Question For David Rase

[Tim Crosby]

 How the heck did you get the hole in the Pipe Hawk on the Blog today?

  http://contemporarymakers.blogspot.com/
 

   Tim 

[G. Elsenbeck]

I'm betting Tim he started out with a 'wider' piece of wood to drill out the hole then using a bandsaw to cut a slight curve to the handle giving us an 'optical illusion'.  Beautiful job on the hawk to boot.
Gary

[jrb]

Original ash handles may have had a hot wire pushed through the pith. I wonder how David dried it though, so it didn't crack? The in the round wood I've tried sure wants to crack while drying.
Wallace Gusler's dvd shows him copying an original bowed handle in split out curley maple with a 1/4" diameter hole. He drilled an extra thick wood blank and the drill bit went kinda crooked, so he shaped the outside of the wood to follow the hole.

[Arcturus]

Not sure how David did it, but you can see by the grain on the end of the haft that it is not an "in the round" piece of wood where the pith was burned out.  I too wonder how David drilled it.  Maybe bent the wood afterwards?  The Alexander MacKenzie pipehawk it is based on has a silver endcap, so I haven't seen any pics to confirm it,  but I suspect it was a piece of Osage with the pith burned out.

[David Rase]

Tim,
I drilled the hole in an Osage orange blank and then steamed the handle to put the curve in it to emulate the Alexander McKenzie hawk.  I made a drill fixture from a 24" bar clamp.  If you look at the photo you can see where I drilled and tapped the stationary end of the clamp to receive a pointed piece of cut off bolt.  On the top end I replaced the handle with a 3/8" bolt that I drilled a hole through to act as a guide bushing.  If you look closely you can see some small set screws in the side of the head to make adjustments to get everything to line up.  Through trial and error I found out that drilling in the vertical position gives me a much better chance of the hole hitting the target vs. drilling horizontal and fighting gravity.
David

   

[thimble rig]

Way to go Dave.The same principal as  using the point to point system on a drill press.Thats why youre the man.

[Tim Crosby]

 Pretty Kool,  reminds me of one of your Pin drilling Jigs on Steroids. Another one for the Gott'a make one list. I take it you just pull the bit out, take the jig out of the vice and tap the cuttings out as you go?

  Thanks, Tim

PS: The whole thing looks great, got so wound up with the haft I forgot to comment.TC