It's 17 March and so a tip of a Scottish hat and a raised glass of a
single malt to our Irish turners. Slainte!

I don't know why the difference between a shillalah and a tool handle
comes to mind. We hold woodturning tool handles in our hands, at times
tenderly and gently but at other times they must be held in a tight
grasp, but never with pale knuckles. Either way they are _not clubs to
bludgeon a workpiece. They may be guide-ons, but they aren't flag staffs
to wave about the spinning wood.

One of the independently diverse (perverse?) ways woodturners think
about and do things is the difference in the size, shape, material and
finish (or lack of same) of their tool handles. Plumbing pipe, copper
tubing, lead weights, stainless steel, 2X4s, and exotic woods are all
used in long, short, thick, thin, straight, curved, coved and ferruled
tool handles.

It's rare, but "I knew a turner who danced with his gouge's original
handle... in Chicago, my hometown". A tool handle is a serious thing
and worthy of all Turners to make a careful choice on their own.
Please forget shafts, bevels and edges for this once and describe (pic?)
some of your favorites and why you like them ... even if they be the
originals.


Turn to Safety, Arch
Fortiter



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