where I can get some ideas for making my own knobs and pulls for cabinets and drawers?

[Dewey Torres]

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/articles/9/

Jamie might also personally answer this thread... good stuff!

Welcome to the Creek BTW:)

[Frank Drew]

Ethan,

If you have a lathe, or access to one, you can turn your own knobs quite easily; you can pretty much design them as you turn.

[Thomas Bennett]

I always try to make my own knobs. Here's a few shots of some on a walnut dresser. They are easy to make. Drill a 3/4 hole in you drawer face , then use a cove bit with a bearing to create a coved recess. I removed the bearing screw on the bit and superglued the bearing on the router bit and held the depth of the bit just off the bottom of the 3/4 hole. Turn your knobs with a 3/4 tenon.

[pat warner]

No inventory of pulls, just one, clustered in with some sticks.
The ash pull (http://patwarner.com/images/pull_spline.jpg)is full width with grip top & bottom.

[Jamie Buxton]

I've been recently thinking about some pull ideas, and have posted them in a new thread in the Design forum. http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=100283

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Ethan, my shop cabinets have homemade pulls that are simple to make and look nice.

I take two pieces of 1/4" X 3/4" X 5" walnut and sandwich a 1/8" X 3/4" X 5" piece of maple or birch in between.

This results in a blank that looks like an ice cream sandwich.

I trim the ends at a 15 degee angle, so that when mounted on a cabinet the narrower part is against the door.

I drill pilot holes on 96mm centers so that the pulls are standard dimension.

I take a few strokes with a block plane to bevel the faces towards the door side, and a couple of strokes with a shallow gouge to add a concave finger grip groove.

The knobs are comfortable to use, and have a pleasing profile.

They're also somewhat unique, and the material costs are zero since they're made from scraps.

Experiment with different styles and shapes, a carving knife is great for making custom pulls.

Regards, Rod.

[Bert Johansen]

Ethan, the most recent issue of FWW has an article by Michael Fortune on making some lovely pulls. I used two of his designs on a recent cabinet. The cabinet is cherry with tiger maple door panels, and the pulls are jatoba.

[bruce thom]

Fine woodworking Nov/December 2008 and July/August 2001
Bruce

[Rob Young]

If you are interested in Shaker style pulls and knobs, "Shop Drawings of Shaker Furniture & Woodenware, Vols. 1, 2, & 3" by Ejner Handberg has several pages of drawings just of the knobs, pins and pulls.

Pretty easy to make these at the lathe. I'm practicing on a few "scrap" pieces before I make the ones I need on a Shaker project.

[Martin Shupe]

Chris Becksvoort had an article in Fine Woodworking #196, February 2008 about how he makes his Shaker knobs on the lathe.

Here's a useful link to all the articles he has every written for FWW.

http://www.chbecksvoort.com/fwwarticles.html