Hard S.E.X.; The Search for Golden Needles

Readers with long memories know that I really like wooden knitting needles,
and often make my own knitting needles. This is the further adventures in
the excesses of needle making. I am sharing this because it is easily done
in the average home workshop, and I think, well worth the effort. ( For a
serious knitter with a with a craftsman's bent or handy spouse.)

In Gladys Thompson's introduction to her book on Fisherman's Sweaters, she
mentions that they were mostly knitted on long steel needles, which are no
longer commonly available. With the Internet, such needles ARE still
available; see for example http://www.lacis.com/id.php?c=RP20 or the British
Knitting Guild's site. However, the commercial steel needles are nickel
plated to prevent rust, and I find them very slippery, and they just do not
feel friendly. Nor do I like the common aluminium DPN that are inexpensively
available. I do not find wood durable in the finer gauges, and wood is too
easily broken when making sweaters on thin needles. (I.e., Wood is good for
lace.) In the past, I had made several attempts at making my own metal
knitting needles, and never come up with anything that was worth the effort.

This last fall, as the stash ebbed out as I knit Christmas gifts, there was
that great cone of fine blue yarn, exposed like a rock in the harbor at low
tide. I had bought it, long ago, with the intent of making fisherman's
gansey - on traditional long steel needles. The house was full of guests,
so I went out the workshop - i.e., to hide and perform self indulgent Stash
Enhancement eXperiments. In that mood, I hit on the idea of using my
cordless drill to rotate metal rod against the bench grinder (fine wheel) to
form perfect knitting needles from inexpensive metal rod. I think many home
workshops have a bench grinder and a cordless drill. In fact, my last bench
grinder was lost in a move, and my current grinder is a cast off from a
neighbor (he still has two) so we are not talking about fancy machine tools
here.

Brass rod of various thicknesses is available from any good hardware store
rather inexpensively. I took my needle gauge to the hardware store and
bought brass rod that was about the size of the needles that I wanted,
i..e., US # 1. I marked off the lengths and used the grinder to make the
cuts by rotating the rod against the grinder, so that by the end of the cut,
the tapering of the needle blank was well started. Then, I chucked the
needle blanks into the drill and used the drill to rotate the rod as I
ground the tapers, shaping by eye. With a sample needle on the bench in
front of me, this was a surprisingly fast and easy process. (Wear gloves
and eye protection) However, with brass, some care must be taken not to mar
the brass blanks in the drill chuck.

Then, I used the drill to hold and rotate the blanks against open coat
silicon carbide abrasive paper (400 & 1000 grit) followed by hand polishing
with fine crocus cloth and buffing with buffing compound. I made the test
set of 4- six inch long DPN of US gauge #1 in about an hour.

With their brightly polished "golden" tips, they are truly gorgeous, and
knitting with them is like slicing through soft butter. I left some areas of
matt finish so they do not feel slippery. Brass has a lower thermal
conductivity than steel, or aluminium and thus does not feel as cold. At
small gauges, brass needles have a pleasant heft, but do not feel heavy.
And, you (or your hubby) can make needles of different lengths, so you do
not work with the weight of a 10" when a 6" will do.

And, the smooth knitting action of brass knitting needles more than
compensates for any coldness or heaviness. They are my "golden" needles.
That said, brass will tarnish leaving a toxic residue. I tend to work with
yarns that have significant spinning oils in them and those oils minimize
tarnishing during an active project, but I would not leave brass needles
sitting in a UFO for any length of time. I suggest storing brass needles in
a cloth sprayed with WD-40 or maybe in the anti-tarnish cloth that they sell
for silver. Wash your hands after handling brass, and do not put brass
needles in your mouth, and do not let kids play with them. Still, they are
far and away the smoothest knitting needles that I own. The very sensuality
of these needles means that I am going to do more knitting with fine yarns.

Those old time knitters had brass, but they knitted on steel needles, even
though steel is cold to the touch. There had to be reasons. Steel is less
toxic, stronger, lighter, and harder. Brass needles will wear and will need
to have their points reshaped after a few hundred hours of knitting, while
steel will endure. An 18 inch long steel needle will flex less than a
similar gauge brass needle when tucked into belt sheath for old gansey style
knitting. Steel "music wire" is even more available and less expensive than
brass rod, and available in more different thickness than brass rod.
However, steel is harder to work.

A set of 4 DPN in steel took about 3 hours to bring to almost the same
finish as the "golden" needles, and while smooth, they do not have the same
"buttery" feel while knitting. I can leave a bit of matt finish so that they
are not as slippery as the commercial nickel plated needles, but the bare
steel is going to rust a bit whenever it gets the chance. Bottom line on
steel needles - buy them - they are not worth the effort to make unless you
need something special. Steel needles are so cheap and the commercial
plated needles do not rust (until you wear through the platting.) However,
if you are working with a particular, unusual yarn, a significant advantage
to making your own needles is that you can modify the tips. You can make
the tips more rounded for working with softer yarns and grind more pointed
tips for more tightly spun yarns. Concave tips can be ground for slippery
synthetic yarns. Oh yes, and you can leave a mat finish so they do not keep
falling out. The right matt finish may be the best reason for making your
own steel DPN. If you need a single tip for something, put a drop of hot
glue or a rubber band on the end of the DPN, and take it off when the
project is done.

Oh yes, that huge cone of blue yarn that started all this. I knitted gauge
swatches and pattern samples and thought, "Wonderful for a gansey!" Then, I
washed the swatches and they shrank!!! and felted with a wonderful soft fuzz
that completely obscures the pattern. Definitely an unknown exotic luxury
fiber. Since the fuzz obscures the pattern, I will do something very simple
like steps and cables. It is going to be so soft and knitted on golden
needles - not at all like the hard work of knitting an old time gansey. : )
Maybe! I have not really tried extended knitting on 5 - 18" long brass
needles yet! But, I am sure that matching hats and socks will be done on
golden needles.

Aaron

wrote in message
. net...
Readers with long memories know that I really like wooden knitting
needles,
and often make my own knitting needles. This is the further adventures in
the excesses of needle making. I am sharing this because it is easily
done
in the average home workshop, and I think, well worth the effort. ( For a
serious knitter with a with a craftsman's bent or handy spouse.)

In Gladys Thompson's introduction to her book on Fisherman's Sweaters, she
mentions that they were mostly knitted on long steel needles, which are no
longer commonly available. With the Internet, such needles ARE still
available; see for example http://www.lacis.com/id.php?c=RP20 or the
British
Knitting Guild's site. However, the commercial steel needles are nickel
plated to prevent rust, and I find them very slippery, and they just do
not
feel friendly. Nor do I like the common aluminium DPN that are
inexpensively
available. I do not find wood durable in the finer gauges, and wood is
too
easily broken when making sweaters on thin needles. (I.e., Wood is good
for
lace.) In the past, I had made several attempts at making my own metal
knitting needles, and never come up with anything that was worth the
effort.

This last fall, as the stash ebbed out as I knit Christmas gifts, there
was
that great cone of fine blue yarn, exposed like a rock in the harbor at
low
tide. I had bought it, long ago, with the intent of making fisherman's
gansey - on traditional long steel needles. The house was full of
guests,
so I went out the workshop - i.e., to hide and perform self indulgent
Stash
Enhancement eXperiments. In that mood, I hit on the idea of using my
cordless drill to rotate metal rod against the bench grinder (fine wheel)
to
form perfect knitting needles from inexpensive metal rod. I think many
home
workshops have a bench grinder and a cordless drill. In fact, my last
bench
grinder was lost in a move, and my current grinder is a cast off from a
neighbor (he still has two) so we are not talking about fancy machine
tools
here.

Brass rod of various thicknesses is available from any good hardware store
rather inexpensively. I took my needle gauge to the hardware store and
bought brass rod that was about the size of the needles that I wanted,
i..e., US # 1. I marked off the lengths and used the grinder to make the
cuts by rotating the rod against the grinder, so that by the end of the
cut,
the tapering of the needle blank was well started. Then, I chucked the
needle blanks into the drill and used the drill to rotate the rod as I
ground the tapers, shaping by eye. With a sample needle on the bench in
front of me, this was a surprisingly fast and easy process. (Wear gloves
and eye protection) However, with brass, some care must be taken not to
mar
the brass blanks in the drill chuck.

Then, I used the drill to hold and rotate the blanks against open coat
silicon carbide abrasive paper (400 & 1000 grit) followed by hand
polishing
with fine crocus cloth and buffing with buffing compound. I made the test
set of 4- six inch long DPN of US gauge #1 in about an hour.

With their brightly polished "golden" tips, they are truly gorgeous, and
knitting with them is like slicing through soft butter. I left some areas
of
matt finish so they do not feel slippery. Brass has a lower thermal
conductivity than steel, or aluminium and thus does not feel as cold. At
small gauges, brass needles have a pleasant heft, but do not feel heavy.
And, you (or your hubby) can make needles of different lengths, so you do
not work with the weight of a 10" when a 6" will do.

And, the smooth knitting action of brass knitting needles more than
compensates for any coldness or heaviness. They are my "golden" needles.
That said, brass will tarnish leaving a toxic residue. I tend to work
with
yarns that have significant spinning oils in them and those oils minimize
tarnishing during an active project, but I would not leave brass needles
sitting in a UFO for any length of time. I suggest storing brass needles
in
a cloth sprayed with WD-40 or maybe in the anti-tarnish cloth that they
sell
for silver. Wash your hands after handling brass, and do not put brass
needles in your mouth, and do not let kids play with them. Still, they
are
far and away the smoothest knitting needles that I own. The very
sensuality
of these needles means that I am going to do more knitting with fine
yarns.

Those old time knitters had brass, but they knitted on steel needles, even
though steel is cold to the touch. There had to be reasons. Steel is
less
toxic, stronger, lighter, and harder. Brass needles will wear and will
need
to have their points reshaped after a few hundred hours of knitting, while
steel will endure. An 18 inch long steel needle will flex less than a
similar gauge brass needle when tucked into belt sheath for old gansey
style
knitting. Steel "music wire" is even more available and less expensive
than
brass rod, and available in more different thickness than brass rod.
However, steel is harder to work.

A set of 4 DPN in steel took about 3 hours to bring to almost the same
finish as the "golden" needles, and while smooth, they do not have the
same
"buttery" feel while knitting. I can leave a bit of matt finish so that
they
are not as slippery as the commercial nickel plated needles, but the bare
steel is going to rust a bit whenever it gets the chance. Bottom line on
steel needles - buy them - they are not worth the effort to make unless
you
need something special. Steel needles are so cheap and the commercial
plated needles do not rust (until you wear through the platting.)
However,
if you are working with a particular, unusual yarn, a significant
advantage
to making your own needles is that you can modify the tips. You can make
the tips more rounded for working with softer yarns and grind more pointed
tips for more tightly spun yarns. Concave tips can be ground for slippery
synthetic yarns. Oh yes, and you can leave a mat finish so they do not
keep
falling out. The right matt finish may be the best reason for making your
own steel DPN. If you need a single tip for something, put a drop of hot
glue or a rubber band on the end of the DPN, and take it off when the
project is done.

Oh yes, that huge cone of blue yarn that started all this. I knitted
gauge
swatches and pattern samples and thought, "Wonderful for a gansey!" Then,
I
washed the swatches and they shrank!!! and felted with a wonderful soft
fuzz
that completely obscures the pattern. Definitely an unknown exotic luxury
fiber. Since the fuzz obscures the pattern, I will do something very
simple
like steps and cables. It is going to be so soft and knitted on golden
needles - not at all like the hard work of knitting an old time gansey.
: )
Maybe! I have not really tried extended knitting on 5 - 18" long brass
needles yet! But, I am sure that matching hats and socks will be done on
golden needles.

Aaron

welcome BACK, Aaron!
Noreen

wrote:
Readers with long memories know that I really like wooden knitting
needles, and often make my own knitting needles. This is the further
adventures in the excesses of needle making. I am sharing this
because it is easily done in the average home workshop, and I think,
well worth the effort.

snip of some very interesting reading

Aaron,
I am truly impressed! I can just picture those golden needles.
Congratulations, and thanks for suggestions.

Higs,
Katherine

This is so interesting! Thanks so much for sharing this :-)
sandra Rose

I lied!

The ink had hardly dried on my last post when I got up from knitting sox on
very nice #6 birch DPN and made myself a set of US #6 steel DPN. It was a
ridiculous amount of work considering the price of commercial DPN. (And, I
admit that it took several tries to get the points on the steel needles
right.) Then, I switched back and forth between various sets of needles (and
various reworkings of the points on the steel needles) as I knitted. At
that large size, steel is burdensomely heavy*, stretching the yarn at the
junction between the needles, so I can see why nobody sells them. But,
steel needles are so fast and -- smooth! It was a late night, with much
knitting, tinking, and thinking.

This morning, there is a bag of different kinds of # 6 DPN next to my
knitting chair, but the needles in the sox are steel.

Knitters are like children. We go through stages. I am fussing about
needles, like a baby fussing about teething. Don't pay any attention to me.
It will pass. I will grow out of it. Maybe.

Aaron

*Brass is even heavier.

"Sandra Rose" wrote in message
news:VK8vf.48232$OU5.24683@clgrps13...
This is so interesting! Thanks so much for sharing this :-)
sandra Rose

Hi Aaron,

Good to see you again and I enjoyed the story of knitting needle
making.

Hugs,

Nora

Well, I have a question for you.

Have you ever turned wooden needles?
Perhaps walnut or some other hardwood? Perhaps apple?

We have a small lathe, and I just have not worked up the courage to have a go at turning needles, but you have me thinking now...

I also have some thin 'blanks' three feet long by 1/4 inch by 1/2 inch and also some three feet long 1/4 inch by 2 inch zapilli and
babinga wood. The problem with these is they are SOOOOO very hard, I would have to sharpen my tools many times in the process of
lathing them, perhaps the grinder is the answer. hmmm

Sandra Rose
wrote in message . net...
I lied!

The ink had hardly dried on my last post when I got up from knitting sox on
very nice #6 birch DPN and made myself a set of US #6 steel DPN. It was a
ridiculous amount of work considering the price of commercial DPN. (And, I
admit that it took several tries to get the points on the steel needles
right.) Then, I switched back and forth between various sets of needles (and
various reworkings of the points on the steel needles) as I knitted. At
that large size, steel is burdensomely heavy*, stretching the yarn at the
junction between the needles, so I can see why nobody sells them. But,
steel needles are so fast and -- smooth! It was a late night, with much
knitting, tinking, and thinking.

This morning, there is a bag of different kinds of # 6 DPN next to my
knitting chair, but the needles in the sox are steel.

Knitters are like children. We go through stages. I am fussing about
needles, like a baby fussing about teething. Don't pay any attention to me.
It will pass. I will grow out of it. Maybe.

Aaron

*Brass is even heavier.

"Sandra Rose" wrote in message
news:VK8vf.48232$OU5.24683@clgrps13...
This is so interesting! Thanks so much for sharing this :-)
sandra Rose