Decorative Drawer Handles / Pulls



Making Decorative Drawer Handles

03/12/18: Spun off of main Handle page.


Main Drawer Page	Decorative Handles	Handle Horizontals	Handle Verticals
Finished Handles

Decorative Handles

I decided to make some decorative (less rustic) handles for furniture and here is what I came up with. These are a little less rustic than the handles I have been making, Betty is suggesting we might retorfit some of our drawers etc.

I ripped 1x1 strips from yellow pine, then cut them into 4" lengths for the handle horizontal. Next I ripped 3/4 X 1 strips from yellow pine and cut them into 1-3/4" lengths for the verticals.
I put each of the horizontals on the lathe and turned a 1/2" diameter tenon on each end. Half of the horizontals were round tapered from the center to the tenon on each end.

The verticals I rounded one end and drilled a blind 1/2" mortise in each. Next, with the router table, I rounded off the edges on the verticals leaving the bottom edges unrounded.

Ripping 1x1s from 2x material. These will be handle horizontals.

3/4 x 1 and 1 x 1s after ripping.

Cutting the horizontals to length (4").

Stacks of each.

Handle horizontal 1x1 chucked up in the lathe.

This is my key, I turn the end of the horizontal until it will fit all the way to the bottom of the hole on the left.

Roughing. This trims off the corners to make a round.

I stopped the lathe so you can see how I'm removing the corners.

Took off a little more and again stopped the lathe. Now the horizontal is round so the center section is done.

Begin turning down the end.

Now the end is about the right diameter and length. But there is stll a shoulder that must be reduced.

The shoulder is taking shape. This end is almost done.

See, it bottoms in the key. Note the pencil mark, it is in the center (2").

Now I have turned down both ends and I'm sanding the final end.

And here is a finished handle horizontal.

Turned and blank horizontals.

Cutting the verticals to length (1-3/4").

Marking a vertical. Thats a 1/2" X 19mm socket, it is almost exactly 1" in diameter. I frequently use sockets to mark small round shapes like this.

Now I'm marking where the mortise will go, 1/2" from the top.

And 3/8" from the side (in the center of a 3/4" wide vertical).

I'm about to drill the mortise. You can see the center punched dent.

Drilling the pilot hole.

I use this to measure exactly how deep I'm drilling. Here the bit is sitting on the top of the wood.

Now the hole is exactly 1/2" deep.

The resultant 1/2" wide x 1/2" deep mortise.

Sawing off the corners to round the top.

Stacks of handle verticals in process of rounding their tops.

Gluing the handles together.

Bunch of finished tapered handles.

The tapered decorative handle.

Tapered handle from 45°.

Cylendrical (untapered) handle in the glue clamp.

Both, the tapered handle is a little taller than it should be, when I make the next batch that will be corrected.

End view showing the rounding of the top, the cylendrical handle is flush with the end pieces. Both have a 1/2" horizontal tenon into a mortise in the upright.

Handles mounted on drawers, ready to stain. These are the 28" deep drawers for Susan's Storage Bed

Closer look at a mounted tapered handle. The drawer front is the same material (yellow pine) as the handle.

Close look at a decorative handle stained and painted.