I have been researching and [...]]]> I will warn you, this walk-through is a big one!  The results, however, will let a woodworker without a lathe or mad shaping skills to have a reasonably high chance of turning a small chunk of wood into a lovely handle that can be held with comfort and pride!

I have been researching and experimenting with tool grips for quite some time. Recently I have begun to solidify my research and decided it was time to figure out how to make the perfect tool handle, make it well and make it consistently. Part of my goal here is to provide a handle form that does not need a lathe to turn. I wanted to make this something that would inspire and allow budding craftsmen to use, make and repair hand tools.

First off is the specialized shooting board for making octagonal tapers!  Then we will make a jig for boring straight holes into the handles. Lastly we will make a bit for drilling straight holes. You will need some decent 1/2″ or so plywood, some screws, a length of drill rod and some nice lengths of stable wood that is about 2″ by 2″.

Here is my shooting board for making handles. Don’t worry too much about it making no sense to the eye. Think of it as Toolmaking Art!

This abstract wall hanging is a tool for making tools! This is a guide for the controlled removal of wood from a handle blank. For this to work well you need a nice and quite square block of wood, a bit longer than the handle you plan to make. The shavings shown are about as thick a shaving as I can make with the plane shown.

All this really is, is a V-Block with a tapers cut into the sides, mounted on a chunk of plywood.

The taper on the left of the V channel is 1 to 16, the taper on the right of the central v channel is 1 to 4.

At the ends of the V-Channel are holes drilled for dowels to keep the handle blank from moving with the plane.

By using this to plane a square block, the corners can be removed to make it roughly octagonal.  Then the original sides can be planed down to match the taper of what used to be corners.  The end result is a nice octagonal cone.

It can take forever to plane down the sides initially, shaving at a time.  so a rough saw cut not too close to the final dimension can help speed up the process.

Then a plane can run along the side of the shooting board and quickly make an nice smooth surface.

Here is the handle blank half finished.  If you look close you can see where the plane made a rough cut into the grain.  Because of the angles involved, this will usually not happen if you saw off a bit of waste first.

Here is the handle nearly finished.  A bit of hand sanding or shaping will still be needed to make the transition between the front and back tapers even and smooth.

Here is how I made the shooting board.  First I started with a V-Channel cut into a block of cedar.  I like cedar because it is inexpensive and reasonably stable.  The V was cut to be slightly less that a 90 degree angle, so that slightly uneven blocks would still be held stable.  Note here, that a block that is not very close to square is used to make a handle, the result will be an handle that is not at all close to octagonal!

Here is the back of the same V-Block.  I am using my reference cone to check the line I drew  for a guide.

Here is how I made the line.  I wanted the taper to be 1 to 16.  For accuracy, I try to use as much length of measuring tools as I have.  So I decided to use a 1.5″ rise to 24″ run.

I ‘Burned’ an inch, that is added an in to the measure, so I was not using the end of the rule.

But instead of doing it right,  and measuring along the length, I measured using the hypotenuse.  Yep, I made a stupid mistake, fortunately I did not use my measurements.

Because table saws are dangerous, I use a rail saw for power cutting.  Since the saw blade runs right down the edge of this aluminum rail, I can place a block of wood beneath it and make a precise cut.  So I lined it up with the cone in the V-Channel.  The cone is not visible since it lines up with the edge of the rail.  But the shadow of the cone is visible .   Then I lowered the rail, adjusted the saw and cut the taper.

See how the cone fits nicely with the taper cut in the side of the V-Block.

The center tool handle was made using the shooting board shown.  The cone and the handle on the right used the  much funkier and less pretty prototype.

Here is the jig for drilling a straight hole.  I used screws to hold this together.  Three square blocks sitting square with two long sections of plywood.  I used a long drill bit, and lined it all up with an aluminum L-Channel to  try and drill a fairly straight set of holes.  Since I had a lot of area for holes if I messed up, I was ready to drill another and try to do better.  The drill bit was tested as straight by rolling it on a granite plate.  Then it drilled the first two holes and made a divot at the end for the tool blanks end point to register with.

Before drilling I make a nice divot in the end of the tool handle to center the drill bit in.

Then the handle blank is centered into place with it’s point in the divot.

I hold the handle while the drill bit cuts the initial hole.  After getting the hole started, I let go of the handle to see if it is centered and straight.

It is easy to see a ghosted edge if the handle is off center in any way.  Below the photo of the spinning handle shows that I have everything right!

Sadly the photo below shows that the end result of drilling gave me an off center hole.  The truth is, I fooled myself into thinking this would work.  I really did not want this project to be complex and require much metal working, so that you the reader might be inspired to actually follow these directions.  Sadly,  my goal blinded me to something I knew.  Most drill bits wander with a deep cut into wood.  Drilling into endgrain is the worst.  Constant force make the bit flex and follow the path of the least resistance.  This compounds and makes for an irregular hole.

What you need for drilling this sort of hole is the same sort of tool that was used in the early days to drill gun barrels straight.  Did I say, used in the early days?  This technology has not changed much, apart from putting a hole through the center of the drill to pump oil through to lubricate the drilling, the shapes are much the same, apart from a hundred or so variations.

So what we need here is a shell auger!  Here is how I made one.  First I took a drill rod blank the size I wanted.  Then I ground a skew on the end and a flat taper from the point to about 4″ back on the rod.  This rod is 1/4″ soft, unhardened tool steel.  Normally this steel is basically shaped, hardened, tempered, and then the finished shape is made.  In this case we are just going to file it into shape and use it.  It will dull comparatively quickly, but it will be easy to sharpen.  Not all edged tools have to be hard.

I filed a flat taper about 1/16″ deep at the end of the rod, so that filing would be less and be easier.  It is easy to skate off of a round surface when filing and scar the exterior that you want to remain smooth.

Here is a nice rounded channel tapering to the point.  The taper is nice, since as I sharpen this, the end will be reduced, and the channel deepened.  The taper means I can keep the same profile as I use and sharpen this tool.

The channel makes a moon shaped profile at the end of the bit.  The deepest part of the channel, just barely reaches the center of the rod.

The bevel on the end of the shell auger drops away from the groove edge and away from the leading point of the auger.  This gives clearance for the cut to be made.

The actual cutting edge of this auger is the intersection between the longer half of the groove and the end bevel.  Because this tool cuts only on the face of the tool, and slowly scrapes material without digging in, it makes a straight and centered hole.

Here it is ready to be used.

Because a shell auger does not start with a center point, I made a hole first with a spur bit to initially guide the auger.

A shell auger is slow, and needs to be removed to clean the hole regularly.  It can also get hot quickly.  Not that I am afraid of ruining the temper of this one since it was never hardened.  It scrapes instead of digging in and cutting so it does not make chips typically, it makes powder.

Here is the tool handle drilled with a shell auger, spinning in place.  Perfectly centered on the alignment divot.

Here is a close up of the handle spinning.  Shell augers work!

Now when I put a tool into the handle it sits straight and true!

The shell auger made from unhardened tool steel needs sharpening after cutting holes in two handles.  With some fine sandpaper on a flat surface the end bevel can be cleaned up.  If the channel needs to be cleaned up too, fine sandpaper bent around another section of drill rod will do a good job of polishing it.

There you go, a compete process for making octagonal and tapered forms.  Keep in mind that a straight octagon can be made with just a v-block cut to size and not taper at all.  Let me thank Ray Gardiner for straightening me out when I was chasing a rabbit down a hole on this, and Steve Wirt for his interest, information and encouragement.  This project took me on quite a few detours and turns and I would have been much, much more frustrated by it without their imput.

Bob

One method I have used to compare grips, is to have them face off. Then I can see, as I swap hands and grips, which grip applies more force with less effort.

I followed the suggestions of a source that advised making an OK [...]]]> The previous discussion of grips is far from over!

One method I have used to compare grips, is to have them face off. Then I can see, as I swap hands and grips, which grip applies more force with less effort.

I followed the suggestions of a source that advised making an OK sign with your thumb and index finger to find the ideal diameter for a tool.

I think I will ignore that source from here on out, the handle is way too big.  1 3/4″ is definitely too large.  My smaller fingers only get a bit more than half way around this.   Not a secure grip.

So now I will evaluate another source of ergonomic data.

The study,  Optimal cylindrical handle diameter for grip force tasks

by Yong-Ku Kong and Brian D. Lowe, indicates that an ideal diameter would be 19.7% of the distance from the tip of the middle finger to the crease where the wrist starts and the palm ends.  If I divide this by pi, to get a diameter I get 6.27%.    From middle finger tip to crease, I measure right at 8″.   From their data, a 1/2″ diameter grip would be ideal for me.  OK, we are back to the drawing board.  I like 1/2″ for a pen, but it is way to small for a good chisel grip.

So after loosing faith in authoritative experimental data in this field,  it is time to use simple logic.  If the grip spreads the forces to a maximum area of the hand, this will reduce stress.  If it can be spread evenly or distributed to use the strengths of the hand well, that will be even better.    Having the handle function for a wide range of grips is also a must.   It also seems logical that a larger grip will reduce the chance of cramping by keeping fingers less tightly curled.

Another  question for me is whether an octagon puts more stress on due to micro-adjustment or less stress due to positional feedback. since the bones swivel all the way back from the elbow, I suspect that micro-adjustment is no big issue. So my guess is that the solidity of the grip and the feedback makes the octagon superior.  On the other side, I have used a hexagon shaped tool handle and found the facets to be much too large.  is reducing the facets from six to eight enough?

In any case I am forced to examine my hand and the grips I use and the size of handle that that grip requires.

When pounding on a chisel I use a hammer grip with the blade pointing down.   Slightly over 1″ feels about right.

I want to start using the gouge grip,

But I don’t want the butt of the chisel in my palm since industrial statistics show a good deal of hand injuries are related to tools that are pushed by the palm.

When chiseling away from me I usually use a fencing grip with my index finger extended towards the blade. Again, a hair over 1″ feels pretty good.

When chiseling across relative to my body, I just grab the chisel. I may fold the thumb back if I need extra clearance.  1″ again is fine.

For detail I like to use several different pinch grips. For this, 1″ is usable but too large.  I like a big pencil but if it gets too far over 1/2″ it stops being comfortable.

For cutting and whittling, my grip is pretty standard, with my thumb extended on the back of the blade.  I am used to a fairly wide range of sizes for knives, so I don’t have a huge preference here.

To accommodate all of these grips, a handle that tapers from a bit larger than 1″ to about 1/2″ at the tip may be the solution.  This profile seems to match with what Thomas Martin, in his,  The Circle of the Mechanical Arts, London, 1813 considered a to be a chisel grip.

Since I like a fencing grip quite a bit, I want the tool to taper from a maximum diameter of about 1 1/8″ to a minimum diameter of maybe 1/2″ inch over the distance from the tip of my pointing finger on the tool, to where my pinkie wraps around the tool. I want my pinkie on the back side of a taper to give it a secure grip. After a bunch of figuring I came up with a 1 to 16 slope and made this cone.

I mostly used the methods shown by Timber Frame Tools.  I figured out that if I cut a taper on the side of the V-Block, it would make a good guide for getting the angles correctly.  Oddly enough this works the same even after you have cut down the tools other sides.  The V-Block mounted on a board, can be both a guide for sawing, and a specialized shooting board for reproducing handles.

Then I gripped the cone to see if I even liked the thing and adjusted to where it felt snug in my hand.

The point between my pinkie and my ring finger, was where I decided to start my taper. I made a second cone so I could keep the first as a reference. The angle of the back taper was selected by feel. I kept pruning down until I liked the feel of it. The slope on the back is 1 to 4.

Then I smoothed it down. Cut off the excess on both ends and smoothed it some more.  I am quite pleased with the book matched grain appearance!

The chisel is 7″ long, 1 1/4″ at the thickest and 5/8″ at the thinnest. Not quite the dimensions I was expecting, but I love this handle.

And it does it all!

Low Clearance grip for chiseling horizontally in front of you.

Regular grip for chiseling horizontally in front of you.

Fencing grip for chiseling away from your body.

Gouge Grip, which I have not used enough to know when to prefer it yet.

Mallet grip for when you are pounding a chisel.  I will also put my other hand over the hand holding the tool, to add pressure while rocking the chisel side to side for deeper push cuts.

I don’t actually use this one, but I was taught to use it so that injuries would be less if I missed and hit my hand. I still think it will hurt pretty bad.

This is a grip that I use with a knife edge when whittling.   I also use it for chiseling upward.   When using a paring chisel, I usually use the fencing grip.

Then there are a couple of pinch grips that I use.

Keith Cruickshank’s amazing Video Blog has a video showing some carving grips by Brad Ramsay.

Brad has some amazing skills there!

After watching the video again, and getting some feedback on grips from WoodNet, It is possible that I have most of the single hand grips, but have left out the zillions of two handed variations.

Now that I have listed all the grips that  I use, I would love to know if I am missing any important ones, or better ones?

Back to the octagonal grip in hand, I love it!  It feels right!  It is a lot of work to make right, and I fear that when I drill the end to put a bit on it, I will go crooked and make the tool look stupid after all this work. Still it is all worth it. Unless I hate it after I actually use it, this is now hands down and entirely, my favorite handle size and shape. Oddly enough, my better half loves it too, and she has tiny hands compared to me.

Bob

I had two, the dark ones, and I needed three more. Just in case, I made four.

These wrap around the throat of a plane. [...]]]> I needed a few more plane wrappers. These are a very easy leatherworking project. No need for any fancy embellishments like straight lines. These can be rough.

I had two, the dark ones, and I needed three more. Just in case, I made four.

These wrap around the throat of a plane. The point here is to slow down seasonal chance so the exposed end grain does not split. A bit of preservation on the blade and padding in the tool box are just added benefits.

Here is a simple truth about seasonal change, everyone complains about how dry it gets where they live and how moist it gets and how quickly it can change. If you have snow, it can get damp, dry and damp in short order. If you don’t have snow then it probably gets hot where you are, and so it gets damp dry and damp in short order with hot days and cooler nights. Unless you are in a desert or quite close to the coast, fast seasonal change happens. So a tool wrap makes good sense, just about everywhere!

These are pretty simple, vegetable tan leather first off. Then as one of my foolish and probably suicidal tests, I taste the leather. If it is too salty, then it ain’t right for the job. The leather shown is kind of bitter, rather unpleasant tasting, but not at all salty. The cord is about 28″ long. You want it to wrap around the plane at least twice, so it can hold the leather down, top and bottom. Then you need enough extra to secure it and to start the wrapping out so the cord is holding the cord as much as the joint is.

Where it joins, the tie passes through a hole in the wrap and then through a slit in the tie.

The wrap itself is about 4 1/2″ by 13″. Long enough to go around the width of the plane at least 1 1/2 times so it secures and seals. Wide enough to cover the throat securely with a bit of spare.

After it is shaped, it should be oil cured. Camellia Oil would be classic to use, real olive oil would be fine. I use Ballistol. In this case oil curing is where you rub in enough oil to make the cover barely oily to the touch. This will darken it considerably.

A note on Olive Oil. Olive oil is amazingly resistant to rancidity. If you have a brand of olive oil that goes rancid in less than a couple of years, then my bet would be that you have been sold something else. This is quite typical. You can pay a lot for olive oil that may taste good, but is not pure. This has been going on for a very long time. The old industrial books on soap manufacturing advise you to do a saponification test before purchase and before use to be sure it is the right stuff.

So far the olive oil, that I have gotten under the World Food Market name, has been the real deal. Tastes great, and does not go stale, even after three years, with a bottle that has been opened, half used left outside in Texas and forgotten. That is the sort of quality you need, if you are going to protect wood leather and steel from time and humidity.

Ballistol is the stuff I really like for treating leather that is protecting steel. Time after time, the only rust preventative treatments that work better than ballistol are outright dangerous to touch. Ballistol can be rough on fascists who drink it and insects, but it is fairly safe for most people to handle. The initial smell can be a bit rough.

One more oil to consider, Cod Liver oil is superb stuff and very good for leather. It is used in several formulations to protect car chassis from rust.

Bob

I have even made quite a few odd ones just to test ideas.

These taper the opposite way of a lot of handles. Not good for whacking, but for pushing, they are great.

For a large handle, this is [...]]]> For quite some time I have paid close attention to tool grips.

I have even made quite a few odd ones just to test ideas.

These taper the opposite way of a lot of handles. Not good for whacking, but for pushing, they are great.

For a large handle, this is my favorite design.

For small portable tools, these tapered and rounded square handles do pretty well.

The rough octagonal handle shown in the foreground of this picture is surprisingly comfortable and manageable.

In my playing around with handles, I have discovered that I am liking shorter handles, with at least one flat plane, more and more.

While the aesthetics, feel and grip of a simple egg are superb, without a flat, the tool tends to wander around the table top. This can destroy tips, edges, feet and legs. If you try to catch them, hands can be damaged.  This tool fits well to the palm of the hand and allows the force to distribute evenly.  As a result It can be used with great pressure and produces little fatigue while doing it.

Having a flat on a tool is usually better.  Having several flats is even better still. Too many and the tool will start to roll. Too few or too pronounced a flat, and the tool becomes polarized to a particular position in your hand. This may be idea, but if you use a lot of grips, it can be limiting.  Flats, as long as they are not too long, can give a tactile reference and allow you to feel when your grip is correct.

So for some  background on tool grips and with it lengths, there are some   great references at McClain’s Printmaking Supplies .

Some of their documents such as  this one,  advise users of their Japanese Tools to cut the handles length down.  Their advice is, if you hold your hand splayed open, the distance, between where the web on your thumb ends to the farthest point of your middle finger, is the handle length advised. For me that is right on 7″ so I have not cut down a lot of tool handles. In fact I find 7″ a bit long or alternately quite well long enough. 7″ is quite nice in fact for a tools entire length.

The question of the best handle shape is further complicated by the range of grips that one might desire.  Some conventional grip are quite instinctive, but there are a lot of grips that have been tested and used over time, that may preclude some tool shapes.

Wood-Block Printing, by F. Morley Fletcher shows several interesting grips,

as do two articles at McClains, The Traditional Way to Hold Japanese Tools and  The Traditional Way to Hold The Knife.

Some tools  have broader flairs at the back, to facilitate palm grips and mallet use.

Woodworking Tools 1600–1900 by Peter C. Welsh Has several plates from Moxton’s The Tools of the Joiner Woodworking Tools, one of these plates, shows what looks like a short octagonal or hexagonal grip flaring towards the back with a bit of a rounding or flair back at the end.

There they are, center left.  Same handle almost for gouge, mortise chisel, skew, fishtail and straight.

Plate 8 shows a hexagonal socket.

Plate 8 also shows what looks like a primitive butterfly yo-yo.

I am really fond of hexagonal shapes, and generally prefer them to octagonal, but from my own playing around, octagonal is preferable on a handle to hexagonal.  Hexagonal forces the hand to hold the tool at particular angles.  If aligned right, this may be fine for a particular user, but a hexagon allows quite a bit more tweaking.   A faceted handle has many advantages apart from the safety and convenience of the tool staying put.  It also gives the hand some reference as to the angle it is being held at.  It makes it easier to repeat a how you hold it.

As far as hexagonal handles go, Frog,  has some nice handles for reasonable prices. I have not tried them, as the economic swings have not rewarded those who try to maintain quality public education, but I suspect they will do nicely.  The 81M6 to 81M10 are the ones I rather like.  While you are at Frog, look around, their range and prices are quite tempting.  Oh, but for flipping great wodgers of cash, I would be all over their catalog!

Over on Timber Frame Tools, is an excellent article on tool grip shapes, that points further to a few other superb articles on octagonal grips.  He should have also pointed to his own  article on making hexagonal cross sections, it is superb as well.   I like Don McConnell’s PDF on Octagonal Handles quite a bit.  They are good pounders and pushers, they are simple and elegant.
Stephen Shepherd’s Octagonal Handles are delightful.   Clean lines and simple in form.

Bibliophile, on The Literary Workshop Blog, shows in detail how to carve, an octagonal handle for a socket chisel. He uses a draw knife, rasp and spokeshave, and ends up making as even a hexagon as you could ask for.

The Schwarz even shows a preference for octagonal hammer grips, although from the picture the handle looks to be as hexagonal as it is octagonal.   I do not remember who was involved, but I do recall at one time reading a discussion where several experts on hand tools agreed that a slightly flattened octagonal grip was standard and preferred.

Stephen Shepherd relates that he has pretty much switched all of his tools over to tapered hexagonal grips.   That speaks fairly strongly for his preference as he has handled and used quite a few.   Thomas Martin, in his,  The Circle of the Mechanical Arts, London, 1813, shows a few handles that look pretty much just like what Stephen prefers.

My next experiment will be to try and make a few similar to this, a few like Don McConnell makes and a few that are a bit squatter, as the Moxton illustration shows, for resting in the palm.   When I say try, I mean it.  Getting a tapered hexagonal handle right, is a much better show of skill than it seems to be at first glance.   Trevor Walsh over on TWD Shop, shows a process for making a tapered octagonal handle, that looks like a winner,  I am going to have to give it a try.

Who knows, I may find one I like enough to try and produce a set.  Currently my tool set is more like a mixed range of China.  Then again, I am rather charmed by mixed sets of China.

Bob

This subject is explored even further here!