Custom Turned Tuning Wrench
Eric
About a week ago, the thought occurred to me that I could make my own tuning wrench handles. Since then, I’ve been itching to give it a go.
“But what kind of wood should I use for the handle?” I thought.
Well, I resolved that question by making my first tuning wrench handle out of something entirely different from wood: a Banksia Pod.
You’ll quickly notice from the picture that a Banksia Pod is really weird looking! Actually, I think it is somewhat similar to our regular old pine-cones here in the States, except these things come from Australia. They are mostly solid all the way through, except for the obvious holes throughout its body. Anyhow, you can see one of them mounted on my lathe and ready to be transformed into a handle. (And it made a big, furry, fuzzy, crusty, dusty, crackly mess!)
So, after a time that took longer than I am willing to admit, I came out with this handle. (See picture.) I like how the holes look like all sorts of little mouths, which gives the handle an interesting look, and also some traction for you hand.
Best of all, with this new handle, I was able to make a tuning wrench that was as long as I wanted. (Which was quite a bit longer than any of the other bowed psaltery tuning wrenches out there.) Basically, a longer handle means more leverage, and thus more sensitive and precise tuning adjustments - which is a good thing.
You can see from the picture on the left, that I’ve had a “lengthy” progression of tuning wrenches over the years. The one at the top is of course the newest addition and also the longest. The middle guy is the wrench that I currently include with all my regular bowed psaltery orders. (Still quite long at around 8″ total length.) And the bottom one is my very first tuning wrench model, also know as The Worst Tuning Wrench Ever. (I don’t like it because it is short and ugly, and has a square indent that makes it hard to fit it on the tuning pins.)
I hope to perhaps someday offer custom tuning wrenches with all my bowed psalteries, or at least by special request. I think it would be nice to have a tuning wrench from matching woods from the psaltery, made as long or as short as needed.
Posted on: Monday, January 14, 2008 at 9:01 pm 
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Just an update:
I’ve just used this new tuning wrench to tune a new psaltery for the first time, and all I can say is: “wow!”
It is much easier to make tiny adjustments with a longer wrench. The highest notes can sometimes be touchy, but even *they* were no match for this wrench.
January 16th, 2008 at 4:28 pmThis looks fabulous. How easy was the banksia pod to work with — did it split and crack, or did it stay fairly solid? Did you finish it with stain or oil? Where did you get the pod?
thanks for responding, and thanks too for the inspiration!
February 17th, 2008 at 10:52 pmAnna
Hi Anna,
Sorry it took so long to reply - I’ve been sick this past week.
The pod stayed solid for the most part. The only area that gave me trouble was the thin part where the ferrule attaches at the top. It started to crack a little bit, so I soaked the entire area in thin CA glue, and after that it held up fine.
Next time I am going to use a wider ferrule so the top isn’t tapered down so skinny and more pod material is left. I bought some 3/4″ ID aluminum tubing for this.
The handle is not stained, the pod was pretty colorful alone. I finished it with shellac, with seemed to do a good job of bringing out the color contrasts.
You can sometimes get these pods at woodworking stores like Rockler or Woodcraft, or also online - I’ve seen them on eBay. I personally like to pick through them locally to find one that’s really “holey.”
February 21st, 2008 at 12:21 pm