Thread: Marble Handles

Oh a thought that just popped in my head too. You could use a Forsner bit in a drill press, place the blank in a pen turners vise made for drill presses, or just a $20 bessey drill press vise from Lowes. Decide on your final circumfrence like say 1 3/4 or 2" in circumfrence for the final size; mark the outer face using a compass, then measure your diameter across the circumfrence mark you made with the compass, divide your diameter/2 then mark the dot in the center and use the appropriate bit to drill your center out. Kinda sounds complicated typed out, but actually doing it might take just a few minutes to do. It might work, just a thought; or just eyeball it

Sweet video, tiddle. Unfortunately, my friend won't be able to cut off that hunk of marble until next Monday so I'm playing around with a chunk of cedar...trying to do this "low-fi", though. Only using wood chisels, knives, and sandpaper...and probably a router to create a hole for a knot.

I'm not really banking on this (the cedar) handle to come out especially well; I see it more of a learning experience and an attempt to flesh out the shape I'll try to re-create with the marble.

Bass wood from hobby lobby or michael's will work better, that's what whittler's use to carve with; it will be easier and won't dull up your tools as much. It's dirt cheap as well if you need something else to practice with. Oh and a drop of super glue on a 1/8 or 1/4" dowel mount inside your hole of where you drill out your knot hole, mount the dowel into the chuck of your drill clamp the drill down good and tight, use the high torque setting if yours has one and WHAMMO redneck wood lathe! Yes, I am from Alabama, and yes I did this, and it doesn't work too bad honestly for something jury rigged.

You're a crafty one aren't you tiddle? I like that... Maybe I'll give that redneck lathe a whirl this weekend. My only concern would be directed toward the capability of the dowel to withstand that torsional strain - but if you've done it I guess I shouldn't be too worried. My problem is that I have some friends who have lathes, but my access to them is fairly limited...can't just set up shop in my friends garage when he's trying to have dinner with the family

Well the cedar was lying around the yard (literally - I just chopped down some trees a few weeks ago and decided to saw off a decent sized branch to mess around with..) so I figured it would give me something to do tonight as I have been terribly bored today. Days where I don't have anything to do are so painful for me... However, I didn't give much thought to dulling my tools

Hey free is the best kind man! With the dowel you only want just about 1/8 sticking out of the chuck otherwise it will snap. You could go so far as 1/2" if your chuck will hold it, and it fits your knot hole. You will need some goo gone to get the glue out afterwards though, trust me it's so much easier and less damaging than the sandpaper (found that out the hard way) Well, this little "idea" came about when I was helping my dad make fishing lures, and not enough money for a lathe, I was broke and in college then, still don't have enough for a lathe ha ha ha!

I forgot to mention, your tools have to be sharp and use a very light touch to do it. Remember it aint no lathe (I figure some redneck was in order here), so you can not put the same amount of pressure on the surface. It will take a pretty long while to do it, but hey beats the hell out of spending $600-$1200 on a lathe to fart around with for one project.

Haha, I'm right there with you. As an unemployed (well, technically, non-gainfully employed at a minimum wage job) recent college graduate, I'm strapped for cash too!

When I get a chance to test this setup out, I'll be sure to post a success/disaster recap...

As I mentioned above, I have undertaken a cedar handle to figure out what I'm doing before working with marble. This block was sawn from a cedar I cut down in my yard a few weeks ago.

Check out the pictures below if you're interested...

Have shaped marble on my southbend,you need a grinding attachment which I have.
I can turn any type of stone with the proper wheels.But I will never do it again.
Even with a vac system, the stone dust is awful and will get into everything in your shop,not worth the effort for me at least.