Screwdrivers

These are a couple of home-made screwdrivers. I generally dislike slotted screws (both aesthetically and functionally), but a lot of old planes use them and not all of those screws are simple to replace with thumbscrews (or even with hex socket cap screws as they're mostly imperial threads). Up to now I've managed by just rummaging through a set of screwdriver bits and using them in a bit holder handle. I've got some excellent heavy duty Wiha screwdrivers, but they're a bit long for comfortable use when tweaking the settings on a plane so I decided to make a pair of custom screwdrivers, sized to suit the screws in the #45. One of them suits the fence and depth stop screws, the other can do the nicker screw.

Starting with a couple of bits of silver steel, I ground these to shape on the bench grinder, filed a flat on the shank (to help some epoxy bind them into some yet-to-be-made handles) and then hardened to cherry red and tempered to purpley-blue (as per the recommendations for screwdrivers in the little book I use for reference). I then gave them a good clean up with wet and dry paper:

The handles were then turned from tigerwood, using ferrules made from 17 mm OD, 1 mm wall thickness (and hence 15 mm ID) brass tube.


This website is free, but costs me money to run. If you'd like to support this site, please consider making a small donation or sending me a message to let me know what you liked or found useful.