What's new

Dark Holler Design Works preview

ChiefBroom

No tattoo mistakes!
That's great to hear you will have the concave base. I was thinking this yesterday but I've never had a cnc brush with one so just assumed it wasn't possible.

It just keeps getting better!

The photos below are of handles we turned back October. Note the dimple at the center of each base. I have vintage handles with concave bottoms and virtually identical dimples, so they don't really bother me. But Cody wasn't satisfied with that result, especially on handles he finished.

Shortly after these shots were taken, I had a tool-offset issue that produced a handle with the base turned about .01" too far out on the Z-axis, which is too much to properly correct by sanding. So I left the handle in the chuck, hand wrote a little program on the fly that included just the base code, and re-ran it 2-3 times, ooching the tool-path toward the chuck (i.e., Z-) a few .001s on each pass until I got it right.

I passed the off handle to Cody to finish. He noticed there wasn't any dimple, remembered it was the one I had to re-run, and suggested repeating that process on another handle to see if it achieved the same result. It did. Now it's an SOP. You can see three parallel tool-paths at the base in the NC plot posted above.

Cody's happy, but sometimes I miss the dimple.

The base diameter on the Chubbys is so large it tends to reduce the visual and tactile effects of the concavity at a given depth. Rather than increase the depth, we decided to turn a flat section extending inwards a little from the periphery before inserting code to turn the arc. (We haven't taken photos of a Chubby's base yet.)

proxy.php


proxy.php


proxy.php


proxy.php


proxy.php


proxy.php


proxy.php


proxy.php
 
Last edited:
Well, Ken, the work you've put in is really appreciated. I, also, have a ton of respect for your drive to keep going. If it means anything, you certainly have my business!

While I can't offer as many useful insights as many of the other members have, so far, I really want to offer my encouragement in what you are currently doing. Your love of creating and respect for high quality really is evident in everything so far.

Also, really excited for the updates. This is one of the few threads that I am watching intently. The insights into the whole process are much more work than I could have imagined. I have a lot of respect for you; you're doing something that I would love to do, but I know I never could. Please continue with confidence! I have a real envy of what you do 😊
 
Great images Ken, for a wonderful project. Have you considered Kickstarter to get this project ratcheted up even more? Just wanting to see you reach success out of the gate.
 
The dimple is very similar to those found on my vintage Simpson brushes that I adore. I wouldn't consider it a defect at all and if my PK47 has said dimple I won't complain one bit. The depth of color on those handles is absolutely stunning with that polish job, keep up the good work!
 
Fabulous. I love the attention to detail. Im a stickler for the details and so love what you are doing. A really great job on these Ken.
 

ChiefBroom

No tattoo mistakes!
Had a few brushes show up in the mail late Saturday. All of them are in Ebonite, which we aren't going to offer until we've an opportunity to trial it in use. But I thought I'd share a few photos of the first knotted Dark Holler handles we've actually laid our hands on.

The photos mostly speak for themselves. The colored examples have a subtle beauty that is very challenging to accurately capture with a camera. And all the Ebonite handles we've turned and finished have tactile qualities I don't know how to describe.

proxy.php


proxy.php


proxy.php
 
Top Bottom