Wooden Handled Phillips Screwdrivers - Choices

[Jim Neeley]

I've seen any number of threads of people looking for wooden-handled phillips screwdrivers. I searched Amazon for "screwdrivers wooden handle" and Felo and Witte brands emerged.

Does anyone have any experience with either? Both sell their drivers individually as well as in sets but neither offer a square drive.

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[Joe Bailey]

From Garrett Wade:
http://www.garrettwade.com/german-pro-screwdriver-set/p/13G07.01/

[Ryan Fee]

From Lee Valley: http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=32208&cat=1,43411,43417&ap=1

Never used them myself, but have always had great luck with Lee Valley products.

Or you can make your own: http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=64983&cat=1,43411,43417&ap=2

[Kevin Fitzsimons]

I have the Felo and I'm satisfied with them. I think I bought them from Rockler on-line several years ago. Not very expensive as I recall.

[Zach England]

I bought the shafts from Lee Valley with the intention of making my own, but I still cannot find a shaft precisely like the one I prefer to use to adjust planes--I was a wide slot screwdriver that is very short (less than two inches) with a fat handle. I got one at Lowes for a couple of dollars, but it has a plastic handle and I'd love to find a nice wood-handled one.

[Matthew Holloway]

Why not buy a set of inexpensive plastic handle screwdrivers and add your own wooden handles? It should be too difficult to remove the plastic.

[Roy Wall]

Our own Gary Benson makes some of the finest wood handled screwdrivers ever made:

http://www.elkheadtools.com/home.html

192902

Cocobolo Handles..............They are nice!

[Kevin Fitzsimons]

Rockler still has the Felo set (5 piece) on sale for $19.99. It's a great set of screwdrivers for the price. Handles are very comfortable and could be reshaped a bit. I've seen the Elkheadtools screwdrivers at WIA and they're beautiful. I'd have them if I had unlimited funds. It's crazy, isn't it? Just thinking about spending $75 for a screwdriver is nuts, but we appreciate any tool that's beautiful and can be used to make more beautiful things. It's like Lie-Nielsen planes or the beautiful infill planes - crazy expensive, but we crave them. I do think if a tool is really well designed and made to the highest of standards, we do better work with them and we enjoy woodworking more.

[Gary Curtis]

Footprint, in England, makes them. I have a set of Footprint Cabinet screwdrivers of most sizes. I was looking on eBay for the very smallest. I guess you would call it a Gunsmith screwdriver. Someone listed a 15-item complete set of Footprints, including one or two Phillips drivers. Pretty rare items.

In 2008, the complete set went for slightly more than $200. I thought it was worth it, but lost out on the bidding. The big tool dealers in England, such as Axminster, never list the Phillips version. Footprints have the completely rounded handles.

[Derek Cohen]

Using the LV shafts (mentioned above), LV also sell handles for chisels that can be used for screwdrivers ...

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Screwdrivers/Phillips3.jpg

I made up aPhillips set to go with my flat heads ...

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Screwdrivers/Phillips2.jpg

Regards from Perth

Derek

[John Coloccia]

Or you can just forget the wooden handles and buy a nice set of Wera screwdrivers....the exclusive screwdriver in my shop since 2010. If these had been available at the time, I'm certain our woodworking ancestors would have jumped all over them!

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

probably a terrible handle for a screwdriver, but I've got an extra one of these (http://www.lmii.com/CartTwo/thirdproducts.asp?CategoryName=Chisels+%26+Gouges&NameProdHeader=Tool+Handles) kicking around, and I've been thinking of making a screwdriver out of it. I have a couple of the LMI chisels, and love that handle...

[Trey Palmer]

They are not as nice as Derek's, but I got three old wood Phillips head screwdrivers for $9 shipped last week, "BIN" on the auction site.

They have the patent info on them. GM started using Phillips head screws in '36 and Phillips lost the patent in '49, so I figure they must have been made in the 40's.

The #2 and #2 snubby are in good shape and that is the most useful size. The #1, which is labelled Stanley on the ferrule, is bent and has a little grinding damage.

I'll take photos if anyone cares.

[Mike Givney]

I have the Footprint cabinet turnscrews and have been looking for phillips drivers in a similar style. "the best things" website has Marples Pozi Turnscrews that would fit the bill. My question is; Are "pozi" drivers the same as "phillips" drivers?

http://www.thebestthings.com/newtools/turnscrews.htm

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

Ideally, you'd use pozidriv drivers on pozidriv screws, and phillips drivers on phillips screws. Much less chance of chewing up the screwhead that way, and with cheap drivers, you can often begin to muck up the driver at the same time. In practice, a philips drive will fit Pozidriv screws, but not the other way around. Pozidriv screws are machined slightly differently, to help prevent camming out. They're the ones with the extra little "x" cross scribed across the head, 45 degrees from the cross the slots make.