My first turned tools and Tagua Question

[Anchor Sarslow]

Well, Having just gotten the new lathe, I have to make something.. Nothing pertfect but I made these for use in my Dovetail endeavor.

The mallet is a glue up. Maple head and walnut handle. I dont know how well it will hold up but it was fairly easy to do and a lot of enjoyment.. I am going to try to find some Lignum vitae blocks and make another one or two.

I want to thank whomever it was I read that suggested making your own tools as first projects.

I know I will be trying to perfect making both of these.

Anyone with any experience turning Tagua nuts? I want to make some knobs for a tool box and am not having much luck. Are these better done caved or can I turn them?

[Tom Sherman]

Nice job there Anchor, great turnings, an official SMC bonker as one of your first projects Well Done.

[Curt Fuller]

Nice work! I've turned a few tagua nuts as small hollow forms and Christmas ornaments. I'm not sure if they would be very well suited for knobs. They aren't solid and have a void in the center of the nut that would make it hard to make a knob from them.

[Skip Spaulding]

Tools look great , why not use the same material for pulls?

[Paul Engle]

Nice work Anchor, the mallet comes in handy :eek: for a lot of things in the shop but ah think you will find on your tool handles the bumps and coves and beads tend to make the hand muscles ache after a spell, at least where you hold em and well on my old beat up hands it does I had made a mini hollower with abump and grind oak handle and had to pull the steel out and turn it smooth to get my hand to relax when I used it. They are good practice for the skew and spindle gouge, so do not neglect them. also they make good handles for the BBQ tools :D :D .... ya know the ones that got left on the grill ..... turned to charchoal :(.

[Dean Thomas]

Hey Anchor,

Nice job, first off. I echo Paul's comments. Even for a marking knife, the knobby handle might just make your hand less than comfortable. But you will certainly be able to recognize it! :p

The other thing I wonder as I look at the knife is whether or not there is sufficient wood at the end of the tang. Part of the lump toward the front of turning tools and chip carving knives is to ensure that the tool can be pulled on with a bit of heft without causing the handle to break at the end of the tang as it tries to pull through the wood at that point. Just a thought.

Nice pieces, though. Fun to make, I'll bet.

[Anchor Sarslow]

The knife was the playing with tools thing. I will keep it but dont intend to use it. I have about 6 .. yes 6 others handles I have started and waiting for blades. One of them will be for my regular use. I will try to sell the rest or use em for trade .. or something.. I am sizing the end of the knife with the feurles I have on hand. It comes out to about 3/8 of an inch.. Does this seem to thin? I have been playing with it and it seems to hold up just fine. so far..

At the very least, with playing, I find I love working with Walnut, and Maple gets dirty from my hands very easily and is tough or has shown to be tough for me to get it really smooth without showing my turning rings..

I have one small piece of Cocobolo I am going to try out tonight..

I agree with lumpy tools, I have already experienced that. I do like the shape and feel of the mallet handle.. I might consider a slightly larger bulb at the ned of it though.. considering how I swing it.

I appreciate all the suggestions.. ANd I am having a blast just making chiips and learning some stuff about the different woods. I think I have gone through 5 different woods so far.

One I dont recall the name of but was terrible. It litterally shredded. A sort of Zebrawood looking stuff with huge ahh.. grain almost like compacted straw. Found that I could not turn it down any further than about half an inch. otherwise it just fell apart. The fat part did polish up kind of nice though..

I have a lot of questions to ask. .but am doing searches for now.. I am sure You wil lbe hearing a lot from me as I go along.

You all have been great.. and helpful.

[Dean Thomas]

At the very least, with playing, I find I love working with Walnut, and Maple gets dirty from my hands very easily and is tough or has shown to be tough for me to get it really smooth without showing my turning rings.
Most of us LOVE to share whatever information we have that we know works, or that is presumed to work (like talking about lathes that we've used but don't own!). And we love to diagnose problems of all sorts.

Turning rings is exactly the sort of problem that we love to address. :) Most of the time (hear that operative word, "most", and emphasize it a whole lot!), rings are caused by tool control issues. It's directly related to how you utilize the bevel of your tool. If you make your cut and keep your bevel in exactly the plane of the cut, you're likely to see your rings dramatically reduced or eliminated completely. You should be able to cut maple sufficiently cleanly that you could start with 180 or 220 grit paper. Maybe even higher for some really good turners with really good and really sharp tools. Not all maples, obviously, but sugar or any of the hard maples should work that way.

Have you ever used a really sharp bench chisel to pare away wood? Bevel up and the flatback of the chisel laid flat on the wood and pushed by hand into the desired area? You can remove an incredibly thin slice of wood without tearing anything. Same thing with sharp lathe chisels used as described above. If you're making a cylindrical cut on a spindle and you have the flute pointed at about 45º off vertical with the bevel absolutely parallel with the ways, you should be able to make butter smooth cuts. Same with a skew. It's all about tool control...presuming always that your tools are actually sharp sharp. Alan Lacer said in a teaching session: "If you can see the edge, then you don't have an edge!" At least, not one that will give you a near-finished product off the tool. That's always my aim. Sometimes I manage it. :)

[Anchor Sarslow]

Tools look great , why not use the same material for pulls?

Well, SOme time ago, y father worked up on the dew? line in Alaska in the early 60's. He came back with all kinds of neat things including some walrus tusk pieces that were drawer pulls. (there was also a neat walrus figurine) Unfortunately the drawers they were attached to burned in a garage fire some years later and the pulls were never recovered. I loved the look and feel of that ivory. I do not know if I can get any kind of animal tooth big enough and thought I might try the Tagua Nuts, they are big enough and come pretty close to the look and feel of ivory (so I have read) I did not expect them to be so difficult though.

I read recently that you can still get Hippo tusks on occassion. I also thought of antler material.. I dont know how that stuff will turn out though..

Any thoughts.. would be appreciated.