How long?

 

How many do you need? What type of wood?

George

 

How many do you need? What type of wood?

George

Any light color wood will be fine, they need to be about 6 or 8 inches long and I will need two of them.

I have some skewers but they are too thick.

John, the tooth picks are too thick also. Heck if I tell yall what I want them for, you won't help me figure out how to make them. lol they are very very small piece of trim.

I have thought about pulling some of the skewers through a small tap as in tap and die.

I appreciate you fellows, thanks so much.

 

LOL - those are called toothpicks.
Jim - what is the project ?

 

Bamboo skewers?

 

It would have to be done with the wood being a high moisture content. A wood with a tight grain such as aspen or soft maple would probably be better. You might rip a strip of the wood on the table saw with the off fall being a 1/16" strip then rip it again with the off fall being a 1/16"x 1/16" strip. Then block sand the corners making it round. Then dry the wood taped to a straight piece of wood or metal. Lot of work but without industrial machinery I think about the only DIY way.

 

Fat cocktail toothpicks if they don't need to be too long.

I've discovered that bamboo satay skewers come in all sorts of diameters, right up to cheap chop sticks.
They have been wonderful as glue pegs in short lengths. Bet bet is a kitchen store.

Ring any exposed peg with a wood knife then saw off the excess with a flush-cutting dowel saw.
This works so well that I'm inclined to leave exposed dowel (bamboo) pegging at the surfaces.

 

Business opportunity..the 1/16th inch dowel craze coming to a store near you!

 

Fat cocktail toothpicks if they don't need to be too long.
I've discovered that bamboo satay skewers come in all sorts of diameters, right up to cheap chop sticks.
They have been wonderful as glue pegs in short lengths. Bet bet is a kitchen store.

I was about to suggest those bamboo skewers myself!
Cotton balls sometimes come on hardwood holders.
I wouldn't even try to make some, unless you drive a square peg through a small round hole as done for larger sizes. Might work?

 

Tree twigs? Usually not mature enough though and become really brittle once dry usually..

 

if I had to apply some trim into a groove in a wood project, and 1/16" just had to be used,
I would probably use some sticks of spaghetti (or even copper wire) and call it a day.
** and you know the saying: we LOVE photos in odd projects like this !!

 

OK, here's an example. An umbrella stand in western red cedar. I split the planks and smoothed them with a planer knife. Then they got tapered with an elbow adze and smoothed with a D adze. Did the formline drawings of beaver, frog, orca and salmon. Cut all those with a short straight knife and a pair of 1S/12 skews.

Then I screwed and glued the 5 pieces together. Couple of days later, I backed out all the screws and drilled peg-sized holes. Glue and bamboo pegs, trimmed and done. The bottom 6" seams are all buttered up with bathtub silicone.

 

I split the planks and smoothed them with a planer knife.

Meaning you used a power planer knife hand held as a fro and then as a scraper?

 

I do not know what size skewers you can find, but I would buy
the smallest and sand them down. Should not take long.

George

 

the thinnest of the dowel pegs you see. I didn't realize this stuff was meant for veneer.

My planer knives are dogleg diamond willow with a double edged PacNW blade hafted.
The whipping hides all the hand grime. After I split cedar, I need to get it smooth enough for drawings.
I don't have a picture of a whole one. there's about 1/2 at the bottom edge here.

 

the thinnest of the dowel pegs you see. I didn't realize this stuff was meant for veneer.

My planer knives are dogleg diamond willow with a double edged PacNW blade hafted.
The whipping hides all the hand grime. After I split cedar, I need to get it smooth enough for drawings.
I don't have a picture of a whole one. there's about 1/2 at the bottom edge here.

half of what ? sorry - I can't see anything - can you draw a yellow circle around it ?

 

Did my picture of wood carving tools not post?
There are 3 crooked knives with rosewood/mahogany handles.
The planer knife is at the bottom of the picture. Half of the 18" length of the knife.

 

the topic of the thread is 1/16" dowels: where to buy them or how to make them.
I'm just trying to understand how your posts relate to the topic.

 

I am a little confused also.

 

I guess I will chime in here Jim. For the lengths and amounts you need, although it would be time consuming, I would even suggestion getting some 1/8" dowel and chucking it in your drill. You can use sandpaper from there to sand it down to the dimension you need. Probably not the answer you were looking for but it's an idea.

 

If you go this route, start sanding from the tip working towards the chuck. A little too much pressure and it would be prone to snapping. Keeping it fat at the chuck end for as long as possible would slightly help mitigate that.

I'd consider taking a board 8" wide and making a small kerf across it - like from a Japanese saw. Chuck up the dowel and set the dowel on the kerf. Start it spinning. Use a hard sanding block to lightly push the dowel down into the kerf as you sand.

Maybe two different sized kerfs - a slightly larger one for starters and a smaller one for as the diameter reduces.

 

BigJim: Any ideas how to make a 1/16th inch dowel?

and this is how I did it - - - -

Remembering that I had a 1/8" Birch Dowel on hand, I used the electrician's wire strippers to get started.
the 4th hole was exactly 1/16" on my tool. (yours may vary).
with the bench vice open 1/4", I started pulling the dowel through the largest hole and progressively moved on to the next smaller hole. the 1/16th hole was a bit tricky as the wood got really small. after the dowel slid through the desired hole with little resistance, I smoothed off the fuzz with sandpaper and now I have a 18" perfectly uniform dowel that is 1/16" from one end to the other. took all of 10-15 minutes.

Jim - do you need this Overnight Express or will Snail Mail do ??

 

View attachment 428877
and this is how I did it - - - -

Remembering that I had a 1/8" Birch Dowel on hand, I used the electrician's wire strippers to get started.
the 4th hole was exactly 1/16" on my tool. (yours may vary).
with the bench vice open 1/4", I started pulling the dowel through the largest hole and progressively moved on to the next smaller hole. the 1/16th hole was a bit tricky as the wood got really small. after the dowel slid through the desired hole with little resistance, I smoothed off the fuzz with sandpaper and now I have a 18" perfectly uniform dowel that is 1/16" from one end to the other. took all of 10-15 minutes.
View attachment 428880

Jim - do you need this Overnight Express or will Snail Mail do ??

Thanks Ken and thank you J L, those are great suggestions I really appreciate it.

John, that is a really good idea, the wire strippers got me to thinking of the holes in a wire stripper screw cutting electrician's crimping tool that cuts screws also. But they don't go down to a 16th. I may have one of the ones you have, I will give that a try. I know I have one that is variable size and can make smaller like plyers like the one in the photo. Thank you for the suggestion and thank you for the offer of the strippers.

Thank all of you fellows I really do appreciate your help. I will post how I did it.

 

Brilliant!

 

these particular strippers have very sharp holes that you can gently hold oversized pieces in it and firmly just pull the larger dowel through the holes - working down to the smaller size needed. turning 1/4 turn with each pull helps.
the pliers type design lets you control the force applied to the jaws.

 

John, maybe I didn't do it right but I couldn't get the wire stripper to work for me. It did make it smaller but when I got down close to the 1/16 th inch, it just came all to pieces. My stripper must not have been as sharp as yours is. My smaller stripper worked great but it turned out to be a diamond shape instead of round. lol

I wound up doing like Ken and J_L suggested, 1/8 inch in skewer, using a drill and a board with a slight kerf. I used a long sanding block to top of the dowel while the drill turned it. It did take a few minutes but it worked perfect. I also used the kerfed board to flatten one side of the dowel so it wound up to be a little over a 1/2 round.

Thank all of you for your suggestions, I appreciate you very much.

 

John, I got the dowels you made and sent me, did you make them with your wire strippers. That is amazing, I got close but no where near that small. Thanks a ton buddy, I really do appreciate your time and for the dowels.

 

hey Jim - yep, that is the same dowel I stripped down with the wire strippers in the photo.
I figured you could use it more than me and only cost a stamp so I said what the hay,
looking forward to seeing your project when you get started.
I got those wire strippers way back long time ago - don't even remember when. I would imagine they are still made. check for them in the electrical dept. at the store.

 

Those kind of strippers are general used to make up swedge bound wiring. Go to an auto parts store. They shouldn't cost you more than $15- 20.

 

one small point, your choice of wood for the manufacture of 1/16" dowels might have to vary according to method of manufacture, some methods might need a hardwood, other methods might work better with a softwood.

6-8" long is long enough to be awkward.

If they were shorter I would just run each raw dowel up against a stationary disc sander and let it roll over and over, reversing it every so often.

 

Look for a store that sells wooden ship kits and accessories. Modelers use them for masts and spars and other ship parts. I just looked at a store called Ages of Sail and saw 12 inch long walnut dowels as small as 1mm in diameter. They also had light color woods.

 

Wow, that is small, I appreciate the information, I will bookmark that store. I just checked it out, that is a cool store.

John, here is what I needed the small dowels for. The trim on the doors and hood. This is my fist attempt at wooden models so it isn't Kenbo quality.

 

wow that turned out great !!