New tap handle(s)

[user 40839]

As an Irishman living over here in Yankland, as soon as I saw these I immediately thought "I must have one".

 

[MadDwarf]

MadDwarf - great job on the handles. the designs are top notch!

a few questions -

are you having any particular problems carving in hard wood?

how many man hours would you estimate per handle?

want to carve some for my taps?

actually, i have a friend who is a novice carver and he's going to take a shot at it for me.

i look forward to meeting you soon and checking out your brewing/kegging operation - and tap handles.

I haven't tried any really hard woods. The cherry was hardest, but still cut fairly easily. I did have to be a bit more careful cutting the cross-unders, since the cherry was more brittle and snapped easily if I used any prying motion to clear the chips.

Time's hard to estimate since I did them in bits of free time here and there, but they aren't quick, at least not for me. The last one was probably about 15 hours or so, fairly evenly divided between prep/saw, carve, and sand/file/finish stages. I'm sure there are many ways to speed things up, but I don't think I'll ever be able to knock them out in an hour or two.

As for making them for other people, the math tends to rule that out even at sweatshop wages. If your buddy is going to make them, I recommend keeping him supplied with enough good beer that he loses track of time


Ubermick - thanks from another mick I've always liked Celtic art and designs, so they tend to show up in all my stuff.

 

[lmnop]

Wow!

Those are some of the sharpest taps I've ever seen, *******.

 

[fineexampl]

MadDwarf...i'm 100% speechless and eternally jealous. The handles are just beautiful. I don't think i will ever make a handle as nice as these.

 

[Rick91981]

Those are amazing. I wish I had the talent to do something like that.

 

[D_Struct]

Incredible work on those handles, man! I'm floored by how great they look!

Keep up the good work!

 

[Pivzavod]

These are hot!!! I wish I could buy something like this!

 

[zoner21]

Any update on these gorgeous handles? Did you ever finish the set?

 

[SFGiantsFan925]

I have to say that these are by far some of the nicest and best looking tap handles I have seen. Incredible work. You make me want to try my hand at it, but I know it would be an epic fail! Nice work!