Stick press

I went to Keith's class primarily to learn how to join handles onto shanks better. I thought i could straighten shanks quite well until we used his "stick press". This is far better than using the two half-round blocks screwed to a board that i had been using. I thought that was brilliant until the press was used!

John

Maybe he can post a picture or tutorial on the "device."

Hi Guys

Well Keith, whats this stick press I am reading about. I take it, it is not the old notched board idea.

I have ruined more good shanks than I could shake a stick at because I never mastered straightening shanks.
Steam has been used in the past which is ok, but after waiting 12 months for the shank to dry out it seemed a bit daft to be putting moisture back in. At least it does not burn the bark as does a hot air gun, which can be a quick source of heat, but you do have to be careful with it.
My experience of straightening shanks is one of, fix one bend and another appears, fix that one and something else seems to have decided to move. Most frustrating, and not to mention time consuming.
I only ever use broom handles now to make my sticks. They are cheap, straight and plentiful. Make a nice job with a little whittling down the shank. Take a good stain and polish well. The only draw back of course is the broom head which gets in the way. But then you cant have everything.

So Keith. Be straight with us and gives us a few clues to your stick press.

Cheers Viktur.

There's a picture of the Stick Press in use on my website and each one comes with a full page of instructions included - look here, towards the bottom of the page http://www.thestickman.co.uk/shanks.htm.

As for leaving shanks in a stream - I've never found the need. Steaming sticks does leave them slightly damp, but only on the outside. I usually leave them for three or four days after steaming and they're fine to use then.

Straightening sticks is pretty easy really - ask anyone who has been to one of my classes! It takes a complete novice around an hour to do their first one and with practice you can get it down to under 15 minutes. If you're having such problems maybe you need to come to a class? If you keep putting new bends in then you are doing something fundamentally wrong - either bending the wrong spot to begin with or giving it too much/not enough heat/pressure.

You can go down the road of buying cheap broom handles but they can never match the beauty of a real stick!

Keith.

I get a 404 error when clicking on the link you posted, Keith???

Hi Keith. Hi Guys.

Viktur here.

Yes had a look at the stick press, looks good and really good value at 3.75.

I am amazed at the amount of stick making related items Keith has on offer. I even found those gloves you told me about Keith. My only concern was that the next item down from the gloves was epoxy resin. Ouch!.

I feel that stickyness returning.

Cheers Viktur.

I still get a 404 error when clicking on the link