I have a few pieces of apple scrap at hand, and found one that was just about the right size for the new handle. At first glance, it looked like a solid piece, but I don't have a great deal of experience with apple - and in fact this will be the first time I have turned any.
It has an interesting colour tone, and nice tight grain. I can see why it was popular for saw handles, and I guess hard enough for chisel handles as well.
I have imported a scanned photo into Sketchup and sized it as close as possible to full size, using the width of the blade (not shown) as the known reference. I then added in lines with relevant dimensions. It ends up looking rather delicate, the narrow waist seems quite thin, although no thinner than on the Stanley pattern that Lie-Nielsen uses, just more obvious because the narrow section is longer.
Applewood turns out to be very pleasant to turn, much more forgiving than the SPF I have been practicing on of late, and somewhat easier to work than the sugar maple I am most accustomed to - but I expect it will still hold detail nearly as well as the maple. It took very little time to get a rounded billet, leaving a slight taper as the beginning of the pattern.
One unfortunate discovery that was not visible with the square billet, a knot-like section, perhaps where a branch had been swallowed up by years of growth. The material there is loose and won't be suitable. I am sort of hoping that it will disappear as I start to shape the handle. Back in the day, this billet would probably have been rejected. One striking thing about this socket is just how long it is, longer than the pattern shows there. I expect the final fit to be tricky, because the socket has been dented in near the mouth, but there will be a lot of length for grip.
Normally, I would try to get the taper nearly exact on the lathe, and do everything all at once. But in this case, I will probably be mounting and dismounting repeatedly while also filing a flat to match the dented taper. So I chose to focus on getting the basic shape done first. I didn't quite get it right, the butt end tapers a little too aggressively, the waist section in the middle seems a little too long, and the socket angle seems just a bit too steep as well.
I wanted to get as much finishing as possible done on the lathe, so at this point I put the first coat of boiled linseed oil on after sanding to 220 grit. That seemed like the most probable finish for a chisel handle in mid-nineteenth century America. I was genuinely amazed at how the wood was transformed, darker than I expected but with some lovely contrast. I will put five or six coats on, sort of making it the last thing I do every evening. At the end I will have to hand-finish the butt end.
First steps at roughing in the taper, and another disturbing discovery in the wood. A small crack I had seen earlier continued into the stock of the taper, enough that I am going to fill it with some cyanoacrylate. As this is an area I don't want mind taking a lot of material from, I matched the flattened part of the socket to the flawed section of the taper, and started filing a flat there.
Once I had reached this stage, it was time to cut off the end of the socket and begin the trial and error process. The flawed section of the taper is visible in this photo. Before cutting off the socket end, I used the skew to cut as much of the butt end as possible, and got some BLO on it.
From here, a couple more coats of BLO, some filing, some sanding the taper, all working down to where I think I can get a good press fit. I will keep the bottom disk in place as a hammering surface to force the handle for the final fit, then cut it off, sand it smooth and finish by hand.
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