Plum File Handle

Follow-up to October 8, 2008 post.

Last year I was ripping apple wood and cut some nails, so I needed to sharpen the chain saw. The file didn't have a handle, so I made one out of a branch of plum tree that grows in our yard. I started with a draw knife, cutting through the heart and sap wood so the grain would contrast light and dark.

Then I used a rasp to shape the handle. I was going for a kind of peanut shape, which was always my theme for everything I made in highschool (like a carved paddle which we made with a spoke shave). Not too successful on the peanut theme but the shape came out OK.

I cut a ferrel from a piece of half inch copper pipe. Then I marked the handle for cutting to accommodate the ferrel. First I marked a tenon saw with masking tape so I wouldn't cut too deep.

Then I chiselled the unwanted material off. The chisel is from a set I have had since I was little. I don't know where the green paint came from. Maybe my brother had it for a while and painted it for identification. The mallet I made in Dad's garage with some wood Rhoda left (kauri for the mallet, and cherry for the handle). I added the dowel much later because the handle kept working it's way off.

Finally I sanded the handle. I had to wrap it with a rag because the oak in the vice jaws was marking it. I thought oak would be nice and hard for vice jaws, but now I realise that a soft wood is better. Anyway I put the grain the wrong way in the vice jaws and the front one has split (still not fixed either!).

The handle has been sitting around for nearly a year because I couldn't find the file after all that. It turned up recently...in the file drawer! It was hiding in a corner, the sneaky little fellow. Now to sharpen the chain saw and get some firewood for winter.