Knitting Needles

[Nicholas Lingg]

Has anyone made Knitting Needles by making dowels

[Ryan Mooney]

I made a set of four small double pointed ones (#2 if I remember correctly) out of rock maple a few years back. I started with some stock I split out of a billet (to make sure they were pretty straight with the grain) and just worked them round by hand for the rough out. For finish sizing I drilled a set of progressively smaller holes in the hardest piece of scrap (fairly thick, maybe 2") I had and worked them down with medium sandpaper jammed in the holes... A dowel plate would have been somewhat faster for the first part, but working them through the deeper holes with the abrasive allowed me to straighten them out some and for longer small pieces like this I've had a bad habit of breaking them on the dowel plate :rolleyes:. Once you have the dowels cut the other challenge is to shape the points nicely. I modeled mine after some that swmbo liked and just whittled and then sanded to match. I finished with 2 coats of cut BLO, followed by by ~4 coats of wiping varnish and then wax.

A couple things I think are important to start with:

straight grain, any cross grain will likely sliver off
tight smooth grained wood. The rock maple came out pretty nice. Another set I made out of lyptus (hybrid eucalyptus) from a furniture manufacturer was a bit to splintery and had a problem with little bits lifting up at the points.
I probably wouldn't start with store dowels unless they
If anyone has an easier/faster way I'd be interested to hear it as well. It wasn't really hard, took an evening sitting in front of the TV to shape them up..

[Bruce Haugen]

Easier, maybe, but for sure faster: A friend of mine, an acomplished wood turner, makes knitting needles by the dozen. They have paid for a very good lathe, a substantial part of his work shop plus an addition to his house.

He says the key is to master the skew chisel. He can make a finished pair in less than 15 minutes from nearly any wood you can name.

[Ryan Mooney]

Easier, maybe, but for sure faster: A friend of mine, an acomplished wood turner, makes knitting needles by the dozen. They have paid for a very good lathe, a substantial part of his work shop plus an addition to his house.

He says the key is to master the skew chisel. He can make a finished pair in less than 15 minutes from nearly any wood you can name.

Nice! Its cool when someone finds a niche like that and gets it to really roll, who knew knitting needles. If you PM me his info I suspect swmbo may well be interested in a pair or so (its nice to have a backup plan for the b-day situation :rolleyes:). Do you know what sizes he makes? I figured larger ones on the lathe would be no problem, but was concerned about getting the grain right on the smaller ones.. I suppose if you carefully choose your wood no problems ;). I don't have a lathe (yet.. I have a "spot" saved for one once the $$ and time become available.. and yes I've experienced the dark side of spending all your time turning before which is partially why I've been restraining myself :D) but for a one off set hand cutting wasn't all that bad.

[Bruce Haugen]

It'll take a while to get a response or the product from him. He's recently retired and is on an extended visit in Sweden. I'll let you know, though.

[Zach England]

My local knitting shop sells rosewood needles with brass ends on them for some serious dollars. I've considered trying to get in on the market more than once.