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These are 6 handles a customer from Phenix ordered. 4 of them are 14" long and 2 are 28" long. all made from 1" bar stock. The standoffs are made from 3/4" bar. Each bar was cut an 1" longer then needed I drilled the mortise holes, then upset a 1/2" on each end, i ran my 3/8 drift back thru the holes as they got a little deformed during the upsetting. Using a angle grinder w/ a cut off wheel I cut all my lines in for the twist. From there it was just a matter of hot twisting the bars, forging the tenons on the standoffs. I went with my normal 1/2" of material to forge a 3/8" tenon which usually gives me a 1 5/8"ish tenon.......i realized after the first one that i should have adjusted that because they ended up being over 2 1/4" long because usually i am using 1/2" bar and not 3/4" but it was not a big deal to cut them down. My daughter Mady helped out drilling, and tapping the standoffs, then peening over the tenons, and using a rivet header she made to give them a more uniform shape. She is a good hand to have around. I showed her how to drill and tap one off the standoffs and she drilled and tapped 12 holes by hand without messing any of them up. Its pretty awsome to see my daughter developing "the feel" that it takes to work with tools. She thought it was "so cool'' to be able to me a threaded hole in steel. I'd have to agree what we do is so cool!!!! The customer did not want a mounting plate on the handles. So I drilled a 3/8" hole in the other end of the standoffs opposite the tenon, then on the side facing down when the handle is hung on the door, I drilled and tapped a #3 hole to be tapped for a 1/4" set screw. The customer installed 3/8" rod thru his door and gates and so he can slide the standoffs over the rod and lock them into place using the set screws.... I went with fine thread for a better hold. The customer is going to have then coated/painted so I left them raw. All total they took me 10 hours. The 2nd pic is of my poor ginder that finally decided to retire to the trash ben.... 3 years of only using it as a cut off wheel and this project just did it in. I am sure cutting non stop for 3 hours had nothing to do with it..... just its time to go...I am glad tho cause it would get so hot a guy could hardly hold on to it. lol

I was using up some rebar I have had lying around the shop today. I started making a letter opener. I squared off the handle and drew out the blade. Looking at the handle I had left the ridges on the corners. I was going to round them off but I thought they might look cool if I do a twist. So here's what it turned like. Never seen it done before. Does it have a name? I am calling it a "poormans pineapple twist".

I saw a video on this a long time ago but i never had a welder to give it a try...until now. I finally got a good deal on a new mig welder and this was my very first thing i used the welder on. Awesome tool, dont know how i functioned without it for all this time. Anyways this was an attempt with 1/8" square stock i want to try again with some 1/4" round stock and use it to form the body of a candle stick. Just not sure how to make the candle cup yet but hey all in good time.

A few posts recently have featured pineapple twists. There is probably a list of guidelines on how to make them somewhere but I can't find one. Nearest I can figure is (1) groove each side of square stock to length required. (2) Twist as normal. (3) That gives a tight twist but how do get the reverse groove to get the diamond shapes?