Knitting Needles Advice

[Rick Apt]

Any suggestions, other than, perhaps the smart one … “just buy them”, in regards to turning knitting needles? The Boss, my sister and the rest of The Coven have requested a huge variety of sizes, “roughness” (I guess this is a big deal) and lengths but are not specific on the wood type. The great thing is that needles, like pen blanks, can be a great use for scraps that would otherwise go to waste.

So far my limited experience has been to make them one piece, sanded to rough for some (about 180 grit) or smooth (800 grit), and then lightly apply a little beeswax on the mini lathe. Yesterday I worked on a set of 10” mahogany Size 8 = 5 mm needles and thought I had better post for some advice since I cannot see me being successful any smaller than this.

Any suggestions for wood type, finish, tricks and techniques would be helpful.

Thanks.

[David E Keller]

I've never knitted or made the needles, but I would think that they are similar to finials. If that holds true, fine grained woods like pear, boxwood, holly, African blackwood, cocobolo, and others would be high on my list of woods to try. I'd love to see some photos.

[Tom Sherman]

It seems to me that there was a post here on SMC a couple about knitting needles. Do a search see what comes up.

[Tom Sherman]

Rick I just followed my own advice, did a search for 'knitting needles' got several results, give it a try hope it helps.

[Maria Alvarado]

Most I've seen are sanded finely ("burnished") but only use a wax finish. Chipping film finish would snag the yarn. David Reed Smith has a wonderful tutorial on his website (also linked to Woodturningonline in the projects area) for anyone looking for detailed instructions. He also uses only a wax finish. I also saw some from another company (Harmony Woods) that touted the use of laminated woods for strength and durability. Seems reasonable and gives you an excuse to by large amounts of dymondwood... Good luck with it, I'm sure they'll be marvelous.

[Richard Coers]

I did a run of 400 pair once. It was the only job in 30+ years of woodworking that the customer was crap. I didn't get paid, but luckily I had delivered very little of the inventory. Enough of the bad memories. I bought a Veritas dowel maker and made some custom dies to get metric dowels. I used cherry for the shafts, and multiple woods for a finial. I cupped some 220 grit around the dowel as it came out of the dowel maker. I left the dowel long so I could chuck it in a drill and point it against a disc sander. The finials were made on a custom lathe setup, that had a router mounted on it. A slightly modified crown molding bit was used to cut the profile. Lots of little details for holding parts, manufacturing, etc..... I used General Finishes oil/poly mix, one coat. When dry, I used a Beal buff system with the brown compound, then buffed on carnuba wax. No white diamond used. I got some good feedback from customers on the feel. I think the carnuba did the trick. Good luck.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

[QUOTE=Richard Coers; It was the only job in 30+ years of woodworking that the customer was crap. [/QUOTE]

This is truly sad, to deal with crappy people... Hope you were able to sell the balance of the needles.

[Rick Apt]

Thanks for the advice. When I ran a search most of what I came up with was knitting needles on planes and specialty items like a very cool shawl pin and crocheting hooks.

I have lots of harder wood cut-offs to try out after I check-out the tutorials. I think I will take Maria's advice and try some dymondwood as I never worked with it before.

I will let you know how it goes but I am a poor weather turner though. If the temp is above 85 or below 35 degrees I tend to get my turning done!

[Bill Bauer]

There was an article in Woodturning Design #24 on doing crochet needles!

Bill Bauer

[Richard Coers]

I've never turned dymondwood, but read plenty of guys complain about it for pens. Maybe someone else will chime in, but doesn't it get pretty chippy? I used really straight grain cherry, but I think the absolute best wood might be exotic. Ipe should work really well. I've turned finials down to 3/32" in that stuff, and a mini top that had a 1/16" shaft.