- Joined
- Jan 29, 2014
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- 1,638
COTS, would you mind sharing some of your most used/favored tools when working on these?
As I ease my way into this hobby I'm trying to slowly piece together my woodworking toolkit.
I think I would really enjoy working with these first pass handles if I had the proper tools to work with.
Maybe if I had more experience with different styles of draw knife and spoke shave my opinion would be different, but I don't find them as useful for curved handles as a rasp. If a guy wanted to buy just basic inexpensive tools but still get the job done - and pretty quickly - a couple rasps would be the way to go for me. I use a half round to work on the swell but with a big ole farrier's rasp you could do the entire handle in short order. Then clean it up with a file. For straight handles the spoke shave is pretty good. There is a certain therapy to using one as well.
Anyway, half round rasp and file are go-to for me. I use a 2x42 belt sander for the rest with 36 grit belts (to start). A sharp 36 doesn't make dust, it makes shavings.

I use regular old hand saws to cut things. I cut the kerfs with a back saw. And I guess I am skipping over the obvious but a vise is an absolute must for all shops. On many occasions I have wanted to build a shave horse and I think it would be a useful (cheap/easy) alternative to a vise since they are so frickin expensive if you are stuck buying one new.