Guys thanks for the response on the job.
jonahpach wrote:Hey Rajat, great effort! Those handles look really cool. What kind of wood did you use and what tools? If any.
Thanks, good to hear this from someone who is good at such things too. The wood used is Dalbergia Sissoo commonly known as Sheesham wood. Only the dark heart wood was selected and used for the handles. The sapwood is just plain white in this wood. Yes, I did use some tools see details below.
xl_target wrote:Very Nice Rajat!
That looks professionally done.
Now that’s unusual! I mean to see you in this section
. Thanks for taking interest and the appreciation. Well not as professionally as I wanted. Took a lot of time and one totally wasted set of handles (the unstained / unfinished one in the pictures above) and another which was not perfect.
I had not set out to make three sets of handles but ended up on getting only the third one good enough to stop and look professionally done. Well, we learn from our mistakes.
Moin. wrote:
Awesome work Gurudev, What wood is this, how did you manage to get both the slabs perfectly symmetrical and 100% identical to the Micarta Slabs... Is that Burma Teak ?, you used, ...
Thanks buddy! I am glad you like it.
The wood is not Burma teak, although the set of unpolished handles in the above pictures have grains similar to teak but it is not. The wood used is Sheesham wood. Could have used teak but this wood is harder, has beautiful grains and is easy to work with. It is also not as oily as teak is.
The handles are or 100% identical to the micarta slabs but yes they are very close. I mean as close as I could get. How did I manage to do that? A lot of profiling with various tools and sanding, sanding and sanding (filing and sanding). First the two slabs of wood that I used were joined / nailed together and after that I shaped them to get a balanced look on both sides.
PU ??? getting this finish on the slabs would not have been possible without a spray gun and compressor ?
It is possible to use PU and get this finish on these small wood slabs without a spray gun and compressor. These are small enough for streaks and marks not to be visible if done by hand, with a rag. Having said this I have access to a spray gun and chose to do this by hand. This was just a dip in the PU for slightly less than an hour (took it out as the hardener kicked in and it started gelling, had made it with some extra thinner added to delay the gelling) wiped it off, sanding with 320 grit, solvent stain, coat of PU, dry, sanding, another coat, sanding and a final coat of the rubbing compound and buffing with a piece of cloth. It was a long process.
The slabs were dipped as I wanted the PU to penetrate the wood as much as it could for the handles to have the maximum protection against the elements and easy to clean.. Although I doubt if it went in even up to a couple of mm but still it is better than having it on the surface only. This was an unconventional process.
What did you use to shape the handle slabs ? Dremel ?
No, I do not own or have access to a Dremel. I used a couple of power tools, files and a couple of improvised files (sandpaper nailed on wood shaped to a specific shape and size) with which most of the work was done and sanding paper 60, 80 and 120 grit. Did not go finer than that on the sanding paper.
The main power tool was a grinder which was used to shape the whole thing as close as possible and cut the curves on the sides of the handle and the rest was sanding and filing. Tried to use a router too in some places. The jig saw was used to cut the profile of the inner side.
The thickness and the flat surface on the inside was done with a small belt sander.
WIP pics please
Sorry not available. Not very patient with all the pictures and stuff. Also it took a few days to complete the final set. Although if you want to see any process in detail let me know and I will do it for you again and send you pictures. Anything for you!
Moin. wrote:Do you have a drill press, I notice the concentric holes for the nut heads to be flush with the slab surface, this is very difficult to do with the conventional power drill without a press unless one is very experienced in wood working
which from the finishing on the handle slabs you ofcourse are !!!!! I am ruling out Dremel as I doubt the chuck accepts bit shafts more than 6mm and the holes are 10mm dia on the Beckers if I'm not mistaken......
You nailed it buddy! This was the toughest part and cost me a good set of handles and another one almost.
I do have some experience with these things and thought it would be easy to do with a regular hand operated drill and after shaping the first set of handles when I was recessing the holes for the bolts and nuts. The larger bit went right through a couple of them. In the beginning what I was trying to do with the nuts was to make small holes and then hammer in the nuts to fix these in. But this was not a good idea too.
The image given below shows the comparison. The darker handles are the ones with the right holes
Afterwards I decided to use the same drill bit on both sides to recess the nuts and bolts. For the bolt to pass through in the middle of the larger hole a 5mm bit the size of the bolt was used.
Well after the first fiasco, did it again but on a fixed / press drill but in the second set of handles only one hole was a bit off centre which was later corrected by using a larger drill bit and sanding it off. The handle still looks good and is perfectly usable but well I had to do another one.
Then using a complete profile of the blade on another sheet to use as a guide drilled small holes all the way across with a tiny 1.5 mm bit. Perfectly centered. This worked and then the larger holes were drilled using it as a guide.
Another challenge was shaping the handles without scratching the black coating on the blade. Had I stripped it off I would easily have screwed these on and then sanded these to get the exact shape (without the risk of damaging the coating) but here I had to screw and unscrew these a dozen times to check the profile and mark any larger areas off with a paper cutter (blade). I mean cut a line marking the area and then sanded it off.
This is not a 100% DIY job and I definitely needed some help holding the handles in place while drilling etc.
Well the end result was worth all this and I am glad you guys like it!!
) inspired me.
