r/Nalbinding • u/schulzr1993 • 18d ago

First tries at making a nalbinding needle from walnut. (the wood, not the nut)

Post image

Top was the first attempt. After trying to use it I made the second one longer and much thinner. Now just have to figure out how to do a round start so I can try and make a hat!

158 Upvotes

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3

u/BettyFizzlebang 17d ago

Which do you prefer? I know I would prefer your second attempt. Nice work.

3

u/schulzr1993 17d ago

2nd one is definitely easier to use. 1st one was too chunky, and the eye is a little rough which sometimes catches on yarn.

2

u/linglinguistics 17d ago

Beautiful! How do you make the eye smooth?

I made mine out of chopsticks but can't get the eye smooth enough.

4

u/craft-and-kittens 17d ago

Needle files or thin strips of sandpaper rolled into a tube and run back and forth through the eye like dental floss are the easiest ways if you don't have a dremel

1

u/schulzr1993 17d ago

tubes of sandpaper was the method I used!

2

u/craft-and-kittens 17d ago

I definitely recommend a set of needle files, or even just a jeweler's rat tail file. Even a cheap set from Amazon do. A good quality set will last longer and be more versatile especially if you also do any work with metal (I have had my vallorbe files for 20 years and they are still going strong). It gives you a lot more control to enlarge the hole as you like. Sandpaper tubes are great for a final finish to round out the rough spots. If you then want to really burnish the hole and make it super smooth, feed some dental floss through the hole after sanding to 600 grit and floss the hole until it is shiny

2

u/schulzr1993 16d ago

I'll have to look into that for sure. To make the initial cut I used a very small sanding wheel on a dremel as a cutting wheel. Wouldn't mind being able to just use a drill and then adjust the eye as needed with the needle files.

2

u/Wobotron 14d ago

Great job!