New tap handle(s)

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MadDwarf

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Location
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Just finished this one up yesterday. My goal is to do 6 of these with different woods and celtic knot patterns. It remains to be seen whether my attention span is up to the task (hint - smart money is on me burning out around 2 1/2 :))




Here's a pic of it installed...





And what will hopefully be a full mug-shot lineup eventually.



Hopefully by posting this here, I'll shame myself into finishing the project. :mug:
 
Wow!! That is beautiful!

I know what you mean about attention spans. :D However, it's not as if you have to crank these all out in a night, right? Take as long as you need...time is gonna pass either way. Would you rather look back and be impressed with all six or look back and say "what if..."? So what if it takes a full year or even longer?

-Tripod
 
That is extremely awesome! I think looking at that next to the plain black ones will be good motivation. Plus, like Tripod said, you don't have to get them done immediately and the time is going to pass. You should start a new one each time you brew a beer and try to have it done by the time it is ready to carb. Of course that may mean slowing down the number of brews you have going.... :)
 
Totally jealous of the carving skills here. My skills kind of topped out at the marshmallow roasting stick.
 
Totally jealous of the carving skills here. My skills kind of topped out at the marshmallow roasting stick.

lol, same here! Actually I made a bow once, broke in half the first time I tried to use it.:eek: I blame the wood, my awesome woodcarving skills couldn't be at fault!
 
I think it would look better with a Miller Lite logo on it. Oh well, maybe the next one.


Seriously though, beautiful.
 
Very cool

What tools were used?
Rotary like a Dremmel?
All hand?
 
Not sure exactly how long it took. I worked on it for a couple weeks, but it was all little chunks of time here and there. I'll try and keep better track on the next one. Should get faster, since I'm kinda figuring out how to do this as I go. I'd be surprised if I ever got fast enough to be able to sell them though - Lord knows I wouldn't pay me to make these :).

Tools for this don't need to be terribly expensive. I used a drill and scroll saw to rough out the outline, then carved the rest by hand. You could do the rough-out with a coping saw instead, if you don't have a scroll saw. I did some of the initial carving with a cheap Exacto knife, then visited a woodworking store and picked up a couple actual carving tools. Most useful were a small detail knife and chisel, but a gouge came in handy occasionally. Those are neat, but aren't truly necessary - could have finished it with the Exacto. Final cleanup was with strips of sandpaper and small diamond files. You can get a full set of those for a few bucks at HarborLowesDunnDepot.

I sealed the handle by rubbing in a couple coats of gel varnish, plus a bit of Danish Oil for the bits way in the middle that were too hard to reach with a cloth. The wood for the first handle is basswood, which I'm already completely bored with. It's supposed to be the most popular carving/whittling wood, and it does cut very nicely. However, it has no grain pattern to speak of so the finish doesn't bring out much of interest, and sanding leaves lots of fuzzy bits rather than clean planes. Going to try a little bit harder wood next, which is probably a standard noob carving error that'll earn me a few stitches.

I can post some in-progress pics of the next one if anyone's interested in giving it a try.
 
Wow..............I mean Wow. I think I shall attempt to copy this, allthough the bar has been set pretty high indeed, really good work.
 
Right, so I mentioned that I get sidetracked onto other projects easily, yes? Good, now that that's out of the way, I finally got around to finishing handle #2. Strangely, it was other carving that got in the way - once I finished the first, I kept finding (or having found for me) other small projects to try. Maybe I'll get to the rest more quickly. Or not, whichever :)

This one is cherry - I found a nice piece of scrap that had a nice color shift between the heartwood and the sapwood and centered the knotwork on the dividing line.




And the current lineup...

 
...I did a lot of carving in my youth...mostly caricatures and things...sort of like these examples...

http://www.pioneermtwoodworking.com/catalog7.html

...not carved in a long time...from this thread it sounds like you are just starting...keep up the good work...looks great!

Of note, I have a lot of different carving tools...oddly, this (with the curved blade) was always my favorite..

http://www.xacto.com/Product/X3261

Cheers!
 
Now that is craftsmanship! Amazing

+1 for me if you feel like selling a few

The nicest looking thing I have seen in a while
 
DAMN! I dabble in woodwork, but you are an artist. The second one is by far nicer. Nice choice of wood. Are these designs just in your head or are you going off a drawing/template?

Too bad tiger maple is so expensive...
 
...I did a lot of carving in my youth...mostly caricatures and things...sort of like these examples...

http://www.pioneermtwoodworking.com/catalog7.html

...not carved in a long time...from this thread it sounds like you are just starting...keep up the good work...looks great!

Of note, I have a lot of different carving tools...oddly, this (with the curved blade) was always my favorite..

http://www.xacto.com/Product/X3261

Cheers!

Nice stuff, Woodstone. Yeah, I've done some woodworking, but I'm fairly new to actual carving. Thanks to craigslist, though, I've got a much larger tool collection than I did a few months ago :) The Xacto blades haven't come out in awhile - had to dig a couple tips out that snapped in a tight corner, so don't use them as often.

DAMN! I dabble in woodwork, but you are an artist. The second one is by far nicer. Nice choice of wood. Are these designs just in your head or are you going off a drawing/template?

Too bad tiger maple is so expensive...

Thanks for the compliments, all. I sketched out a design freehand first, then once I had it all cleaned up I made a copy and glued it to the wood before drilling and sawing out the holes. Not sure if that's what you meant by a template? The original designs were mine, at least as much as anyone can lay claim to variations of celtic knotwork that's been around for centuries :)

Trying to decide on my next wood - will probably go with black walnut, so I can have some darker handles for porters and stouts. I've got a few beautiful scraps of figured wood, including some curly maple, but I'm not sure whether the pattern would show up very well, since there aren't very many unbroken surfaces.
 
So cool. You may have a side business if you notice these comments....
 
Got caught up enough on other woodworking projects that I have time to try another handle. I got some questions about process on the last one, so I'll try to post a few more "in progress" pictures this time.

Here's the design I'm planning to use. May end up needing to simplify it some more if the gaps are too tight, though - it's more detailed than the last one. I've been tinkering with the drawing off and on for a bit, trying to come up with something that suggests a stylized hop vine. Comments/suggestions welcome.

Next steps are to choose a wood, glue the template down, and cut out the voids with a scroll saw.

Handle3_Template.jpg
 
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