A while back, a friend asked me if I knew what a break stick was. He was also kind enough to show me examples of it and also send some links to Amazon, so I could have a better idea. He asked if I could make something similar. And since it's made of wood, I took up the challenge.
Here, I want to show you some of the works on the prototype of my break sticks. So this is a project that's very far off from my usual woodworking flow.
Let's jump to it!
Sketch
A break stick is something used as tool to open a dog's jaws when they are latched to something. It is used by breeders of tough breeds think about rottweilers, pit bulls and the sort. So if your dog in training takes something and you need to open its mouth but it has too much strength in its grip, they you should use a tool to have enough leverage. This prevents you from injuring yourself and also gives you a some safe room to operate in this situation.
It is also used when dogs bit each other in a fight. But I'm talking about incidents, not actual dog fights. This way you can prevent one dog hurting another badly.
According to this ideas and taking into accounts measurements from Amazon products I had to get some hard wood and also think about the design. My initial idea was something similar as a door wedge. Then, I thought it must have a kind of tip that is easier to get into the dog's mouth, but also be long enough so your hands stay away from its teeth.
And I got to drawing a sketch to make an example of the stuff I needed to craft.
For wood, I went ahead and bought this piece of Mureillo (erisma uncinatum). This is a wood that is usually used in the construction of roofs. It is sturdy. However, it isn't so hard as to make it uncomfortable to work. It is also not so hard as to put at risk the teeth of an animal.
With the sketch and a piece cut to the length needed, it's time to get hands to action.
The Works
The main idea is to make most of the shapes by use a plane and sanding. Cutting to this point is pointless since there's not enough room for error and I didn't want to start over. The first step is to clean all faces to be able to see the guidelines we will draw on top of it.
Once we have determined where to remove material, we get the piece to the width needed with a bit of elbow grease and the plane. For the tip, we use a smaller place to remove material from the area. This part is marked so we don't take more that we need. The piece is 1,8cm thick, so the tip gets to 9mm. It's all marking the lines and then removing material.
The end step is breaking the edges and sanding the whole piece.
Last Trims
Once I had the shape, I showed it to my friend and he told me it was a little too thick for the job. It was nice feedback since I thought the same thing. I was just following the measurements from a break stick from Amazon. I wonder if it is the actual size of the thing or the numbers are wrong.
Anyways, the last part is to remove more material to make a slimmer wedge, breaking the edges again and then sanding over.
These tools should have some kind of finish. Maybe some mineral oil. However, I don't have any so I just polished it with sandpaper.
Now that the prototype is ready, we can try to make something fancier. That will come of next post and you'll tell me how it looks!
Thanks for reading. See you next time!
Fotos/Photos 📷: taken by me (Redmi Note 13)
Portada/Thumbnail 🖼️: by me, created with Canva.
Edición/Editing 🎬: by me, made with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.
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