Scott Olex

A couple of Ashtons brought to hand. The caps have a recess to put a piece of moist paper towel or sponge to keep them fresh.

What do you do when the kids are gone for the day, your wife won’t be back until late, you have already gone for a mountain bike ride and a dirt bike ride and no rods going that need work right now? I turned some cigar cases for the heck of it. One is African Black Wood and the other is curly Maple. The African Black Wood is very dense and prone to checking and cracking when turned thin and not sandwiched between other woods so it will likely not pass the test of time.

The picture isn't all that useful but I thought it may help. The butt tack is installed and finished shaped to provide a smooth seamless transition.

I turn these from an individual ring. I use them for rear grips that terminate with wood or a burl cork ring. They take abuse, they are light and the extra surface area helps provide greater glue surface.

There is a splice in this picture. I should have gotten the lights out.

Rattan superfine on 3/4wt. Sorry for the poor picture, it's past my bed time.

This is the handle after glue-up. An upgrade in hardware would have been a better match but there was a budget involved. Water buffalo horn (Yak) has a very grain and buffs to a high gloss. It makes a beautiful insert and is pretty easy to work with. However, it stinks like burnt hair so giving your wife fair warning isn’t a bad idea. My wife really likes the finished look and has asked me to make a set of backgammon pieces from water buffalo horn and mammoth ivory. The horn isn’t all that expensive but the ivory… Maybe Tagua nuts instead.

The insert is stabilized water buffalo horn with nickel silver inlays. Water buffalo reacts to moisture quite a bit. The expansion isn’t a big problem with an insert of just water buffalo horn but when you add the inert nickel silver inlays you have some issues to account for. After the insert with inlays is turned smooth you will find that after several days you can feel sharp edges of the horn or nickel silver as the horn contracts and expands with varying moisture. I waited to finish the surface of insert on a day with a mid range humidity. Then over the course of a week or so I alternated between moistening the insert and drying the insert on a radiator. As the horn became larger and smaller than the finished nickel silver I buffed the insert to ease the edges of the horn and silver. This results in a nice feel regardless of the current moisture content in the air/insert.

Handle complete to the winding check. The blank is a Burkheimer from Andy and it’s very sweet. I’ve taped up some REC single foot snakes and played with it in the yard. I’m going to have to get me one of these…

Ivory seat glued-up. The hardware is a Struble U-24.

This is a mammoth ivory insert with green drake scrimshaw. It isn't too often that I get to scratch something into $100 worth of material. The first stroke sure takes the breath away for a second. Some practice work is in the background.