• Beware of Counterfeit Woodturning Tools (click here for details)
  • Johnathan Silwones is starting a new AAW chapter, Southern Alleghenies Woodturners, in Johnstown, PA. (click here for details)
  • Congratulations to Paul May for "Checkerboard (ver 3.0)" being selected as Turning of the Week for March 25, 2024 (click here for details)
  • Welcome new registering member. Your username must be your real First and Last name (for example: John Doe). "Screen names" and "handles" are not allowed and your registration will be deleted if you don't use your real name. Also, do not use all caps nor all lower case.

Handle finishing question

Joined
Jan 16, 2017
Messages
307
Likes
414
Location
Eastern Washington
My grandmother is turning 97 in a few days and for a birthday surprise I decided to make some new handles for her two pressure cookers. She got them when she got married in 1940. And she still uses them. The wooden handles have broken off so I am going to turn new ones either out of maple or ash. I'm just wondering if I should apply a finish (and if so what kind) or just leave them natural. The are attached to the pressure cookers with a bolt that runs all the way through the handle. So I would think that the handle will get warm or moderately hot. Thus my concern with a finish.

Suggestions?
 

RichColvin

Super Moderator
Staff member
OTI Member
Joined
Mar 13, 2016
Messages
667
Likes
497
Location
Marysville, OH
Website
www.colvintools.com
I love walnut for handles like these, and if I finish them, it is with a oil like BLO. Mineral oil may be a better choice as it is easy for your grandmother to re-apply as necessary.

Kind regards,
Rich
 
Joined
Feb 8, 2014
Messages
1,173
Likes
611
Location
Evanston, IL USA
I've made quite a few cooking handles for various pots. Of the two you mentioned, I'd use maple. Preferably, the denser the better, in my my book: mahogany, white oak, walnut.
 
Joined
Aug 14, 2009
Messages
2,030
Likes
1,119
Location
Peoria, Illinois
I can't stop laughing. She's turning 97 and you are repairing her pressure cookers as a special gift? Well bless her for still using them at that age! But I'm thinking a big gift card to Cracker Barrel would have made my Mother much happier, and then fix the pressure cookers for the hell of it!
 
Joined
Jan 16, 2017
Messages
307
Likes
414
Location
Eastern Washington
I've made quite a few cooking handles for various pots. Of the two you mentioned, I'd use maple. Preferably, the denser the better, in my my book: mahogany, white oak, walnut.

My wood stash is, well, a bit small. Thus my selections are limited and I'm feeling a bit too lazy to drive to my local woodworking supply store (an hour each way). So maple it is.
 
Joined
Jan 16, 2017
Messages
307
Likes
414
Location
Eastern Washington
I can't stop laughing. She's turning 97 and you are repairing her pressure cookers as a special gift? Well bless her for still using them at that age! But I'm thinking a big gift card to Cracker Barrel would have made my Mother much happier, and then fix the pressure cookers for the hell of it!

My grandmother is a very practical person. She still lives on the ranch and by herself. She still mows the yard, cooks, drives to town, shovels snow at the back door and feeds the cats. She gave up feeding the sheep last year. When I asked her what she wanted for her birthday it was the new handles. Just something practical. No sense wasting money on senseless stuff (the Robust lathe is not senseless, right?). I asked if she wanted a birthday party and her reply was that she didn't want anyone making a fuss, but having one on her 100th would be okay. She makes me laugh a lot.

I visit her many times a year (she's three hours away). We sit and talk and she tells stories about growing up in the depression, during all the different wars, living in covered wagon when running sheep up to Idaho every year. The stories never end and I have every one written down. Over the past five years she's become one of my best friends. I found over 1000 pictures at the old homestead dating back to 1890 (my great grandfather when he was 9). She told me all the names and stories that went with each photo. Priceless.

I'm actually going down to see her tomorrow for a few days. That means I need to get off my computer and back to those handles!
 

RichColvin

Super Moderator
Staff member
OTI Member
Joined
Mar 13, 2016
Messages
667
Likes
497
Location
Marysville, OH
Website
www.colvintools.com
Damon,

If she wants handles, make the best handles you can. I’m sure she makes the best food she can using it !

Kind regards,
Rich
 

Martin Groneng

Dances the Gouge Jig
Joined
Sep 8, 2017
Messages
61
Likes
169
Location
Peterborough, Ontario, Cananda
Damon, get off this "idiot box" and get those handles made....... NOW!!!

At my "rookie" age, 77, I can relate to this GREAT GRANDMA!!! When one becomes the "elder" on the list, woodturning is still fun, especially for the younger ones. The "kids" don't have the interest that the grand kids do today. Every one just has to go down to the shop with "Grandpa" when they visit and make shavings. Memories are what count now, as the sun sets on a turners shop and their life goes on!!!
 
Joined
Feb 15, 2018
Messages
254
Likes
63
Location
Canton, GA
Man that's great how your grandmother still does stuff--I'm very lucky and my parents who are 90 and 87 are still pretty darn active--I'm pushing old fart status myself--I'm 58 on Thanksgiving day this year...I've made some handles for cooking implements and I used a CA finish on them--super durable and resistant to water etc. I don't like CA usually but it seemed appropriate for these pots I did, and it has turned out to be a good finish for the use.

Best to you and your grandmother!!
 
Joined
Feb 15, 2018
Messages
254
Likes
63
Location
Canton, GA
Thanks Damon, and congrats on your AB--Brent is a really nice fellow, I passed on an AB but I have bought a lot of stuff from Robust, including 5 tool rests for my Vicmarc!!
 
Joined
Jan 24, 2010
Messages
3,058
Likes
900
Location
Cleveland, Tennessee
Word of advice- either write down or voice record her life. It will be valuable in the years to come. It could be made into a book. Recall the Little House on the Prairie series. One of my wife's uncle's recorded on cassette his memories of his life. I know very little of my familie's stories due to the closed-mouth attitude of my parents. BTW, I have a sauce pan that needs a new handle- it was my mother's. I recall her using it when I was a little kid, about 70 years ago.
Example- SE Tennessee is a goldmine of the Cherokee heritage. Several years ago, we went to Cherokee Heritage Days at Red Clay State Park, which was the last gathering place before the Trail of Tears. Fred Bradley is a story teller of Cherokee and other Indian heritage. I was dismayed when he told of a old Cherokee who died many years ago and took with him about 80% of the stories, myths, and legends of the Cherokee people. I couldn't understand why no one thought of writing them down or recording his relating of these valuable parts of the Cherokee heritage.:(
 
Joined
Jan 16, 2017
Messages
307
Likes
414
Location
Eastern Washington
When grandma tells me stories going back to her childhood and that of my grandfather's life I always write it down. I've been emailing my mother the stories and she's amazed at how much she never knew about her parents. She wants me to write a book as well but I think that is beyond my skill set. I would like to find a place to put the stories online so that future generations can read them. My nieces and nephews are too young to care about or appreciate the stories right now. I hate for them to get lost.

Interesting tidbits. Grandma still gets riled up after 90 years when she sees a picture of her first grade teacher, she hated her teacher. The first time grandma slept on a real mattress (age 12) she got sea sick, too soft. When she saw sandwich spread in her sandwiches or brown sugar in the oatmeal she knew her parents had a little extra money. Just a lot of neat tidbits. Driving down in an hour to spend a few days with her, taking her some flowers too.
 
Joined
Jan 16, 2017
Messages
307
Likes
414
Location
Eastern Washington
Damon,

If she wants handles, make the best handles you can. I’m sure she makes the best food she can using it !

Kind regards,
Rich

Rich, I've been eating my grandmother's cooking for 52 years. The only time I ever complained about what was on the table was the dinner after we castrated the lambs. That and liver & onions. Made my self a sandwich and ate in the other room. Otherwise its the best cooking ever! These days though when we visit my spouse and I take all the groceries and do all the cooking. Grandma deserves a break!
 
Joined
May 4, 2010
Messages
2,432
Likes
1,846
Location
Bozeman, MT
What a wonderful woman. Her story has made our day.

There are several archives of oral histories and I suggest you look into the Oral History Association for some direction on what to capture, how best to do it, and what to do when you're done. http://www.oralhistory.org/
Some state historical societies have oral history projects, though any state within three hours of you is probably too young to be looking backwards like that.

Now, about this pressure cooker. I'm wondering what the heck is her big hurry to get dinner done that she needs to use a pressure cooker? Those old gadgets were so finicky and dangerous, everybody got rid of them out of fright. They didn't have any safety features like today's instant pots. It's a miracle both are still functioning well.
 
Joined
Jan 16, 2017
Messages
307
Likes
414
Location
Eastern Washington
Thanks for the link to the oral history association.

She doesn't use the cookers as pressure cookers any more but rather just as lidded pots. They're her favorite pots and she's happy they're fixed.
 
Joined
Jul 26, 2016
Messages
2,326
Likes
1,105
Location
Nebraska
Hard to break old habits most farmers grew up making enough food each day to feed a harvest crew or the number of hungry mouths that worked a farm on a daily basis back in the day. These days with modern equipment and automation the number of people needed to run a farm has dropped greatly. Back in my teens I had to work on several farming operations to learn some life skills and discipline, some of the 5-course meals were memorable after working hard putting up hay, cleaning poultry and hog houses, feeding livestock, operating and working on farm equipment.
 
Joined
Jan 24, 2010
Messages
3,058
Likes
900
Location
Cleveland, Tennessee
Mike, know what you mean. I was pastor of a small church in a rural area of central Kentucky. Helped some members on the farm and we ate good. Didn't gain weight as we worked it off from noon to about 5 PM. Looked at a tractor in Pennsylvania last June- a laptop computer! My father was lucky to have what they called a Heat Houser- canvas hood that covered the engine sides and part of the seat area to direct a bit of heat to him.
 
Back
Top