Swivel Master Hair Tool

[TTcustom]

Sorry for the bad picture. but here you can see the hair tool attachment I made to go on a standard swivel knife barrel. I am still refining the design to my liking. It holds 9 of the standard exacto #16 blades which is more then enough for my uses. The original Swivel Master was bought by a friend at the Wickenburg or Sheridan show about 10 years ago. He let me look at it and photocopy the literature to help make my own.

If anyone has one or knows who still sells this tool in the US I know some people that are interested in getting one. I have tried to track the original maker down using the literature that came with my friends knife but my google-fu is not powerful enough to turn up any leads.

Here is what info I have been working with;

Swivel-Master knives by

Randy Knutson

Sartell, MN

Tim

Edited January 20, 2010 by TTcustom

[King's X]

Send me an PM and I will connect you with someone that knows about the maker who lives somewhere in the Northeast (or did when I heard the story). I am sure that someone here knows someone that has a friend that does machining work and can spit them out like we spit out belts and wallets.

[TimDreamer]

Looks like a very good alternative and easy to replace blades that wear down.

Edited January 20, 2010 by TimDreamer

[King's X]

Maybe I can send you my Pro-Series Tandy Knife and I can pay you to drill out the hole bigger to accept the blades???

[TTcustom]

I don't think I will be doing any modding for other people, sorry. I still have to get this design functioning to where I like it. It is pretty fiddly to change out blades right now and I need to work on simplifying that. I'll keep you in mind if I get the eureka moment and get that all worked out.

For making feathers this set up with the exacto blades is awesome though. Now I know why Robb Barr liked to use one.

[King's X]

Just some additional information, at least for your R&D process. I made one of these 'hair blade' tools last year. I use the sponge brushes a lot when I would do woodworking, but since I sold all of my equipment, I have a bunch of these. You can them just about anywhere and in all kind of sizes. It doesn't matter what size. I have to look at them again, but I believe the handle comes in two sizes. Anyways, I carefully removed the sponge part off the handle and then the plastic holder.

The place where the plastic piece was placed leaves a rather crude hole to consider it a pilot hole, but it works. I then figure out how many blades I want and measure the width and length of the gathered blades. I then drill out the appropriate size hole and glue the blades in with some epoxy. While drying, I just stuck the new backyard knife into a piece of cardboard/styrofoam until it dried.

It works great with the exception of several things; one being that it is disposable.

You can only strop the outside blades; unless you have spacers.

The handle is fixed and does not move like a swivel knife

The blades are fixed and cannot be interchanged.

I know that I didn't come up with this idea, but I thought it would be appropriate to share here.

Keep us updated with your Einstein moment when it happens; it will.

[JPNet]

Sorry for the bad picture. but here you can see the hair tool attachment I made to go on a standard swivel knife barrel. I am still refining the design to my liking. It holds 9 of the standard exacto #16 blades which is more then enough for my uses. The original Swivel Master was bought by a friend at the Wickenburg or Sheridan show about 10 years ago. He let me look at it and photocopy the literature to help make my own.

If anyone has one or knows who still sells this tool in the US I know some people that are interested in getting one. I have tried to track the original maker down using the literature that came with my friends knife but my google-fu is not powerful enough to turn up any leads.

Here is what info I have been working with;

Swivel-Master knives by

Randy Knutson

Sartell, MN

Tim

It is called a Multi Blade Swivel Master, made by Randy Knutson, two_knuts@yahoo.com. I sent him an email about 2 weeks ago to ask about ordering one and he replied that he hasn't made any in quite a while, would keep my email on file, and if he decided to make any more would let me know.