7.7) Item 7, Handle Assembly

The handle assembly has caused me more fruitless searching than any other part in the sextant. A tiny bit more about that a little later. What we're aiming for is shown below:-

You need four brass wood screws, 0.5" long x No. 4, as roughly drawn below (I fear you'll have to buy these..):-

Then you need two pieces of timber for the handle. I fruitlessly tried to get tiny pieces of hardwood from everywhere. The UK is not a good place to find hardwood (especially not free). Eventually I remembered I had removed the 105-year-old back door from my house a few months before. And the door sill was oak. So, with the aid of an axe I hacked away the rotten timber, eventually coming to the intact core. Then, after what felt like weeks, I managed to hand saw off two strips about 10mm thick to be planed down into items 25 and 26. So, my sextant now has two 105 year old handles. That's effective recycling if I ever heard of it.

First the unblemished outer half shown below:-

Then the other half with pilot holes for the screws:-

Finally, you need the 1/16" thick brass strip to make the handle. The undimensioned radii are 3mm on the inside of the curve:-

The developed shape of the strip is as below (take this with a bit of a pinch of salt, as the dimensions wanted are those specified in the drawings above):-

Having made these parts, the handle must be assembled:-