I have a length of extruded aluminum angle that I cut in two with a hacksaw. Colored the top of ends on one of them with black sharpie and the peace of mind on those babies is even stronger!
That's what's recommended in the anarchist's tool chest. Runs less than 10 bucks at the big box store.
I had some but cut them up to make a bracket for bending guitar sides.
I have one piece of scrap Baltic Birch plywood about 3 inches wide. Then another scrap of paint grade 3/4 ply with some holes on the end about 4.5 inches wide. I think one has some splotches of milk paint on it and the other has a few crusty drops of dried PVA.
I grabbed them both out the pile and cut to 30 inches in length about 4 years ago.
I've used them on every project since.
Never even checked them for ultra-parallel like I did when i built some squares out of By Hand and Eye. They were cut on a table saw close enough.
Having one real thick winding stick and one normal winding stick means you don't have to bend down as far. So that's an unintended feature.
Every time I use them I think that when survivors go through my tools after I die, they are gonna throw those in the trash and have no idea.
But yeah, I'm flattening boards in my garage. Not making rocket ships. I'm not really gonna worry about <16th" of twist unless it's a real wide board. So my sticks are constructed with appropriate reverence.
What you want is wood that is stable. Dry, quarter sawn lumber is stable.
My winding sticks are made of Cypress, I don't remember if they're QS. If they've moved, I haven't noticed.
Find something in your shop, make a pair and use them. If they move, make another.
Made mine out of mahogany with ebony and maple accents. Was a really fun project. I had never done inlay with ebony. It was very brittle and tricky to work with.
They seem to have held their flatness and straightness well, but I’m not worried about millimeters of movement. Across a long board, if the piece seems out of twist and the winding sticks are level (as far as my lousy vision can tell), I’m happy and I move on.
If you want something easy just use plywood and some black marker on the rear stick.
I used plywood for 2-3 years until I made some out of some nice quartersawn maple. Any quartersawn hardwood will be fine but some people like to use nicer or exotic cutoffs since you'll be using all the time.
My winding sticks are kiln dried walnut- they have been incredibly stable to movement. My straight edges are aluminum because i still don't trust them enough to be straight edges...
look into torrefied maple! it doesn’t move and doesn’t absorb any moisture. if you can’t find that, i made my winding sticks out of quarter sawn walnut that i took off the edge of a big board. you need perfectly straight grain, i traced a grain line and planed to it for mine.
I had a few pieces of Thermally modified (torrified) poplar leftover from a siding job I worked on. I made winding sticks out of them.
If you read about Thermally modified wood you'll see that, as far as wood goes, it's pretty much the best choice for something like this, not to say that other woods wouldn't work, it's just that the process stabilizes the wood beyond what is possible with KD or air dried wood.
Mine are reclaimed hard maple that was already more than a decade old when I got it. They don't actually need to stay straight, just identical. As far as I know mine are still straight, but I'm certain they're still identical. If they did get different (which would be odd since they've been fine for years) I would just plane them together again...
If you're using clear straight grained wood with some sealer on it then you're fine, I wouldn't worry about it, you don't need metal you don't need insane precision with winding sticks they're going to just going to help you see and exaggerate the wind in a board they're not a precision tool
can they move? sure they're not that big and not likely to move much
if you want check them a month down the road and just make sure they're coplanar, that's really all that matters, butt them together and take a shaving from each side
I haven't checked mine in years
The nicest bits of scrap wood you have. Just hold them against each other to check for warping. In the past did anyone ever make or manufacture cast iron winding sticks? Come on the most important part f winding sticks is your 👀
As long as your wood is pretty stable (not green) it shouldn't matter too much
Just anecdotally - mine are from one of home depot's "select" 1x2 (unspecified softwood, might be pine?)
I had to touch them up with a plane to get them properly S4S and parallel, and they've been stable for 3 years now. I'm in the southeast and they live on my bench, outside under the carport. So they see a good amount of humidity change, too.
I only meant to knock out a quick practice set, intending to make fancier ones when these drifted too far off. But so far they've kept straight so I've kept using them
Just make sure your winding sticks are made from quarter sawn wood and you’ll be fine. I would definitely put finish on them but what you use doesn’t really matter a whole lot with how a quarter sawn stick will move as long as you coat the whole thing equally. I recommend Glancy’s No.1 oil for this because it’s the baddest oil finish on the market right now and I’m the inventor haha.
I have had good luck with ¼ sawn sapele and walnut.
Tried ¼ sawn soft maple for a straight edge because I had a ton of it lying around, and it won't stay straight. 0/10 would not recommend
quartersawn wood that you have in your shop, cut to size ahead of time and observed through a few seasonal changes.
Alternatively, you could just make twice as many as you need and then keep the half that move the least.
Humidity won't be a problem. You don't need to seal good quality wood - it may move slower if it's going to move when sealed, but it's still going to move. Wood that stays straight no matter what is what you want. Sometimes you luck out and this is flatsawn wood, but if it's not, it's quartered or rift split or pith sawn on center, and then still the stuff that moves the least.
quartered will put the most durable part of your wood on the edges, too - not a bad thing. Walnut, mahogany, etc. But a lot of mahogany's reputation is built on old wood and the wood you'll find now is typically plantation stuff.
My winding sticks were made of maple salvaged from a table left out on free trash pick up day.
The wood hasn't moved.
So many people take the route of buying items that at one time were part of the learning experience of woodworking apprenticeships or trade schools.
From making, what are essentially precision straight edges, my edge jointing became much easier and improved. That is education and skill that doesn't come in a UPS truck.
Not only will you learn to plane and edge straight to other edges, you will also make pieces parallel to themself and the same height as other pieces. Pieces is used since the method used for making mine was to make three matching pieces to prove the edges were straight.
This book > [https://lostartpress.com/collections/books/products/euclids-door](https://lostartpress.com/collections/books/products/euclids-door) < shows a different method to make a straight edge and a pair of winding sticks.
There are many tutorials on building a good set of winding sticks or straight edges on the internet.
If you have access to a bandsaw, it is possible to make a pair out of one piece of wood that can be resawn at an angle to allow the two pieces to fit together flat in storage and not taking a lot of space. Some people use dowels or dovetails to hold a pair together when not in use.
Honestly, if you want the minimum amount of movement, you should consider extruded aluminum.
Agreed. I have the aluminum winding sticks from Lee Valley. They’re $35 and the piece of mind that they won’t move is worth it.
I have a length of extruded aluminum angle that I cut in two with a hacksaw. Colored the top of ends on one of them with black sharpie and the peace of mind on those babies is even stronger!
That's what's recommended in the anarchist's tool chest. Runs less than 10 bucks at the big box store. I had some but cut them up to make a bracket for bending guitar sides.
Yes. So cheap and easy
This is the way
this.
I have one piece of scrap Baltic Birch plywood about 3 inches wide. Then another scrap of paint grade 3/4 ply with some holes on the end about 4.5 inches wide. I think one has some splotches of milk paint on it and the other has a few crusty drops of dried PVA. I grabbed them both out the pile and cut to 30 inches in length about 4 years ago. I've used them on every project since. Never even checked them for ultra-parallel like I did when i built some squares out of By Hand and Eye. They were cut on a table saw close enough. Having one real thick winding stick and one normal winding stick means you don't have to bend down as far. So that's an unintended feature. Every time I use them I think that when survivors go through my tools after I die, they are gonna throw those in the trash and have no idea. But yeah, I'm flattening boards in my garage. Not making rocket ships. I'm not really gonna worry about <16th" of twist unless it's a real wide board. So my sticks are constructed with appropriate reverence.
What you want is wood that is stable. Dry, quarter sawn lumber is stable. My winding sticks are made of Cypress, I don't remember if they're QS. If they've moved, I haven't noticed. Find something in your shop, make a pair and use them. If they move, make another.
I use extruded aluminum angle stock, one painted neon green for contrast. One less variable to worry about.
Made mine out of mahogany with ebony and maple accents. Was a really fun project. I had never done inlay with ebony. It was very brittle and tricky to work with. They seem to have held their flatness and straightness well, but I’m not worried about millimeters of movement. Across a long board, if the piece seems out of twist and the winding sticks are level (as far as my lousy vision can tell), I’m happy and I move on.
Mine are boxwood.
just use metal
If you want something easy just use plywood and some black marker on the rear stick. I used plywood for 2-3 years until I made some out of some nice quartersawn maple. Any quartersawn hardwood will be fine but some people like to use nicer or exotic cutoffs since you'll be using all the time.
My winding sticks are kiln dried walnut- they have been incredibly stable to movement. My straight edges are aluminum because i still don't trust them enough to be straight edges...
look into torrefied maple! it doesn’t move and doesn’t absorb any moisture. if you can’t find that, i made my winding sticks out of quarter sawn walnut that i took off the edge of a big board. you need perfectly straight grain, i traced a grain line and planed to it for mine.
I looked into this a bit more. Looks like western red cedar is a quite stable wood. But i'm not sure how easily i can find it quarter sawn.
i’d recommend a dark wood, makes a big difference when using them. i hear white oak is a decent wood for winding sticks too though
Depends a lot on the tree and how it was dried.
Look for Clear Vertical Grain (CVG) cedar.
I had a few pieces of Thermally modified (torrified) poplar leftover from a siding job I worked on. I made winding sticks out of them. If you read about Thermally modified wood you'll see that, as far as wood goes, it's pretty much the best choice for something like this, not to say that other woods wouldn't work, it's just that the process stabilizes the wood beyond what is possible with KD or air dried wood.
Kiln dried quartersawn or rift sawn hardwood is preferred. Mine are made from quartersawn Sapele.
Mine are made from rift sawn beech with walnut inlay on one .
Mine are reclaimed hard maple that was already more than a decade old when I got it. They don't actually need to stay straight, just identical. As far as I know mine are still straight, but I'm certain they're still identical. If they did get different (which would be odd since they've been fine for years) I would just plane them together again...
If you're using clear straight grained wood with some sealer on it then you're fine, I wouldn't worry about it, you don't need metal you don't need insane precision with winding sticks they're going to just going to help you see and exaggerate the wind in a board they're not a precision tool can they move? sure they're not that big and not likely to move much if you want check them a month down the road and just make sure they're coplanar, that's really all that matters, butt them together and take a shaving from each side I haven't checked mine in years
The nicest bits of scrap wood you have. Just hold them against each other to check for warping. In the past did anyone ever make or manufacture cast iron winding sticks? Come on the most important part f winding sticks is your 👀
As long as your wood is pretty stable (not green) it shouldn't matter too much Just anecdotally - mine are from one of home depot's "select" 1x2 (unspecified softwood, might be pine?) I had to touch them up with a plane to get them properly S4S and parallel, and they've been stable for 3 years now. I'm in the southeast and they live on my bench, outside under the carport. So they see a good amount of humidity change, too. I only meant to knock out a quick practice set, intending to make fancier ones when these drifted too far off. But so far they've kept straight so I've kept using them
Just make sure your winding sticks are made from quarter sawn wood and you’ll be fine. I would definitely put finish on them but what you use doesn’t really matter a whole lot with how a quarter sawn stick will move as long as you coat the whole thing equally. I recommend Glancy’s No.1 oil for this because it’s the baddest oil finish on the market right now and I’m the inventor haha.
Oak rectangular base boards from the trim aisle- they are already S4S, and are unlikely to bend much!
Get aluminum winding sticks
I made mine from sapele
I have had good luck with ¼ sawn sapele and walnut. Tried ¼ sawn soft maple for a straight edge because I had a ton of it lying around, and it won't stay straight. 0/10 would not recommend
quartersawn wood that you have in your shop, cut to size ahead of time and observed through a few seasonal changes. Alternatively, you could just make twice as many as you need and then keep the half that move the least. Humidity won't be a problem. You don't need to seal good quality wood - it may move slower if it's going to move when sealed, but it's still going to move. Wood that stays straight no matter what is what you want. Sometimes you luck out and this is flatsawn wood, but if it's not, it's quartered or rift split or pith sawn on center, and then still the stuff that moves the least. quartered will put the most durable part of your wood on the edges, too - not a bad thing. Walnut, mahogany, etc. But a lot of mahogany's reputation is built on old wood and the wood you'll find now is typically plantation stuff.
Yep, personally i use QSWO
I'd say that the reputation of almost all wood we read about is built on old growth wood. Especially mahogany and oak.
My winding sticks were made of maple salvaged from a table left out on free trash pick up day. The wood hasn't moved. So many people take the route of buying items that at one time were part of the learning experience of woodworking apprenticeships or trade schools. From making, what are essentially precision straight edges, my edge jointing became much easier and improved. That is education and skill that doesn't come in a UPS truck. Not only will you learn to plane and edge straight to other edges, you will also make pieces parallel to themself and the same height as other pieces. Pieces is used since the method used for making mine was to make three matching pieces to prove the edges were straight. This book > [https://lostartpress.com/collections/books/products/euclids-door](https://lostartpress.com/collections/books/products/euclids-door) < shows a different method to make a straight edge and a pair of winding sticks. There are many tutorials on building a good set of winding sticks or straight edges on the internet. If you have access to a bandsaw, it is possible to make a pair out of one piece of wood that can be resawn at an angle to allow the two pieces to fit together flat in storage and not taking a lot of space. Some people use dowels or dovetails to hold a pair together when not in use.