Another handmade crochet hook ... ...

If you have read this blog you'll know I spend a lot of time playing about with bits of wood, I can't help it, it's almost a compulsion, and if I could spend ten hours (or more) a day just making stuff out of wood, whether it be on my lathe or by hand I would.

It's very rewarding, and oddly therapeutic,  maybe it's something to do with the repetition  I don't really know, and hand carving wood doesn't involve buying lathes and such like, all you need is a sharp knife,sand paper and a small saw, and not much else.

Recently I've been trying to perfect the method I use for making crochet hooks by hand, trying to get the dimensions as exact as is possible without machining them, although I do use my calipers to get things more or less the same.

Here's the latest crochet hook -

It's made from a small pear branch.

 I wasn't sure when I made this one whether it was going to crack of not, the branch was very green, in fact it had only been cut a few days earlier, but it hasn't, which is a bonus although I'm not going to attempt to carve or turn a larger piece until the wood has a chance to season a little, the temptation to cut a section of the tree trunk I have in my shed is almost too much.

As you can see this hook has a curve to it, I haven't tried to straighten it out as it doesn't seem to affect it's use, it actually fits nicely in the hand. I've tried to keep the design simple and also allow a couple of inches of plain wood for the shaft, which makes the hook usable.

Some more pictures - 

The twist.

The hook.

The twist is hand carved, I'm more or less happy with it, it's not as even as it could be, but compared to the metal hooks my wife has it's more pleasing on the eye, not sure whether this matters in a tool though ? I would say that it's not as decorative as some I've seen. As for the hook I have tried to get it the same width as the shaft, using fine sand paper I have managed to get the shaft and hook to within in 0.5mm of each other using my vernier, which I think is pretty good, not sure if half a millimeter will make any difference to the item being crocheted ? the width of the shaft and hook is 7.5mm (give or take the 0.5mm) if any one has any thoughts about this I'd be interested in hearing them, also if you have an thoughts, opinions on the hook as a whole I'd be interested in hearing them :-)

Here's a picture to give you an idea of scale - 

It's a little longer than a ball point pen.

Here's a picture of it the other way round - 

The other way round.

 I spent some time finishing it with a very fine sanding pad, then I gave it a few coats of linseed oil, this helps to keep it from cracking.

Last picture to hopefully show the amount of curve it has -

I used the pen to hold it up :-)

 If anyone has an thoughts on it, for example whether it's going to be a usable design and such like, my wife has tried it out and she can crochet with it, I can't get my head round crochet at all (it's a dark art ;-) so I'm not really best placed to say whether it'll be any good for the purpose I made it.

Thanks for reading.