After seeing several beautiful pics of birch bark handles, I decided to make one for myself. Conveniently -- though incredibly painfully -- I snapped the butt section of my Dan Craft 905-4 Sig V. I suppose I could have repaired it, but instead I salvaged the components and ordered a replacement butt section from Dan.

Being down in the West Texas desert, there is no local birch bark to harvest so I ordered some from an online company that makes and sells supplies for birch bark canoes. I received in the mail a single piece of bark about 2.5' x 2.5'. It was a piece that was not great for canoes, so I got it at a bit of a discount. It is bark imported from Syberia the owner of the company explained, which I suppose accounts for the difference in color between my end result and the pics of other handles I've seen. It was more "barky" on the outside than I expected, and I had to wire brush off quite a bit of black and gray bark to reveal the leather-like underlayer. I then cut the solid piece into a bunch of 1.5" x 1.5" squares with a utility knife, and drilled a 1/4" hole through each piece. (I tried to use a hole saw, but was tearing everything up. I've read of others using a hole saw, so I don't know if I was doing something wrong, or my bark wasn't a match for the process.)

After MANY hours of cleaning, cutting and drilling, I had enough bark for 2 handles. I then Gorilla Glued the bark into 20 layer chunks on a well waxed section of 1/4" all-thread.

I then took three 20-layer chunks, put together some end-cap layers of cocobolo and briar (the wood that I make tobacco pipes from), and Gorilla Glued those together. From there, I put the ugly sandwich of wood, bark, and foam on a mandrel from Andy Dear and turned it into a handle on my wood lathe.

In all I probably spent about 8 stinking hours cleaning, cutting, drilling, gluing and turning. I absolutely LOVE the handle, but I DO NOT plan on doing this again anytime soon.

Here's the end result:

[www.rodbuilding.org]

Tyler

P.S. Speaking of not wanting to do it again, does anyone up north have any extra bark they might make available to a bark-less Texan? :-)

After a few times out on the stream the long hours making it will be forgotten.

It's awfully pretty, and I'm guessing it's just gonna' get prettier. That cocobolo will darken substantially soon, giving a nice contrast. And, I'm guessing that the brier will darken some over time, too. . .? (The only pieces of brier I've ever seen had copious amounts of smoke being drawn through/around them, so--not surprisingly--they darkened quite a bit over time.)

Despite the huge time investment, you've gotten me interested in that birch bark.

It's definitely work; but it's really nice looking, too. Knowing how hard you "put out" to git'r'dun will just make it that much nicer as the years go on. Good job on it, Tyler.

Putter
Williston, ND

Hi Guys
You can get birch bark sheets 10 x 10 on my Web-site.
www.munichrodmansrodshop.com or on the left with the sponsors The Rod Shop
Best Regards Mark Crouse
(Iwill have some with me in High Point)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/02/2007 10:12PM by mark crouse.

You can now take it and try it out on those mountain streams by Odessa and Monahans.

Thanks for the kind words.

One thing I forgot to mention was the texture, I really like it. It is somewhere between standard cork and leather. It feels great in the hand.

Oh, and the 8 hours spent working on it is a little deceiving. I can produce a second handle with only minimal work. I've got a few more glued up chunks of bark ready to go. The hard work is done for a second handle.

As for the fishing, I don't hit Monahans or Odessa much -- too crowded. I prefer the back streams of Kermit and Grady. ;-)

As for the briar, I don't expect it to darken to much. The heat and smoke contribute a lot to a pipe darkening. Also, most pipes are stained, and these pieces are not.

Tyler






Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/02/2007 11:57PM by Tyler Beard.

it is definately a lot of work. i prep an order at one time and have pieces stored on an all thread rod. it sure does turn nice and nothing looks like it. if you do this again email and i will give you my technique.

Thinking out loud here... if the hole saw was used IN REVERSE (with the drill in counter clock-wise motion), would it still drill the bark and would that solve the problem of tearing up the bark??? Just a thought that someone might try to see if it works.

Putter
Williston, ND

At one company I was working for we took the holesaw and using a grinder ground the teeth off & then ground around the outside on an angle (like a chisel) We used this method for cutting holes in the roof liners and floor mats in vans for installing shelving and other equipment. This should work great for cutting bark.

[www.rodbuilding.org]

Regards
Dave

Fishing is Life the rest is just Details




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/05/2007 11:34AM by Dave Orr.

I use a standard hole saw with a piece of scrap wood for backing and have no problem. Sure the edges are rough but it has to be sanded down anyways.

Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!

The hole saw would certainly be more efficient. I may have been turning it too fast, I don't know. I did successfully cut a piece with it after several unsuccessful tries, but I broke that piece getting it out of the bit. After that I called it quits. Of course, this was before I knew how much work I was getting myself into. Next time around I'll be more motivated to make that work.

Thanks for the good ideas on reversing the drill and grinding the teeth and making a punch. I might give those a try.

In my research on the forum in order to figure this process out, Antti mentions a punch that cuts the OD and ID all at once.

[www.rodbuilding.org]

I can certainly see the value in that tool now.

BTW, thanks to Antti for bringing this idea to rod building!

Tyler