Questions about wooden hand grips???

[37ccmflyte]

I have never held an early wooden brass and leather hand grip in my hands and I want to make some so I was hoping some people on here could answer a few questions I have....
I understand there were literally 10's of thousands and makers and models of grips so I am looking for general ideas here...
I am thinking of the type with wooden body and closed wooden outer end, leather wrap and a metal cap on the inner end....

How is the leather fastened to the grip?
Is the leather sealed over at all with some sort of varnish or shellac type product to hold it in place and keep it clean?
Was the leather wrap in a small recess in the body of the wooden grip or just on the outside of the shape??

Any helpful advice of pictures appreciated!

I have wood and the lathe ready

 

[New Mexico Brant]

@Jesse McCauley

 

[New Mexico Brant]

Some have a shallow area turned out to accept the leather. See below:

 

[Jesse McCauley]

I think there is generally a recessed area that the leather sits in as per Brant’s post above-

In my experience the leather is glued down and the leading edge is tapered comparable to a staggered joint


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Duchess]

I would guess hide glue and the whole thing sealed with shellac or varnish.

 

[37ccmflyte]

Great info and pictures guys thanks! Keep it coming... what was the width of the leather stripes on average?? It's had to get scale... and do they overlap or just but up against each other???

 

[Duchess]

I'm not an expert and have only seen a couple of them in antique bike displays, but I thought about making a set, so I paid at least some attention. From what I saw, there are different types. There's a pinecone-shape and a contoured ergonomic style. The leather wrap varies in width from maybe 3/16" to 3/8" (I didn't measure anything) to a fitted and sewn single piece. Since I wasn't going to reproduce something exactly, rather the feel and look of it, I didn't scrutinize (I prefer to replicate in-era styles of my own as if I had a contemporary mfg. company making my own version. Like, if I were a billionaire, I'd build cars of my own designs in the styles of various eras using appropriate parts so that they looked and felt right enough to cause head scratching among other car geeks as to how they never heard of the marque before. Since I'm not a billionaire, the closest I've come is making a 2000 "Iver Johnson Major Taylor Championship Centennial Edition" out of a 2000 Specialized Allez. Predictably, I've not met anyone who commented on it, but I'm in the final planning stages of a powerboat I designed that's ambiguously Mid Century in style and that WILL get comments.). The grips I was going to make were an ergo shape with an inset for the leather strapping so that they would make a flush surface with wood ends, which I think I found off-the-shelf in 1/4". Obviously, one could make their own of any width, but pre-cut 1/4" was about right enough for me without confirming it would be an exact match to a specific original. From there, I'd wrap it snugly without overlapping or spacing just like one of the pictured ones above using a modern glue and probably coat it with shellac because it's easier than varnish, smells less, and the accelerated wear would probably make it look appropriately patinated quicker. If it looked too patinated too quickly, I would have reverted to varnish. If they were going to be used on something that would see adverse weather or a lot of miles, I'd have used epoxy to adhere the leather and seal everything, then varnish over it tp protect it from UV. Obviously, that wouldn't be authentic at all, but it would be durable and after building a couple of kayaks, I'm a big fan of what the stuff can do (if not necessarily the prices!). What I ended up doing was making some from wood (bocote) with no leather, but I made them a hair too long so they'd fit my hands and the curvature of the bars near the grip area caused them to crack. I should have flared the openings to relieve the stress, but whatareyougonnado? What I did was replace them with Thompson ball end rubber grips. The wood was more comfortable than I thought they'd be, but I like the rubber better.

 

[Kombicol]

@bricycle did a nice run a while back
Wish he was still making them as I need a set

 

[37ccmflyte]

I have decided to make a few hand grips for myself and see how it goes..... I choose some nice old mahogany I had sitting around.....

 

[37ccmflyte]

Put them in the four jaw chuck and turned one end round..... fitted the three jaw and made them a blank log.... they are 100mm long and will be 110 with metal ring on the inner end.... blanks are 36mm dia.