These are a 60 year old Syrah vines, or 'Shiraz' as they call it in the Colonies:
And if you cut them up and shape them a bit, the wood looks like this:
Pretty gnarly! More shaping gets here:
At which point I dig out the faults with a meuchi spike or chisel, and fill up with 5 min araldite. Either clear, or in this instance coloured by mixing some mica powder in:
Once that's set it's back on belts to remove. The above pictures are actually of a knife handle, but I did the same for a razor one evening last week, though didn't take any pics until this stage:
The handle there is just off belts and after being drilled. This is going to be a 'one-piece' handle, which takes a little less time than multi-piece handles, but is markedly more difficult to get right.
In the pic above it's actually a bit too long, so I took some more off the end, before oiling and starting on hand sanding for the final shaping. Razor handles I try to leave at quite a low grit, cos they're gonna get wet and slippery. Something like 240 or 400.
Handle gets finished with 'hardwax oil' - a Tung oil (I believe) based blend of oils and waxes, that's food safe and sets hard and waterproof. Also comes in a range of finishes going from matte up to high gloss, and you can play around with it too by choosing how completely you let it set. Then the razor fixed in place using the same 5 min epoxy.
Et voila... here's my Syrah-Vinewood-Wa-Handle Wilheim Weber. I'm quite happy with it:
Here's an example of a multi-piece knife handle from the same vine wood. With a steel-winemaking oak-steel spacer, and a buffalo horn ferrule:
And if you cut them up and shape them a bit, the wood looks like this:
Pretty gnarly! More shaping gets here:
At which point I dig out the faults with a meuchi spike or chisel, and fill up with 5 min araldite. Either clear, or in this instance coloured by mixing some mica powder in:
Once that's set it's back on belts to remove. The above pictures are actually of a knife handle, but I did the same for a razor one evening last week, though didn't take any pics until this stage:
The handle there is just off belts and after being drilled. This is going to be a 'one-piece' handle, which takes a little less time than multi-piece handles, but is markedly more difficult to get right.
In the pic above it's actually a bit too long, so I took some more off the end, before oiling and starting on hand sanding for the final shaping. Razor handles I try to leave at quite a low grit, cos they're gonna get wet and slippery. Something like 240 or 400.
Handle gets finished with 'hardwax oil' - a Tung oil (I believe) based blend of oils and waxes, that's food safe and sets hard and waterproof. Also comes in a range of finishes going from matte up to high gloss, and you can play around with it too by choosing how completely you let it set. Then the razor fixed in place using the same 5 min epoxy.
Et voila... here's my Syrah-Vinewood-Wa-Handle Wilheim Weber. I'm quite happy with it:
Here's an example of a multi-piece knife handle from the same vine wood. With a steel-winemaking oak-steel spacer, and a buffalo horn ferrule: