New tap handle(s)

[twst1up]

beautiful work....bravo

 

[mordantly]

shaaaa-wing!

 

[BoiseJim]

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...

 

[MadDwarf]

...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.

 

[Hoppus_Poppatopolis]

I like those black ones.







Seriously though, that's some amazing work.

 

[thataintchicken]

sweet.
when I win the Lotto... you will be making my brewpub's tap handles.

 

[l1ranger]

Doooood, you got skills bro.

I'm sticking to lathe work, lest I make a fool of myself

 

[doug1395]

very very nice

 

[hlumbard]

So cool. You may have a side business if you notice these comments....

 

[MadDwarf]

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.

 

[TomSD]

Very cool... great work!

 

[Hoppus_Poppatopolis]

Next steps are to choose a wood,

Something dense and hard like ipe perhaps?

 

[VikeMan]

MadDwarf,
I love the handle, though anything like that is beyond my capability. But question... what kind of wood and finish is the collar on your keezer? TIA!

---VikeMan

 

[MadDwarf]

Something dense and hard like ipe perhaps?

Once I have the handle roughed out and the voids cut, I do the rest of the carving by hand. Not sure I hate myself or my tools enough to tackle ipe just yet I'm saving black walnut for the 4th handle, because I know roughly what I want to do and it would be best with a dark wood. I'll kick through the pile tonight and see if I can find something interesting.

MadDwarf,
I love the handle, though anything like that is beyond my capability. But question... what kind of wood and finish is the collar on your keezer? TIA!

---VikeMan

Thanks! Collar is standard red oak, with a light stain followed by a couple coats of Spar Urethane. Some more info in this thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/found-magic-magic-chef-keezer-progress-questions-80261/

 

[Blanda]

Really amazing work. I would like to see some pictures of the working process if you can.

Congrats!

 

[AmandaK]

Just stumbled across this thread. Wowza. That's all I can really say. Keep up the amazing work!

 

[Prime]

Those handles are awesome! Makes me wish I could carve wood. Good luck with the new design.

 

[ShortSnoutBrewing]

These are quite impressive...I hate to be "that guy" and I am in no way trying to take away from your skill but my only complaint would be they are too short. I like my handles long though.

 

[MadDwarf]

These are quite impressive...I hate to be "that guy" and I am in no way trying to take away from your skill but my only complaint would be they are too short. I like my handles long though.

That's what she... nah, never mind.

No apologetic tone necessary - like I said, all comments and suggestions welcome. Longer handles would look great for many setups. I made mine just tall enough so that I can open the lid with collar attached and not worry about the handles hitting the wall behind. Also lets me set things on top of the freezer without accidentally dumping beer in my shoes.

 

[MadDwarf]

Some more in-progress pics - click photos for larger versions. I found a nice piece of spalted birch in the scrap pile that felt solid enough and cut it down to size with band saw and jointer.



I glued the pattern to the blank using a craft spray adhesive - sets fairly quickly as long as you don't soak the paper. Once the pattern was in place, I drilled holes in each of the areas to be removed. This pattern had a lot of very small areas, so I used a .035" bit, which is about the smallest hole that a 2R scroll saw blade will fit through. On the previous handles, I had room to drill larger holes and used a full-sized drill press. Since this bit was so small, I used a drill press attachment for my Dremel. Whatever you use, make sure your bit is square to the table.



Here's the handle after drilling all the holes. You can see an extra hole I drilled in the corner waste area to check that my bit was square before drilling into the pattern.



Next step was to use the scroll saw to cut out all the voids. You need to make sure your piece is a uniform thickness and that your saw table is square to the blade, otherwise the holes will wander and mess up the pattern on the back of the handle. Keep the blade as tight as you can without snapping it, and go slowly.



Handle is all roughed out now, and ready for carving. Will get more pictures once I start that phase, but it's time to get stuff ready for brew day tomorrow

 

[Mikeh78]

Very nice handles, can't wait to see the black walnut one.

 

[SevenFields]

Here is one I did for football season. This was an old Miller Highlife tap.

 

[MadDwarf]

Here are a few pics I took a couple weeks ago. The handle is further along than these - about 3/4 done now. Have to do some cleanup on the back, set the threaded nut, then sanding and finishing.

The knotwork is just a matter of making stop cuts almost straight down at the intersection lines, then cutting away the sections which appear to pass underneath with a chisel or gouge. Here's the front of the handle with the depth cuts roughed out on two of the knots, and started on the third. You can see where I cut from the pieces of the pattern that are left. No rounding or smooth curves yet.



Here's the back, still uncarved. No need for a full pattern on this side, just transfer the intersections in reverse with pencil. If a section of the knot was underneath on the front, should be on top on the back.



These are the tools that have migrated out of my main tool chest, so they were used at some point. Most of them aren't strictly necessary - can make do with just a few. The ones I used most are the small detail knife to the left, a couple bent gouges on the upper left, and the micro tools on the right. After I started rounding things out and cleaning up, the diamond files got a lot more use as well.



Hope that's helpful to the people who asked about the process - feel free to ask for more info if I skipped over something you wanted to know.

 

[KYB]

That is awesome. Very nice work. I really want to do something along these lines as well, but don't have the tools. My dad has more woodworking tools but I don't think anything for meticulous work like you have done.

 

[MadDwarf]

Actually finished this up a month or so back, but kept forgetting to grab a picture. Click for larger images.



Halfway through, but haven't started #4 yet.

 

[BrewNinja1]

OMFG...ME WANT! Those are absolutely beautiful! Nice work!

 

[jtrainer]

Very nice.... waiting for the next installment.

 

[brrman]

wow - awesome work!
I love using spalted wood - I used spalted maple for my bar panels. Looking forward to the next installment as well!

 

[Gameface]

All I can say is WOW!

 

[YNOT2K]

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.