Custom Made Awl Hafts

[slipangle]

One of my true loves is making tools. I have a full woodworking and metalworking shop in my house.

All vintage machines and tools I've collected over the years. I love old tools. And though I have a few old Osborne awl hafts, I find them too long for my relatively small hands.

So, I decided to make a few awl hafts. Handles are rosewood. On two of these I used Starrett size B pin vises for the collets. Decided if I was going to go to all this work I might as well use a good quality collet. The size B pin vise seems about right to hold these Vergez Blanchard awl blades. The decorative ferrules I turn on my metal lathe of nickel silver.

On this first one I decided to turn a place for the thumb and middle finger to rest, and push, to supplement pushing with the palm of the hand. I rest my index finger on the collet. Seems to work very well.

This is a more standard shape.

And this one turned out a bit odd. I decided to try one without the pin vise insert. It's a little front heavy, but seems to work OK.

Thanks for looking. I may place one or two of these over in the for sale section, if anyone is interested.

[Scorpion Wood]

Extremely nice

[slipangle]

Thank you.

[Hi Im Joe]

I love that first one! Very nice work.

[silverwingit]

Beautiful!

I have only one suggestion, and it has nothing to do with your gorgeous turnings, but the collet. I know next to nothing about collets, but I do know one thing from a user's perspective. I make a lot of wet-formed cases with very narrow "flanges" to stitch the formed front to the flat back/front flap. As a result the best collets I have found are the simple smooth CS Osbornes, the kind that you tighten with a wrench. The reason I favor them, and the reason for my comment, is that the Osborne collets are smooth out of the box. I polish them even further to a mirror surface. That way, the collet slides along the raised, formed front. Even if it touches that raised front section, it just glides along the leather without abrading it.

I realize that mine is a fairly specialized application, but I have a beautiful Barry King haft that sits in my tool chest for this very reason. Those Osborne hafts aren't pretty, but because of the nice narrow, smooth collet they are highly functional for me. Now, if your beautiful hafts had such a functional collet, IMHO, that would be a perfect marriage.

Just a thought.

Michelle

Edited October 13, 2014 by silverwingit

[slipangle]

Thank you Joe,

I learned some things on that first one. But I like the shape too.

Very comfortable.

I hadn't cranked up the wood lathe in a couple of years. It's fun.

Slip

[slipangle]

Hi Michele,

Good input, thanks. I actually started with the idea of using a collett…..chuck would be the proper term I guess…. that I salvaged out of an old, beat up Osborne haft. Had to destroy the handle to remove it but it was pretty busted up anyway. The thing was not in too good shape, however. Even after I cleaned it up a bit.

I then considered the idea of the cheap pin vises available on ebay and elsewhere. And the wrench flats do offer an advantage. But I just didn't trust a three dollar Chinese chuck. The quality and workmanship of Starrett tools is beyond compare, though they do cost me much more. And I found that despite the advantages of having wrench flats to tighten the blade in the chuck, these hold very well if you really tighten them down.

But, good point on the shape of the long, slim nose of the Osborne chucks. I can see that these might abrade the vertical portion of the formed bag if run up against it. Never having sewn a formed shape like that, it didn't occur to me.

Wish I could source some of that style chuck…without having to buy, and destroy, new Osborne tools.

Thanks for the input,

Slip

Beautiful!

I have only one suggestion, and it has nothing to do with your gorgeous turnings, but the collet. I know next to nothing about collets, but I do know one thing from a user's perspective. I make a lot of wet-formed cases with very narrow "flanges" to stitch the formed front to the flat back/front flap. As a result the best collets I have found are the simple smooth CS Osbornes, the kind that you tighten with a wrench. The reason I favor them, and the reason for my comment, is that the Osborne collets are smooth out of the box. I polish them even further to a mirror surface. That way, the collet slides along the raised, formed front. Even if it touches that raised front section, it just glides along the leather without abrading it.

I realize that mine is a fairly specialized application, but I have a beautiful Barry King haft that sits in my tool chest for this very reason. Those Osborne hafts aren't pretty, but because of the nice narrow, smooth collet they are highly functional for me. Now, if your beautiful hafts had such a functional collet, IMHO, that would be a perfect marriage.

Just a thought.

Michelle

oops, I misspelled your name Michelle. Sorry.

Slip

[MattTheHat]

Looks hafty.

-Matt

[capsterdog]

They are beautiful. You do very nice wood work. Can you post a link where they are for sale? Would be greatly appreciated. I would like to know your asking price on them. You can PM me if you want.

[slipangle]

Thanks Capsterdog. They're not for sale anywhere, yet. Still fine tuning them and trying to decide what I'd have to charge for them

I'll send you a PM, thank you.

[MonicaJacobson]

Beautiful! They all look very professional.

[slipangle]

Many thanks, Monica. I appreciate it.

Slip