Check out my new fancy tap handles

[stat]

So I was in old town spring here in houston. It's kind of a tourist trap/arts and crafts area. There's a good wine shop and hot sauce store I frequent.
On a whim I decided to go into the clock shop there and they had these cool little carvings next to the register. Anyway I took a card from the carver and sent her an email with some ideas for tap handles.

So from left to right we got Old Man Kolsch, a cream colored spiral, a scroll with my "brewery" name and mascot, a tikiman, and toofless the drunkard.
The kolsch one is modeled after my dad since every damn beer I make him is too "bitter" (the iiipa is a joke) The only beer I make that he likes is kolsch.

The spiral is for swmbo's cream soda.

The scroll is self explanatory, the mascot is my great dane jagermeister. His nick name is baeger because hes never far from the dinner table.

The tikiman is because I just like tiki stuff and I'm trying to perfect a coconut porter so its many iterations are almost a staple around here.

Toofless the drunkard is just for whatever else is on tap, right now its apfelwein.

All of these are hand carved and painted and came with the threaded insert.

She had never thought about doing tap handles until I contacted her, but since they turned out so nice she said she was going to start making a lot more and different ones. Regular turned ones to custom stuff. Hell maybe I'll convince her to be a vendor on this forum.

I got them all from www.wildvinecarvings.com

 

[jaycount]

Those are amazing, and they seem like good prices for such great looking handles

 

[Mpavlik22]

Dude those are nice. Extremely great quality and detail.

 

[thegerm]

I grew up in spring. My aunt worked in one of those shops for like 15 years. Those are very cool

 

[aerialmedical]

Woohoo! Those are nice. Looks like she's already got a tap handles section on her website. Let her know you want one custom tap handle for every 10 she sells...you know, for creative inspiration. Haha!

 

[Revvy]

They are amazing.

And they make me miss my late father. He used to carve, until his site went. I have all his tools, and even some of his carvings, both finished and unfinished.

Maybe if I ever keg, I'll thread some of his carvings for tap handles, and even try my hand at doing some of my own. I kept some wood he used to use for blanks, they'd be perfect.

 

[birvine]

Nice handles.

B

 

[shutupjojo]

Wow. Great! Makes me want to start carving.

 

[Hobnob]

Wow! Those are sweet!

 

[bwomp313]

Those are really awesome and personal for you which is really great for your home brewery.

 

[lastsecondapex]

Those are amazing, and they seem like good prices for such great looking handles

Where are the prices listed? Those are incredible

Edit: nm, my phone isn't friendly with their site

 

[bob1852]

looks like $50/ea.

 

[kenlock]

Cool!! Nice find.

 

[Conan]

Fantastic! Make a great gift, eh? I'm highly impressed by her work- everything on the site is just amazing. Kyle

 

[unionrdr]

I was just thinking a tap handle of one of the Easter Island statues would be cool. Or one of the grays maybe for an extreme brew. Or ones that look like the old Gothic goblin water spouts. I used to mess with carving. Even lumps of hard clay just for kicks.

 

[Revvy]

I was just thinking a tap handle of one of the Easter Island statues would be cool. Or one of the grays maybe for an extreme brew. Or ones that look like the old Gothic goblin water spouts. I used to mess with carving. Even lumps of hard clay just for kicks.

I used to do a lot of FIMO (Polymer Clay) art years ago. That stuff would work great for making tap handles.

 

[Clann]

Isn't fimo what hippies play with?

 

[unionrdr]

So we did...Nothing wrong with being an aging hipster. And,for the record,we're not tree huggers. More like OG counter culture.

 

[Clann]

I was just kidding

I am guilty of making a few fimo beads and such. I was raised around a bunch of hippies

 

[unionrdr]

No problem,I was just rollin with it. It made me think of this old funk song. "Every time I try to roll with the punches,I get knocked on the ground,by all this,BS goin down. Time is truly wastin"...

 

[neovox]

Very very cool.

 

[funkapottomous]

Those are AMAZING. I will have to make a trip down to OTS once I get a kegerator setup.

 

[malc]

I have been looking for somebody that could do this kind of thing. Great find.

 

[stat]

Thanks for all the comments, I'm trying to get the carver to make an account here and maybe set some sort of deal up for hbt people, who knows. I've been using them for a couple days now and they're sturdier than they look. I was afraid of breaking them at first.

 

[Homercidal]

Those are amazing and gives me an idea for some chip carving I've got knives for but never started.

She should advertise on here (I think it's like $75 a year or something??) I think a lot of people on here would appreciate that kind of custom craftsmanship. They really aren't very expensive for what you get.

And, really Revvy? You aren't kegging YET??

 

[Xantus954]

Very nice looking pieces!

 

[firebird400]

Envy

Very nice indeed

 

[emjay]

$75 for the Tikiman... I wonder what the price is for something like the Old Man Kolsch.

When somebody said the prices were good, I thought, "$200 for something like that would typically be considered more than reasonable, but any more than $150 and I'd rather just go with something cheap but nice-looking."

$75 for something like the Tikiman is an absolutely killer deal though. I'm expecting to get a keezer put together in maybe 6 months or so, but I'm kind of thinking of getting these done ASAP as I feel like the prices are BOUND to go up. Absolutely awesome though. I think it'd be cool to get a caricature of each person in my family + the dog!

 

[WildVine]

Hello everyone! Stat suggested this forum to me (I am the wood carver he mentioned). I wanted to thank everyone who posted with these wonderful comments, and let yall know that I am very excited about creating more handles. I have lots more ideas, and will be posting more designs very soon on my website.

I am very grateful to those who have emailed requests! Please keep in mind that I can truly carve anything you can think of, any size you like. I am also producing standard turned handles with hardware, in various woods.

Have a great weekend, and thank you again!

Now I shall go in search of a good root beer recipe...

Annamaria