The Stick Man

Tools and accessories for making sticks

Page last updated June 2010 - click on "Refresh" or "Reload" to ensure you see the latest information each time you visit.

Read about it Please note - small packages will normally be sent by Royal Mail and larger ones by courier.

Carving Knife
Made in Sweden, simple wooden handle that is extremely comfortable to hold and use. Laminated blade - really sharp edge!

Cut-resistant carving glove. Made from Kevlar (used in bullet-proof vests) these gloves give excellent protection from knife blade cuts - but they won't stop you stabbing the point of the knife through or stop repeated cuts in the same place.
I am so confident with these that I regularly demonstrate them to customers by trying to cut through one WITH MY HAND INSIDE!
(I don't recommend this as it will make your knife blunt!)

Cut resistant Kevlar Carving Glove £5.50 each
Only one needed - wear it on the hand that doesn't hold the knife. Made from Kevlar with rubberised dots to aid grip.
Stocked in size 9 (small) or 10, which is medium.

Leather Carving Glove £5.99 per PAIR.

If you use rotary carving tools ("Dremmel" types) then leather gloves are recommended. Kevlar gloves are very soft and can catch the teeth of rotating carving bits - causing the drive to jam and possibly break! I've broken several heavy duty drive shafts so now only use leather gloves with rotary carvers.

Carving Chisels
The ideal beginners set. These small carving tools, made from high quality hardened and tempered Carbon steel, are fitted with comfortable stained Beech handles that fit in the the hand for great control. These can also be used with a small mallet for extra cutting power if required.

The ready honed blades feature 5/16" 8 mm Square Chisel, 5/16" 8 mm Bent Square Chisel, 5/16" 8 mm Skew Chisel, 3/16" 5 mm Straight Gouge, 5/16" 8 mm Bent Gouge and 3/16" 5 mm Bent 'V' tool. Set of six chisels and gouges in a neat presentation box.
Made in Sheffield, England.

Sharpening stone
Small oilstone with two sides - coarse on one side, fine on the other. Used with a drop of oil* for sharpening knives and chisels.

* Any oil will do - light machine oil, engine oil or even vegetable oil from the kitchen will do!

Forstner Drill Bit

15 mm drill bit for drilling out 'socket' in handles and heads. Forms a flat-bottomed hole and the bit is steerable so you can correct its direction if it goes out of line while drilling.

8 mm Drill Bit

Hardened steel twist-drill bit for use with 8 mm studding.

Epoxy putty

Two-part epoxy - mix equal amounts of adhesive and hardener together to start the setting reaction. The mixture sets slowly, starting off quite soft like Plasticine and slowly getting harder. In effect you have an hour or so before the mixture gets too stiff to work and it's pretty hard after three hours and can be handled after that.

Available as single packs or multiples of 12. Trade quantities of 120 packs (10 boxes) now available.

Epoxy liquid Adhesive

Similar to "Araldite Rapid" but much cheaper! Equal amounts are supposed to come automatically from each tube as you press, but in use it doesn't always happen. I sometimes separate the two plungers using a small saw and this gives me more accurate measurement and less waste! Five to ten minute working time, full strength achieved in 60 minutes. Setting times are slower in cool conditions.

I use nothing else for fixing heads and handles to shanks! Also good for filling hollows or cracks in horn handles - it is almost colourless, unlike some other epoxies that are cream coloured.

Perfect for fixing glass eyes in heads and many other uses.

Price £1.50 per pack

£14.50 for 12 packs (£1.21/pack)

£125.00 for 120 packs (£1.04/pack)

(new coloured tin)

The oil finish I use on nearly all my sticks:

Ronseal " Furniture Oil", made for protecting outdoor garden furniture but it's great on sticks - I use it all the time! More flexible than varnish so less likely to crack or flake. I've never known it set in the tin or even skin over like so many varnishes do, so it's really economical! Use it on bare wood for a matt or satin finish. Use shellac sanding sealer first (rubbed down with fine abrasive) to get a more gloss finish. Very fast drying time - I often get two coats put on in about an hour.

Price £6.99 for 500 mls tin.

Shellac sanding sealer

Useful for hardening the surface of wood so that you can carve finer detail and get a smoother finish after sanding and to get a smoother, more glossy finish with oil or varnish top coat. Use first (before paint) on carved heads to stop paint "bleeding" into the grain.

Price £4.25 for 250 mls

For more information and associated items look at the HORN page

Clear Polyester Embedding Resin

500ml tin of resin with catalyst hardener

A small bottle of hardener is inside the blue cap and the cap itself has measuring marks inside to help you get the correct mixture!

Used for setting coins, badges, fishing flies, pictures etc. in the open end of cow horn knob handles or in antler tops. The resin sets hard in around 24 hours and can be filed and sanded before polishing clear. Instruction sheet included.

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	Vinyl glove £1.25 per pack of 10 Clear vinyl gloves to keep hands clean when using adhesive, shellac, oil, varnish, etc. Unlike latex, these gloves can be used several times and do not dissolve if used with solvents like meths or white spirit. Discount for 10 packs or more Vinyl Gloves £1.25 pack of 10 Qty

Coarse flat rasp for 'roughing out' wooden blanks or horn handles.

Coarse half-round rasp for removing material from the inside curves of wood or horn handles. (Cutting teeth on rounded side only).

Fairly fine file for removing tool marks left by the use of the above heavy rasps prior to sanding with tape or Abranet. One side is flat and the other is rounded with teeth on both sides.

Abrasive tape. Much longer lasting than sandpaper, used for smoothing shanks, handles, horns and carvings. Sold in a mixed pack or by the metre

MIXED PACK Three pieces in each pack - approx. 30 cm (12") X 2.5cm (1") each - one in each of three grades (coarse, medium and fine). A pack contains enough tape for one or two stick projects.

COARSE tape sold per metre

MEDIUM tape sold per metre

FINE tape sold per metre

ABRANET Abrasive Mesh

This was introduced to us by one of our customers and we were so impressed we immediately started stocking it! The Aluminium Oxide abrasive is presented on a fine mesh which allows the particles of wood or horn to drop through (use dust mask or dust-extraction unit where possible) so making the material clog less often.
We sell it in packs of FOUR pieces of a single grit size or mixed. Each piece is 70 mm x 125 mm (approx 3 x 5 ") and can be folded or torn into thinner strips. It works well on horn as well as wood and antler and has quickly become our favourite abrasive!

We stock the four sizes we find most useful - 120 and 180 grit are most useful for starting off and the 400 and 600 grit are great for finishing, particularly on horn where it can be difficult to remove those last scratches before polishing. If you still need a finer abrasive we would recommend the 0000 grade steel wool below.

STEEL WOOL 0000 grade, VERY FINE.
Small pack (approx. 30 cm roll in pack) with enough to last for one or two stick handles. Used for cleaning up wood, horn and antler prior to finishing or polishing.

PEEK polishing paste from the USA.

Brilliant for use with horn, antler and clear resin. Use after removing all sanding marks and scratches with the steel wool or fine Abranet.

You can get a gloss equal to that obtained with our buffing wheel Polishing kit - though it will take longer!

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