Whip Handles - The Raw Inners

[troy]

Not sure if anybody's interested but these are some recent whip handles I've turned showing the raw inners - first and second layers of braiding are braided onto the steel/copper pin which are cut to make them flush/flat with the wooden handle, inserted back in and the last layer is glued on and sinewed over the narrow wooden end bit. once braided on and rolled the end knot and its foundation are glued, sinewed over this narrow piece.

as with shown below, the wood is totally exposed, the knot is positioned directly over the narrow non sanded bit. from left to right - indian rosewood (medium weight wood, easy to carve) Black walnut (american black oak, quite a light wood, easy to carve but does'nt have the unique changes in rings as I like, quite a dull colour), Bubingo (semi dense wood of medium weight, colours or rings are quite unique, smells nice), Cocobolo ( one of the darker african woods like wenge, ebony, blackwood and thus like them is a hard heavy wood, harder to carve and blunts knives quicker but has interesting colors, textures, like this wood). Wood in cat shown below is thuya burr which unlike some burrs is dense enough for handles, carves like cheese, smells good also - will show an image of most favourite wood to turn (and also the most rare and expensive, its very heavey, very dense and very pretty - cost £80.00 for this piece; snakewood)

I failed to mention that when the pin is inserted back into the wood (2 .5 inches in, 2.5 inches left showing, 6mm width - using 6mm bit) I drill a small hole throught the narrow wooden piece and pin (say a 2 or 3mm metal bit) and then insert a nail - although the pin fixes in really tight, this nail helps keep it all together for all those indy fans who like swinging - from a tree that is, not the other sort of swinging!

[bucksnort]

Troy, Very nice. Thanks for sharing. Buck

[Ccastle27]

Hi Troy,

Very nice handles.

When you plait the overlay, how do you get the plaiting even on the wooden part? I tried to insert a handle and took some doing to get a neat job around the thick handle. I assume you would start a few cm back from the rebate and then bond the end and cutaway the extra? Do you wind up pinning any of the strands to the wood, or is the sinew/glue enough?

Thank you,

-Castle

[karlpv]

Troy,

Nicely done. The snake wood is beautiful.

Probably a typo, but Black Oak and Black Walnut are different woods. Black Oak, a true oak, is a member of the red oak family. You might find the french walnut species tend to have more of the grain contrast you like. If you can find stock, try some olive wood. It turns well, and the smell alone will make it worth it!