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Questions about wooden hand grips???

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I did a to scale drawing and worked out the depth the drill the hole without getting close to the hole in the end curve, and to my delight I found I have the perfect sized drill!

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Next job is to turn up the metal ends for the inner ends of the grips.... will make them from steel and have them nickel plated. Will make a sleeve that goes into the grip to hold them in (with glue) and machine and slightly bigger hole at that end say 10mm deep.... then I can turn the grip shapes.... I was thinking of just doing these wood without the leather wrap.... thoughts on leather or no leather?
 
I got my leather (Deerskin) lacing from "the Leather Guy". He's on E-Bay. I had tried others, but their lacing was not as supple, smooth or wrapable. It was about $24shipped for 50ft. Using 3/16" wide lacing, I began wrapping at the outer side against the recessed lip, w/o trimming... just scrunched against the lip wrapped firmly, but not tightly, and just overlapped the end on the first turn. From there on, butt each wrap firmly against the previous turn (no gaps). As you wrap, gradually (as soon as you can) get lacing to become all perpendicular to the grip core. (so it looks even). At end of wrapping, when space becomes like 1/16"... leave about 1/2" or so, and lay lace over wood ferule area, and with a sharp one sided razor blade, carefully split lace to a sharp point. jam this point into the smaller gap by massaging the wrapped lace away from the ferule ledge. Jam in with edge of your fingernail. ** you can just do so many at a time, because your hand may grow tired from the holding/wrapping**
Then I would dunk the grip into a quart of Amber shellac for a second or two, pull out smoothly... let last drop come off grip end, then wave grip assy. gently thru the air to dry. (don't whip it!). I would take wine corks with wire run thru them and press into wood grip inorder to dunk the grips.
Let dry at least overnight. The shellac would do several things... glue lacing to wood, protect deerskin, add color to wood, and give the desired semigloss finish after dried. No need to glue lacing to wood. I think my customers were pleased... all my grips were checked for fit on a 7/8" handlebar. Any too tight were reamed out by hand with a suitable sized drill bit.
 
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The leather wrap doesn't over lap, it just butts-up at the sides. Below is precut leather lacing but I do not know how thick it is; they may sell some that is thiner. I believe Tandy also sells a device used to thin the leather.

 
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I was thinking of just doing these wood without the leather wrap.... thoughts on leather or no leather?
I have never seen TOC period examples with a metal grommet that were just wood. They all have some sort of leather wrapping. It seems about 90 percent (give or take) of the original ones are cracked (ones found on bars and loose examples) so the leather serves two purposes. One as a grip area, and secondly to bind the wood and allow the grips not to fail even if the wood cracks.
The later WW2 era wood grips are typically thicker when turned but never used leather. These examples (when found on bikes) are also usually cracked. All the civilian lightweight war-era bicycle I have encountered, with original grips, used glue to secure them to the bars.
 
I got my leather (Deerskin) lacing from "the Leather Guy". He's on E-Bay. I had tried others, but their lacing was not as supple, smooth or wrapable. It was about $24shipped for 50ft. Using 3/16" wide lacing, I began wrapping at the outer side against the recessed lip, w/o trimming... just scrunched against the lip wrapped firmly, but not tightly, and just overlapped the end on the first turn. From there on, butt each wrap firmly against the previous turn (no gaps). As you wrap, gradually (as soon as you can) get lacing to become all perpendicular to the grip core. (so it looks even). At end of wrapping, when space becomes like 1/16"... leave about 1/2" or so, and lay lace over wood ferule area, and with a sharp one sided razor blade, carefully split lace to a sharp point. jam this point into the smaller gap by massaging the wrapped lace away from the ferule ledge. Jam in with edge of your fingernail. ** you can just do so many at a time, because your hand may grow tired from the holding/wrapping**
Then I would dunk the grip into a quart of Amber shellac for a second or two, pull out smoothly... let last drop come off grip end, then wave grip assy. gently thru the air to dry. (don't whip it!). I would take wine corks with wire run thru them and press into wood grip inorder to dunk the grips.
Let dry at least overnight. The shellac would do several things... glue lacing to wood, protect deerskin, add color to wood, and give the desired semigloss finish after dried. No need to glue lacing to wood. I think my customers were pleased... all my grips were checked for fit on a 7/8" handlebar. Any too tight were reamed out by hand with a suitable sized drill bit.
Wow, I REALLY appreciate you sharing your knowledge. Thank you.
 
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