Felting needles for making tiny holes in wood

[RoughboyModelworks]

As threatened (and with apologies to Dallas for jumping in on his thread), I did some testing this weekend with the felting needle (bottom) and dental reamer (top) making nail holes in wood. The photo below shows both implements of destruction. The barbs are readily apparent on the felting needle and you can see the fine spiral cutting surface of the dental reamer. The dental reamer is much smaller in dia. than the needle which is also polygonal in cross section.



Both tools will readily punch a hole in thin scale lumber. The felting needle cuts a diamond shaped hole while the reamer hole is round. The photo below shows a piece of basswood on top, a piece of Swiss Pear below. Both are sharp enough to cut through the Pear which is much harder and more dense than the bass. The reamer produces a much neater hole, while the felting needle could be useful for making knot holes and other texturing operations, at least in 1:48.



Below are the same pieces of wood after some quick weathering. Here you can see how effective the felting needle is a replicating a Knot hole, especially in the Swiss Pear. The reamer makes quite an effective looking nail hole.



This last was a test on another piece of Pear adding a nail to one of the nail holes. The hole on the right has a tiny wire nail in place, the head colored with some Neo Lube. Very tedious bit of work this and not something you'd want to do throughout a model, but could be effective in moderate use.



Paul

[Malachi Constant]

Paul --

Notes & photos much appreciated and definitely welcome here.  That dental reamer looks superb for tiny stuff. 

Cheers,
Dallas

[finescalerr]

That was a very worthwhile post. Thanks, Paul. -- Russ

[Ray Dunakin]

Very useful post!

[JohnP]

I work in iron and rivets, you guys have mastered wood and knots and nails. I love to read these forums threads just to see how far y'all take things. Nice work.

There is so much win in this forum it makes me giddy. More bourbon!

John

[Lawton Maner]

Now I know how I am going to install the nail to hold your coat on the back side of the outhouse door in 1:48.

Thanks.