This is the style in planning on making for my own use. Hopefully i can find a club member with a metal lathe to borrow (use), but if it's absolutely had to i could turn on my wood lathe i guess.
Gregory
-
It's time to cast your vote in the April 2025 Turning Challenge. (click here for details) -
Congratulations to Steve Bonny for "A Book Holds What Time Lets Go" being selected as Turning of the Week for 28 April, 2025 (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.
Tool handles
- Thread starter Rusty Nesmith
- Start date
Gregory
Woodturning gouges, skew, scrapers. (plus drill, tap)
I posted my document here:
When making them from steel I use a metal-cutting lathe.
JKJ
your aluminium inserts are very like i make for my handles. Mine are slightly different as I press them in to 25mm or 1" tube. The insertion aea on min e would be longer and on larger tools I drill a couple small holes in the tube to allow CA to be poured in and set around the insert.
One style of handle adapter I have made in the past. The adapter has a 1/2" bore but I also made inserts in 3/8", 5/16", and later 1/'4". Made the handle very useful in what it will hold. I found one setscrew is plenty.
I like this Larry. I might have to consider this design. I can see utility in multiple sizes in one handle.
Gregory
This is what I recently did for a new gouge . Used 1.5 inch aluminum 5 inches long . Could probably be made shorter. The 16 inch rod at $20 will yield 3 inserts. Had not tapped when photo made. Used pecan for handle. 
Very nice! I like the taper on the end. Some questions:
What aluminum alloy do you use?
Where do you buy from? Local, online?
What size gouge shaft do you accommodate with the 1.5" diameter stock? (I usually use smaller diameter stock)
I usually order from Online Metals but their cost for 1.5" round rod of 6061-T651 or -T6511 extruded is higher per inch.
Amazon 6061 T651
this one is for a 3/8 bowl gouge but what would have been less wasteful would be a 1 inch bar. I looked at online metals but this one was cheaper by far. solid aluminum round rod
this one is for a 3/8 bowl gouge but what would have been less wasteful would be a 1 inch bar. I looked at online metals but this one was cheaper by far. solid aluminum round rod
I have these and don't love them. The threading on the inside is *extremely* fine and shallow. If you follow their template, it leaves some room by design to further tighten up the ferrules if they loosen — aesthetically speaking, I don't love the resulting gap — but on one of my handles, when I went to tighten up a loosening ferrule, it just pulled the minuscule threads right off the wood. This was using white ash. I might try building up the stripped part with a very thin layer of epoxy to see if I can get the threads to bite again, otherwise I need to turn a new handle.
I prefer the more common type of insert that seats into a mortise in the handle. I have one from Cindy Drozda that works great, and I have an aluminum rod sitting by my mini metal lathe so I can make some of my own...eventually.
Amazon has two 1” by 11” aluminum bars for $19.
I've looked at those. One thing I really like is they are color code to size. It's not all that important, but looks nice.
Gregory
They are made by Thompson tools.
Thanks. Those do seem like good prices. I just ordered 6 bars of various sizes to evaluate. I can always use extra stock (until my shelves collapse from the weight) My local friends know where to come when they need metals! Besides aluminum, brass, and small steel I keep 20' lengths of steel i-beam, channel, square tubing/rod and other shapes in a separate shed - great to have on hand when you need to fix or build something NOW!
I see some suggestion these round rods may a "Kosovo" product but all say they are sold by XinDaQi. If that's a Chinese company they may be harder to get in the future depending on which way the wind blows. I assume what they are advertising now is in stock locally since they are telling me delivery will be tomorrow. If they look good, I may ask Online Metals if they can match prices.
JKJ
You mentioned Anodising in another thread John. Be aware that some alloys are better than others for anodising.
Edit: Google says it needs to have a low Silica content!
Edit: Google says it needs to have a low Silica content!
Has anyone had any luck direct threading the wood? I have the Bosch handles but wanted shorter versions, so I made these.
I took the idea from an old AW article, that I believe was written by Ellsworth.
I just made them so I can't speak to the durability of the threads, but I used hard maple, and so far, so good.
I took the idea from an old AW article, that I believe was written by Ellsworth.
I just made them so I can't speak to the durability of the threads, but I used hard maple, and so far, so good.
I bought one of those Oneway jobs, and the set of templates that are supposed to help you turn the perfect taper for them. I'm a reasonably careful person, but I had a time getting the fitting on the shaft, and I'm not really happy. It was a wenge handle, if that matters. but with the template fitting perfectly it was no go to threading the fitting on. I had to go significantly smaller. I doubt I will go that way again.
Yes, agree completely. I have only done one, on wenge, but not happy at all. I had to go much smaller than the template said.
I presume you are talking about the set screws. Some number of years ago Lee Valley had a magazine and published an article on using metal threads in wood. Result was a better grip than wood screws. I have some handles similar but the screw goes thru the copper feral into wood
I have many, many species here and like turning almost all of them. EXCEPT wenge. I gave most away, use what I have left for blocking when clamping for glueups, actually got disgusted and threw some in the burn barrel.
Don't know about using it for handles, never tried.
For handles, I like cherry, ash, oak, maple, ebony, persimmon (american ebony).
Bubinga is nice to work with and I think it looks good.
JKJ
I have used heli-coil thread repair coils to strengthen threads in wood. Much more durable than threading the wood directly. There are plenty of other threaded inserts available. I like. The heli-coil because they are very small.
I LOVE bubinga, so far it is my favourite wood to turn. But I don't mind turning wenge, and I like the handle just fine. I just don't like those Oneway ferrules. I don't have a better picture of it. Bubinga on the left.
Wenge looks nice, especially if you bleach it. I did read many years ago though that if you got a splinter from it in your hand or fingers it virtually always turns septic. Something to look out for perhaps.
It absolutely does. When I am in cabinetmaker mode and working with wenge, if I get a splinter I let it fester a bit, then remove it.
Ok, if I accidentally get any more wenge I will ship it to Nova Scotia.
Too splintery for me, or maybe that's just with that I got.
JKJ
One of my most important “tool Handles” is this one. I bought a couple of Pizza Peels some time ago and they came with rather uncomfortable rectangular section rubberwood handles. As a wood turner I obviously had to replace them. Simple turning job plus a slot cut on the bandsaw for the blade. 
With Wenge, if you just look at it wrong, you get nasty, and I mean really nasty splinters. Some one used to use the tag line, "putting the bubba in Bubinga". I loved that one.... One of my Big Ugly tools has a Baltic birch handle made from 2 pieces of 1/2 ply and a sandwich filler in the middle. Just about any straight grained piece of wood will work. I did have one a long time ago, and I was knocking it on my bench to get some of the gunk off, and it split cross grain. Ideal would be to rive blanks off of a board, but that is not always possible.
robo hippy
robo hippy
Easier to rive them from a green tree! For tool handles around the farm I got advice from an old book to get a straight hickory tree, not too big in diameter, saw into lengths, then use a froe to rive along the grain to make handle length blanks. Put them in the barn loft and forget about them and let them dry. When a handle is needed, shape one with a spokeshave on a shaving horse.
I did just (almost) that: had to remove some small hickory trees, had a good froe, made a heavy glut mallet from a small dogwood tree, and split various lengths from the tree. Since then I've used them to make axe and a foot adz handles with a spokeshave, and turned a couple of handles on the lathe for farm use. Still have some left in the barn loft!
Here are a couple of very old froes, one with a handle, both obviously forged by hand.
I found one at an antique store, the other in the dirt under an abandoned, collapsing barn.
BTW, any steel I find like this I test with the spark method to see if it's TRUE wrought iron, in demand by blacksmiths. I have a bucket-full waiting for the right blacksmith. (I understand there remains only one supplier of true wrought iron in the world.)
The advantage of splitting along the grain with the froe as opposed to sectioning a sawn plank is you get no side or even angled cross grain and the handle remains VERY strong along it's full length. If I turned huge things with vigor, I might make turning tool handles, but for what I like to turn cherry is fine. (Or even basswood might work.)
I turned this handle for my favorite shuffle hoe. Had to turn it just as I do a thin spindle (I don't use a steady rest)
Was long enough to be a challenge to control the vibration with the left hand.
Even with a bed extension on the PM3520b I had both the headstock and the tailstock barely gripping the ends of the bed.
A new shovel handle from the same tree.
A friend told me that hickory riven like this is excellent for steam bending.
JKJ
Don't get much hickory out here on the left coast.... "That ain't a shovel, it is a friggin idiot stick. The smart end has a shovel blade on it..... Of course, I was a certified engineer of the idiot stick!
robo hippy
robo hippy
I have used direct threading on a number of projects, and it worked well. Whether it will withstand the dynamic forces involved in turning is a good question. Do some testing with the wood, drill bit and taps you intend using. Wear your face shield! Garret Wade once sold a wood threading kit, as did Lee Valley. The GW guide is attached, as well as the LV Tech Bulletin, a Popwood article, and another from Woodcuts.
Attachments
I see I am not the only one who read Wood Cuts
Don, thank you for posting those resources. Great reading.
I used the handles extensively this weekend, and I'm pretty happy so far. My grinders are a little to close together, and I find that I'm more likely to do a quick sharpen when I don't have to swing the long handles around.
I think I will incorporate the recommendation to reinforce with CA.
BWL
I’ve been giving some more thought to those OneWay Ferrules. They do look nice with the Red Anodising, but when available over here they’re not cheap.
It then occurred to me that I could make my own but without the tapered “thread”. I could just machine a parallel socket and epoxy the ferrule to the handle? It would perhaps be a little more economical on Aluminum stock compared to the inserted type I usually make, like these I posted earlier?
It then occurred to me that I could make my own but without the tapered “thread”. I could just machine a parallel socket and epoxy the ferrule to the handle? It would perhaps be a little more economical on Aluminum stock compared to the inserted type I usually make, like these I posted earlier?
Absolutely. Not sure it would be more economical, but in general the cost of the material is small compared to the utility.
I've made an internal metal socket epoxied to an external wood cylinder several times. The most recent was when I made a special piano turning "hammer" for a friend, specifically for tuning grand pianos. I made the ferrule from steel. It was quick and easy. I didn't need to drill and tap for set screws since he wanted a permanently fixed extension on the tool. In this case, the parallel socket could be short since that shaft was also epoxied into the handle which made it very strong.
I just drilled the large parallel hole then tapered the outside a bit for looks. I roughed up the inside of the socket with a file for the epoxy to grip. The handle was carefully shaped to fit his hand (these are always used one-handed). Note: I always use taper shank drill bits when possible on the metal or wood lathe. A boring bar would make it easier larger sockets.
Ebony and steel.
JKJ
Personally, I have come to the conclusion that the inserted ones with set screws, like you picture, are the best idea overall if you want to be able to remove the tool. I don't intend to mess around anymore, just go straight to the inserts. Hosaluk or Drozda probably. Wish the Hosaluk ones were available in Canada.