Stick Barrette Development

I've started developing a stick barrette, and if I can get the basics worked out so that they function well, and I can make them in a reasonable amount of time (so I can keep them affordable!) I'm going to sell them over at my Etsy store. If you happen to check in here, and have anything you'd like me to know, please post a comment below.

Stick barrette with leaf design hair stick

My mom and my sister wore these hair accessories when I was a kid, and I've always liked the simplicity of them. Even simpler, its the stick by itself, so I think I'm going to be offering both if I can get them worked out. What really got me think about them is a couple of big knots in a piece of walnut I have in the shop; knots are typically a pain to deal with, especially loose knot, and even more so when using hand tools. And its not just the knot, buy the wood around the knot, because the grain gets all screwy as the tree grows around the branch. This crazy graining can be really beautiful, but tough to deal with, so I started to think: what can I make to take advantage of the grain? Something curved would take advantage of the grain and give it strength if the grain lines follow the curved piece.

Three nested barrettes tucked back in where they grew

These first few photos show how I traced the curving grain lines around the knot, which I think will really improve the barrette. Normally wooden barrettes came in two types: flat-ish ones that don't really work well with a through stick, and are typically glued to a metal clip-type barrette, and the curved type of wooden barrette, which is susceptible to breaking where the straight grain of the wood runs through the thing curves of the barrette.

The three sizes will work for different volumes of hair

Both the curves of the barrettes and the sticks that I'm working on to go through them will follow the wood grain to strengthen them. The sticks are a little easier to do like that, simply by splitting the wood to size rather than cutting it. Splitting the wood naturally follows the grain lines, and the hair sticks that result can sometimes have softly undulating curves in them that come from the tree's growth. I'm betting that these curves will be both good-looking and help to secure them better in your hair.

My first hair stick test. I'll let you know how it goes.

I took a shot at a hand-split maple hair stick, and the first tester thought it was a little too thick. I wonder if it would be better for someone with thicker hair. This one is a little thicker than a pencil and the straight part of it, at 8-inches, is about a half-inch longer than a new wooden pencil. Overall this hair stick is about 9 1/2-inches.

W. Tyzack, Sons & Turner Carcase Saw

I picked up this nice carcase saw at a yard sale a few weeks ago. I'm not sure of the vintage on this saw but it looks like its 20 or 30 years old. There was some minor discoloration on the plate, no pitting or hard rust. The teeth were pretty sharp and the set seemed pretty even along the length of the cutting edge, just a little gummed up with sap or something. The tote is in fine shape but the finish was just falling off. Looks like it was kept in a damp place or something, I'm not sure but it seemed to have been alligatoring right off. I'm sorry I don't have a nice before photo, I thought I did. I think you can see in this first picture how the finish that's left, is a little funky. The worst of it was in the larger, flat expanses on the cheeks of the tote; the edges were actually holding pretty well. What I didn't like about this tote, other than the finish, is the vestigial signs of the tote design of yesteryear.

After sanding, I penciled in the lamb's tongue and other adjustments

Take a look at the design of this tote. You can see the lamb's tongue right there! Its just... mushed in with the rest of the handle. Its like a tease. So I decided that if I was going to strip this tote anyways I might as well bring a little life back to my new saw, and to myself, because, as you can see, a little part of me died inside when I looked at this thing.

Here it is after a quick trip to the band saw. Hello V-groove.

I'm not trying to recreate an older version W. Tyzack, Sons & Turner saw, so the design I chose is just something I like. Other than restoring the carved lamb's tongue complete with a clip and a real V-groove, I also adjusted the upper and lower curves of the lower horn to accentuate that Western design. The upper curve of the lower horn also rubbed against the bottom of my hand when I held the saw, so I wanted to open it up a little. I also wanted to cut in a double nib at the front of the upper horn.

From below, the reshaped lower horn, lamb's tongue and clip

After the rough cutting it was over to the bench vice with a rasp and a few files. This tote is beech, so it works pretty easily with the grain but shreds across the grain, so I couldn't cut very deep with the rasp without making a mess for myself, so it was easy going and I ended up swapping back and forth from my whittling knife to a small file as I got closer to where I wanted to be. I ended up finishing the shaping with my Dremmel to save my shoulder, which has been bothering me. If I had to do it again, I'd cut the clip in by hand, so its not so deep; seems like a weak spot.

There, doesn't that feel better?

Once it was shaped out nice, then it was only a matter of sanding it down, cleaning off the rest of the old finish and putting a new finish on. I don't have any ruby shellac, and frankly I'm not wild about the original color, and I thought the beech was a little pale, so I rubbed in a little oil stain and set it to dry on my shop made pin board. A guy I worked with years ago described this finishing aid to me. Mine is a piece of fir with box nails driven through it. The piece sits on the nail points to dry and the blemishes are tiny and sand out easily between coats. Thanks Phil!

After the staining, I added a few coats of 2# cut shellac, with a little sanding between coats. While the finish coats were drying I turned to the plate and the sex bolts, which I cleaned up and coated with paste wax. I thought about stripping the plate with abrasives to remove the discolorations, but the plate isn't etched, its just screened, so it would have come right off. I decided that a little cleaning with a scotch bright pad was enough.

All set to go

 
I finished up with a coat of dark Bri-wax rubbed in with 000 steel wool, and reassembled the saw. No re-sharpening right now, I've decided to use it a bit and see if it really needs it. A few tests cuts have confirmed that its good to go for now. Not only does this pretty little saw look better, but it feels better in my hand. Not bad for a few bucks at a yard sale a few hours at the bench.

A last glamour shot

Atkins Saw Restoration

After falling in love with old timey wooden saw totes after building my own, I went out and bought an old timey hand saw with some of the money I made selling buttons over at my etsy store. That's right, I'm putting the money right back into the wood shop.

This is how the E. C. Atkins looked when I got it

This was almost unavoidable I'm afraid; that's what I'm telling my wife in any case. After all of the research I did studying up on saw totes, restoring an old saw was the logical next step for me. Most of the information I found on designing and fabricating wooden totes is from the folks who do that while either making new saws in the old way, or restoring saws. And trust me, I thought about making a saw from scratch too! Maybe not this year though.

The tote is beautifully carved with a flower pattern

The fun part is, you can pick up an old saw for a pretty good price in some cases. And really, all that's missing is a little time and effort to clean the plate (the blade), clean and repair the tote, sharpen and maybe set the teeth, and then put it all back together. Here's how I did mine.

Surface rust and some slight pitting near the tote

First I took lots of photos for record, and so I could get the thing back together properly. I set the tote and the saw bolts aside and focused on the plate. The teeth are in good shape, and the are still pretty sharp and have a nice set to them so I leave them alone and go for the rust. It isn't too bad and the pitting is pretty limited. I start in the sink with really hot water and a scouring pad with some cleaning powder. It gets rid of a lot of the dirt and loose rust which made the next step easier. The hot water heats up the plate so when I dried it, the small amount of water that was left evaporated off pretty quick.

Next I sanded the plate. I set the plate on some newspapers and using glass cleaner as a lubricant, I sanded the plate in long straight strokes with 220 and then 300 grit paper. When I was done, I gave it another good scrubbing in the sink with hot water, dried it and polished it with some paste wax.

The etching on the plate shows pretty well

 The tote was tricky because of the raised flower figures. There was still some finish on it, especially along the edges and in the depressions so I tried some denatured alcohol to it with a rag, and that helped dissolve away what I think was some of the old shellac that had become embedded with dirt and grit. I worried off some paint splatter with a wooden stick to reduce the chances of marring the wood, and then did some very light sanding here and there with 300 grit paper.

Grimy finish, left, and discolored and chipped finish, right

After cleaning it up, i rubbed it with a little raw linseed oil and set it aside to work on the saw bolts. I don't know a lot about saw bolts, but these were heavy, nicely made, and no stripping or damage when I took them out. They look like they might be nickle plated brass. I made a custom screw driver with a wide, thin blade from an old putty knife by grinding it down on the bench grinder. I didn't want to strip out the slots in the saw bolts by using a screw driver that didn't really fit. I cleaned the bolts with a tooth brush and some scouring powder. Once they were set I went back to the tote and added a few coats of shellac to protect the wood.

The cleaned bolts and refinished tote

I tried to be careful not to clean anything so much that it looked like new. I love the age and the history you can see in an old tool and all I'm trying to do is clean off the stuff that causing damage, and add a little protection so the tool can keep on working. So if you look closely (click on any of the pictures to see a larger version) you can still see the old finish in places under the new shellac, dents, nicks and wear, and that's just how a saw this old should look.

The cleaned plate. I haven't touched the teeth.

I don't know a lot about this saw. What I do know is that its an E.C. Atkins & Co., Inc. of Indianapolis, Indiana, 26-inch 6 ppi, and it may be one of the Silver-Steel Perfection line, but I'm not sure. I also think the etch says that this is a no. 65. I may know more if I end up darkening up the etch so I can read it better. If anyone knows anything more about this saw, put it in a comment, I'd love to hear it.

This got me excited about cleaning up old tools, and I was especially interested in some of the techniques I learned for removing rust. This has made a huge difference in the performance (and appearance!) of some of my old tools. In fact, I have some tools that were in such bad shape that I replaced them over the years. So I pulled some of these rusty things out and cleaned them, and wow! I think I may sell some of the surplus over at the etsy store.

Beeswax Wood Polish

So when I make things at the shop, I try to use natural materials whenever I can, and when I sell things, I always use natural materials unless I have a custom request to something different. One of the go-to finishes I use, especially for the smaller items I make, is a beeswax polish. Its really easy to make, and I've seen various of it on the web and elsewhere. Most often I see versions of this polish made with linseed oil or boiled linseed oil, other versions include a little paint thinner, or some other vehicle to make it spread faster (or something.)

 Here's the Moonlight and Snowfall version: 

Beeswax and Walnut oil. That's it.

Small batches work best for me. I grate the beeswax to aid melting.

Walnut oil is an edible oil, that is often sold as a salad oil, or for cooking. Its got a mild walnut odor, and thin consistency, and and soft honey-yellow color. But the important thing to know, is that unlike olive oil, and most other vegetable oils, walnut oil dries. This is a trait that it shares with linseed oil, and some others like tung oil and poppy seed oil. Linseed oil and poppy seed oil are also edible, but obviously need to be labeled as such. Tung oil is not edible and is used mainly as a base for wood sealants and finishes. Boiled linseed oil is another story: unless you boil food grade linseed oil yourself, its not edible, most boiled linseed oil products have added chemicals like petroleum based solvents and metallic driers.

Equal parts oil and wax. Heat together just until the wax melts.

Drying oils go through a process called polymerization. They actually aren't drying as much as curing as they autoxidate when exposed to air. That is, nothing is evaporating, the oil chemically reacts with the air and takes on oxygen, creating long polymer strands and creating a film. The oil actually gets slightly heavier as it takes on oxygen and forms a film. Olive oil, by contrast, won't cure, so if you rub it on your cutting boards and wooden spoons, it may turn rancid.

Let the mixture sit a few minutes until it starts to set.

Beeswax by itself is just too hard to work into the wood. I've tried. I've even finished a table by heating it, pouring it on hot, and then going over it with an old clothes iron to allow it to penetrate the wood surface and then polished it up afterwards. It wasn't worth the effort. Mixing the beeswax with the oil gives the wax a soft-butter consistency, and keep the oils from running all over everything. It works out great.

Stir before stiffens up to keep it soft and spreadable. Note the color change.

I like to measure out the oil in and then add the grated wax directly to the oil so I can see the oil level rise. When it gets to double, I know I'm 50/50 oil and wax. I'm only making about 1/4 cup of polish here, so I microwave the mixture for 30 seconds and watch it. As soon as the wax melts, I stop it and take it out to cool at room temperature.

Move it to container that isn't too big, and seal to keep it soft.

I apply this polish with my fingers, and work it into the wood, and then let it dry. The polish sets up enough to buff it up and add another coat in a few hours. The oil takes longer to dry completely, but the polished items can be handled and even used except for contact with delicate items that may stain or darken if oil were to soak out, so I'd be careful with things like silk or even important papers until the finish is completely dry.

This polish is fun, simple, works great, smells good, and is safe enough to make and use with kids. I get my beeswax from the beekeepers barn at the Topsfield Fairgrounds, here in Massachusetts. You want real, natural beeswax, which also smells great. When I'm done polishing, I rub the excess into my hands. Its great in the winter time, I've even rubbed it on chapped lips. Don't try that with a wood polish you buy in the store!


UPDATE: I made a pretty big batch for this post in April of 2014, and it is now almost December. I've never tried to keep this polish for this long, and its been sitting at room temperature. It doesn't smell as much like fresh roasted walnuts and beeswax anymore, the scent seems to have faded, and it is getting tacky where its in contact with the air inside the jar. If you're planning to make more than what you can use in a few months, it may make sense to keep this polish in the fridge; the walnut oil is perishable. I would recommend smaller batches, made as needed. That's what I'm going to go back to.

New Saw Tote

I got it into my head to try and make a new saw tote for a cheap rip saw I've had for 20 years or so. Not because the handle that came with it was damaged, but because it was so ugly and uncomfortable to use. It was also missing one of the three saw bolts, and was loose. Frankly, the saw is probably not worth the effort, but the process looked intriguing so I gave it a go. This saw, by the way, is a Stanley 26-inch, 7ppi rip saw with what appears to be hardened teeth. I was able to sharpen this saw however, so I'm not sure.

I started by making a pattern for the new tote. The existing handle was plastic, so no help there. I wanted an old timey look and feel, so I did a little online research and found this huge community of saw lovers, and an amazing amount of great information available about fixing, restoring, and making hand saws. This convinced me of two things: I can definitely do this, and this is definitely a worthless saw to try this with. I figured my efforts were never going to improve the saw itself, but what I would learn would be worth it, and I was going to have some fun. click on the pictures to enlarge

Drawing the tote pattern in CAD

I pulled the old handle off and scanned the blade. Then I imported the scanned blade, along with the tote patterns and images I liked best for this saw. You can see in the picture above that I used a tote pattern from Two Guys in a Garage Tool Works thanks guys! and a great photo of a late 18th century panel saw posted in an article by Matthew Cianci over at WK Fine Tools. thanks to Matthew Cianti I also got some great advise on sizing the tote to fit my hand over at Blackburn Tools. and thanks to Isaac Smith There were some other resources I used for inspiration as well, but these were the main ones.

The tote after roughing

Most totes are just about 1-inch thick or a little thinner, down to 7/8-inch. I had some 5/4 black walnut and decided to make my tote a little thicker, and not plane off too much stock. I figured that chunky feel would make holding the saw easier on the hands. So I scoffed at a few hundred years of tote making and I guess I'll find out. The finished tote is just about 1 1/8-inch.

The new tote and the plastic one its replacing

Lamb's tongue detail

I used a small round over bit in the router to hit the hard edges, and then took it to the vice and did the rough shaping with a rasp, and then cleaned it up with a small file. You can just see it beyond the totes in the picture above. I don't have a handle for this file, as I normally don't use it for hours at a time. You can see that I added a wire nut to the tang to keep it from digging a hole in my hand. Worked like a charm!

Countersinking for saw nuts

I drilled out the holes for the saw nuts with a pilot hole first to make sure I was aligned with the holes in the blade, and then used the pilot hole to guide the spade bit I used to countersink for the saw bolts. I then went back and enlarged the holes, larger on the right side for the female portion of the sex bolts.

Slot cutting rig. Blocks hold the tote from wiggling around.

To cut the slot for the blade, I hunted around for the right-sized saw and they were all too wide until I ran across this old Disston panel saw I have that I haven't used because its so dull, and its also missing a saw bolt, as you can see in the photo. So I sharpened the saw up a little and then tapped out the set on the teeth. This rig I set up to cut the slot is a piece of plywood that the saw bade rides on to get it to the center of the tote. It wasn't exact so I used a few sheets of paper to bring the tote into alignment and then clamped everything to my drill press table. Its at the perfect height.

Cutting the slot with my no-set Disston panel saw

Once the slot was cut and checked, it was only a matter of sanding, finishing with some shellac I mixed up and attaching the bolts. I had a heck of a time finding saw bolts! No one carries them, I even went to Stanley tools on-line, they have three kinds, which are all listed as 'not available.' There are some folks offering beautiful brass bolts for way more money than my crummy saw is worth, so I finally found some by Great Neck and bought two packages of ten from Amazon. A package of ten is less than a single custom brass unit from some of the saw manufacturer's out there. They're nickle plated steel, so they may rust, but I've got spares! Throw in a few books, including "Hand Tools: Their Ways and Workings", by Aldren A. Watson, which I'll tell you all about later, and the shipping is free. Now, free, I can afford.

Shellacking the tote

I mixed up a 2# cut of shellac so I could lay on multiple thin coats. I've had these shellac flakes in my shop for something like 25 or 30 years, maybe longer than I've had this saw, and this is the first time I've used them. After the first coat dried and the grain raised, I sanded it out with 320 grit paper and added a few more coats, then touched it up with the sandpaper again, before finishing it with a few more coats. I though about adding the traditional wheat pattern to the handle, or even my initials to the cheeks, but was undecided, so I figured I could add them later. That's what I did on my mallet.

The finished tote attached to the cleaned and sharpened saw

I cleaned the rust off the blade using scouring powder, a scotch brite pad and really hot water. Yes, water. Especially when its really hot, as soon as you dry the blade the heat evaporates off any remaining water. Then I sanded off what was left with 220, then 320 paper and tried my hand at sharpening. The teeth are hardened, but not too much, so I was able to get a nice edge on the teeth. All that was left was putting it all together. With the teeth nice and sharp and the rust taken off the blade, it cuts a lot better than it used to, and boy is it better looking.

Bench Hook

As part of my reconnecting with hand tools I made myself a bench hook. It's almost too simple to be worth talking about, but that's where the beauty of this gizmo shines: it's so simple, but really handy. If I had to think about it, I'd say that you could probably boil down the worth of a homemade tool as a ratio of how useful it is, over the value of its manufacture in time and resources. The equation looks like this:

V = U/{T + r + wt}

Nah, I'm just kidding. I made that equation up, but I'm serious about value. There are guys out there building table saws and joiner from scratch out of wood and swimming pool parts. Honestly, these projects are fascinating but I'm not sure their usefulness balances with the time and effort that's put into them. I'm sure there are better examples, and I also understand that there are other, less quantifiable, benefits to these efforts (such as enjoyment and learning potential) but for me, some things are just more efficient to purchase.

The bench hook, by comparison, is NOT something that anyone should buy. It is easily made with scrap wood in about 5 minutes and makes all kinds of things easier. Especially when you don't have a vise! With a little more effort you can square it up nice, and even add a 45-miter on one side and you can use it as a quick miter box for things that don't need to be dead on, just run the saw blade along the edge of the base and the end of the fence.

The design is simple: a rectangle of wood or plywood, with a stop or fence attached to either end, on opposite sides. One stop hooks onto the edge of the bench, the other is used to trap your work against. Easy. And when it wears out, you make a new one. You can even reuse the scrap for something else.

Final analysis: make one today.

Wedge Vise

I have a machinist's vise, which works great, and I've recently made a set of wood jaws for it--maybe I'll point them out in a future post--so I can get by, but what I really needed was a bench vise to hold stock in place for planing, chisel work, etc. so I made this simple wedge vise. Actually, I made two, you can see the smaller, vertical wedge vise mounted to the face of the bench for clamping boards vertically. In the first image, you can see that I have small board tapped into the vise on edge, but an even better idea, would be a third type of wedge vise for working the edges, as shown in this Rockler article.

The draw backs of this system is lack of flexibility. The size of wood these units can handle is based on how far apart the jaws of the vise are set. I tried to pick a size that works for me, but I still end up blocking the vise with scraps to make up the difference in wood sizes.

Using the vise is simple. The stock is placed flat on the bench, with one end against the fixed jaw, and then the wedge is tapped in place with a wooden mallet. To release, just tap on the other end. Once a piece is in the vise, the whole bench will move when the clamped stock is shaken, so it really holds.

I made my vise out of 5/4 pine scrap. The long angle is 15-degrees, if I remember correctly, and its back-cut at 30 to 35-degrees, so that when you tap the wedge in place, it dives in under the fixed jaw and won't work loose. I cut the mated pieces out of one scrap on my compound miter saw, and then just screwed the fixed jaws to the bench. As you can see, my bench is 3/4-inch plywood sheathing on a frame of old 2x framing lumber, so I can beat on it (and screw things to it!)

This system won't take the place of a nice bench vise and some bench dogs, but until the time I get something like that, this is what I'll stick with. Since I took these photos, I've added a few bench dogs to help with clamping different sized pieces, including a set that runs perpendicular, so that I can drop in a scrap, and use the vise for edge work as I mentioned above. So far, so good!

Marking Gauge

So I've been really interested in hand tools recently, but not just hand tools; old school hand tools. It a back-to-basics feeling that's behind it and I like the fact the I'm more closely connected to the work. Not that I'm not connected with power tools is there a joke in there somewhere? its just that all that high speed and high power which works so well, has safety precautions that necessarily separate me from the work, so the work doesn't separate me from my fingers.

That, and its really satisfying to use a smoothing plane to square up a piece of stock that came out of a log 20 minutes ago.

This particular project however has very little of the lately of the log caste, just the birch wedges in the beam and the fence; the former holds the scribing blade in place, and the latter fixes the beam within the fence body. I'm a big fan of wedges.

So this is my first marking gauge, but I don't think it will be my last. I've never owned a marking gauge so just getting used to using it is fun. I've used a sharp knife to mark my work I'm actually working on a marking knife now but the gauge does things the knife and a straight edge can't do, and it does some of the same things, only better.

Long straight marks, parallel to the edge of a board: marking gauge. Square lines across the end of a board a set distance off the end: you could do it with a square and a marking knife but boy is it easy with a marking gauge.

Scrap wood marking gauge

 The fence is mahogany, and the beam is some hard-as-a-rock mystery wood from a pallet I have, and the two wedges are birch, as I mentioned.

The design of the beam is rounded on the bottom, so that when the wedge which runs over the top of of the beam is tightened, the beam is pushed down into the rounded mortise. This keeps the beam from wiggling left to right, as opposed to just top to bottom, which is what a wedge may do if the beam was rectangular. This basic idea I got from Sumokun over at YouTube. Sumokun does some beautiful woodcraft with not a lot of space and no fancy tools. He says it comes from a Popular Woodworking design, based on an old French design. Thanks Sumokun.

I made some additional modifications: I wedged the scoring blade, rather than setting it into the end of the beam with a screw, and I set in a brass plate on the face, to keep the face from wearing. The wedged blade idea came from Steve Emmons, who says he learned how to make his gauge from a Fine Woodworking article. The rectangular mortise in the Emmons gauge is made by assembling the fence from four pieces, and leaving the mortise as a void space, clamped around the beam to insure a tight fit. If I make another one, I may try that, altho the round bottom (made with a 1/2-inch Forstner bit prior to squaring up the mortise) is a nice feature to leave out. I think a similar feature could be had with a beam--and mortise--that is wedge shaped on the bottom

The gauge broken down to its parts

The scoring blade is made from a jigsaw blade: I ground the teeth off, cut it to length and sharpened the end to a short knife point. You can see the detail of the wedge that holds the beam in place in this photo. The little hook on the end keeps it from falling out when loosening the gauge. In fact, its pretty easy to use the gauge one handed, which is pretty nice--and not possible with the thumb screw type.

Wooden Mallet

This blog is the companion to my Etsy Shop of the same name, where I sell buttons, baubles, and other things I make in the shop downstairs. You can find the shop here, if you're interested. If you've come over here from the shop to check out what's going on or if you've stumbled onto this blog from my other blog about books, reading, libraries, and robots, here's what's up: I'm planning on putting up notes about the shop, what I'm working on, and whats working (and what isn't.) Feel free to comment where ever you like, and I'll check in and write back as soon as I can.

In the shop, the things I make I try to keep all natural, so that includes the stains and finishes I use. I love to recycle old wood, but I also try to make sure that it hasn't been treated. For example: pallet wood can be great, but I don't know if its been treated with anything, such as a preservative, or a pesticide, so I won't use it for anything I sell. In fact, I don't use it much at all, as its not something I have ready access to.

I love hand tools, and I'm learning more about them every day, but I also love power tools, and I put them to good use around the shop. I'll probably discuss the tools in a little detail in later posts, but just to get things going, I'll share one of the first tools I made here at the shop.

Moonlight wooden mallet

Check out the wooden mallet; as I said, its one of the first tools I made here at the shop, and I use it for working chisels, and for setting the wedges in my wedge vice--more on the wedge vices later--the head is maple, and the handle is birch. I split the pieces out of firewood I had in the yard.

The head was sawn into three sections, and the center section was cut to remove a wedge shape to support the handle, and then the pieces were glued back together. The handle was shaped and then I added two cuts into the top, slid it into the head, and then added mahogany wedges to expand the handle to fit the wedge shaped recess in the head.

The decorations on the head featuring my initials, were chip carved in with a knife, and then I oiled the entire mallet with walnut oil. Walnut oil makes a great finish, because it penetrates and brings out the grain, but unlike other oils such as mineral oil or olive oil, walnut oil dries. I know boiled linseed oil dries, but that's because chemical and metallic drier are often added. Raw linseed oil will dry eventually, but it takes a long time, and gets tacky in the interim.

If you have any ideas about what I should add here, or what I should try in the shop, or if you just want to say hi, please leave a comment, here or anywhere else around here, and I'll find it.

UPDATE: The mallet post seems to get a lot of hits, so I put together a sketch of the way its put together. Click on the image to blow it up (that's true for all of the images) and if you think it would be helpful for me to post the sketchup model, let me know and I will.

SketchUp model of mallet construction. Let me know if I should post the model