Making a Wooden Shift Knob

[Bonzi Lon]

PLASTIC! - - - I've been robbed!!! That is a crushing revelation - but given all the other chrome plated plastic in the car - I should have guessed !

FWIW,

Carl B.

That is right, plastic. Mine has a crack on the bottom that lets the knob to be tightened a quarter more turn, making the map point east/west, is loose if north/south. I try to remember to put it north/south at shows, sometimes I forget. I'll try to get a photo of the knob that still has the original finish with all the wear marks of 39 years, give or take, of shifting. I doubt it will be refinished, looks aged and well worn now. At one time I had over 4000 board feet of air dried American black walnut lumber that I harvested, sold every foot of it.

Bonzi Lon

[olzed]

Down here we had a bad hurricane back around 1986. Blew over a 150 year old English walnut. I was lucky enough to buy a lovely dining table from it around four inches thick, and another slab that I made into gun stocks. Still have some I think. I might spin up a knob.

[geezer]

Great work Captain Obvious!

olzed - I found that most wooden knobs regardless of wood species will be turned from a blank that is comprised of two laminated booked pieces. If you study a knob you may be able to find the butt joint. Some times they are tough to detect. There are several reasons to make them this way, including economics as well as a way to prevent splitting of a single block.

On another note, does anyone subscribe to the thought that alternate shift knob suppliers were used when our cars were built? Just something I've been wondering about after seeing so many examples posted of the lighter colored wood. I had always thought the knob that was on my '70 was an original but it seems to be an entirely different type of wood. Everything else was the same such as the mounting plug and the shift map button and it has exacting dimensions of the others, but the wood is different. Does anyone else have one that looks like this. There is no finish or stain of any kind on it and it is a very hard darker wood with a different grain, that polishes beautifully.

I also am looking for a new shift map button and base plug for this one. I like it better than my new OEM replacement knob that I turned down. Nothing feels as good in the hand as one shaped like the originals to me.

I'll get a pic up of what I thought was my original shift knob when I figure out how to post a pic.

Edited November 8, 2012 by geezer

[Captain Obvious]

I didn't specifically look for a seam on the OEM knob that recently passed through my shop, but I didn't see one. I do remember looking at the grain from all sides and noticing that it seemed whoever made it did a pretty good job of centering the knob in the original rough cut blank. I don't know woodworker terms, but what I'm trying to say is that the grain patterns looked symmetric from one side of the knob to the other. Two sides has ovals and the other two have edges of the grain disks. The ovals were pretty close in diameter from one side of the knob to the other.

Since I got nothing to lose with my first attempt, I tried some of that ancient golden oak stain I found in the basement and I think it looks pretty good! Directions say I'm supposed to put on a second coat tomorrow, so after that's done I'll take a new pic and post it here. Then, I guess my next order of business will be to get my hands on a higher quality chunk of wood and really try to make one like OEM.

So anyone have input into how long I would have to wait until I could make a knob out of wood that was felled last week in the storm?

[olzed]

It would have been around four years from when the walnut blew over, and it was cut into three or four inch thick slabs, until it was made into furniture, and I was making gun stocks from it.

I suppose you could cut your maple up into smallish pieces, and leave it in the hot sun for a few weeks to dry.You will get some splitting, but should end up with some you can use. I couldn't guess how long that might take.

It would not be too successful spinning a knob from green wood, as it would most likely split as it dried out.

I once made a gunstock using semi dry walnut from a different tree, and it took on quite a kink and shrunk as it dried. Weeks of work down the drain. Lesson learned.

[Captain Obvious]

Got the second coat of stain on and here's what I've got. I've sent the original knob I had back to it's owner, so I can't do a side by side comparison for color, etc, but from the pictures, it looks surprisingly close for just happening to have a can of stain pushed to the back of a shelf in the basement.

I've got some feelers out for some maple and some walnut to try again.

[olzed]

Nice. If I could find a shift map I would make a new knob. I made mine 12 years ago, and it has a blank steel cap, which looks OK but not really OK.

[LeonV]

That looks awesome Captain, nice job!

[ninjazombiemaster]

Looks fantastic! It is very close in color, I'd say mine has a little more red in it, where as that's more golden.

[Mikes Z car]

Great work Captain Obvious.

Dare I say it?

We need some more stinking badges

[geezer]

Looks great! The coloring of the wood and perhaps even the type of wood probably varies quite a bit so I don't think you could make a mistake with your coloring choice. Whatever you like is good. Mine is a pretty close match to my steering wheel.

The light colored knob is an OEM replacement that I turned down. It is still a bit taller and not the same as an original but a definite improvement over what they are selling.

The darker one is the knob that I believe was original to my 240Z. After disassembling it, I lightly turned it to remove a few scratches and then buffed it up. There is no stain or finish of any kind on it. That is the natural color of the wood. It has a just enough, nice gloss to it. I am curious to know what kind of wood it is.

Yeah, a source for map buttons would be nice. Thats the tough part to find.

Edited November 13, 2012 by geezer

[Captain Obvious]

Thanks for the pics geezer. Your stock knob is certainly much darker than the other OEM knob pictures I've seen. Are you sure it wasn't stained darker than original? Maybe it was completely dunked and is stained on the inside hole as well making it look like it's the natural wood color?

Speaking of wood types..... Anyone know what kind of wood bowling pins are made out of? :bandit: