Arthritis Help

[rico]

I have a friend who is suffering from arthritis and can't hold his knife to carve his caricatures very much because of the pain. Is there anyone out there who has a similar problem? What did you do? Is there a specific knife that you use? Can you custom make a handle to take some of the stress off the joints? I was thinking if you squeezed a peace of clay in your hand and than carved a replica of your hand grip with a blade or interchangeable blades in it that might work. Thanks in advance Rico

[Alice in Wonderland]

Rico, I know what you are talking about, shortly after I started carving,I had to have surgery on both hands to fuse the fingers which were badly damaged because of Arthritis. I was gong to give up when my husband bought me the first Dremel and now ,I have about 4 Dremels 2 Arbortech tools and a Wecheer, so you see ,one can carve with Power, I changed my style of carving too, where there is a will there is a way.
Alice

[cannuckcarver]

Originally Posted by Alice in Wonderland

Rico, I know what you are talking about, shortly after I started carving,I had to have surgery on both hands to fuse the fingers which were badly damaged because of Arthritis. I was gong to give up when my husband bought me the first Dremel and now ,I have about 4 Dremels 2 Arbortech tools and a Wecheer, so you see ,one can carve with Power, I changed my style of carving too, where there is a will there is a way.
Alice

I am glad you found a way.
Few years back I had an episode for about 4 months I could not hold a pencil...and a friend of mine talked me in taking (Aleve) not avail. in Canada for some reason....1 every am and voila after 2 weeks I was able to write again and start carving.
Don't despair...

[ElWoodTroll]

I attended a wood carvers retreat two years ago and ended up damaging thumb joints in both hands. The pain is excruciating and I haven't been able to carve with any regularity since then but I carve when I can and take lots of breaks in between. Some carving is better than no carving at all I guess. It has taken me a month to finish this little guy

[toycarver]

I felt like I was getting it in my thumb joints shortly after I went to a carving retreat too. I use my hands and thumbs a lot in the type of work I do, so I was worried I might not be able to do my job or carve. I am not sure why the pain disappeared but I have been crediting it to the Calcium supplements I started taking. I had taken them about a week when the pain disappeared.

[Ron T]

Hi Rico,

Michael's Craft store has a polymer clay that can be heated in the oven and becomes hard. I believe it can be used to make a knife handle. Have your friend hold a sizeable chunk and squeeze it into shape. Then heat it. I'm not sure if there are precautions that have to be taken.

Product Clay & Tools products at Michaels

[cut up]

Hey Rico,
I have the crippling arthritis. I have had surgery on both hands. I have only about 15% movement in either wrist. I have to get someone else to open the pickle jar. After years of seeing a doctor and not giving up, I can carve. Like Elwood Troll, I have to carve a little and rest. It usually takes a week for me to carve out a spoon, after the rough cut. It started out, I was having hand cramps after about 5 minutes of gripping.
Tell your friend to make sure his blades are sharp and take only small cuts. Don't get in any hurry or he'll hurt himself more.
And don't get discouraged.
I forgot, he can wrap the handles of his carving tools with duct tape to make them bigger, or maybe some plasti-dip from a tool store.

[Mottles]

Rico, take a look at Rick's site Little Shavers Wood Carving Supply and this link Reducing hand pain from Little Shavers
Your friend is lucky to have a friend such as yourself. Also, there is someone else online who has to ergo handle style knives not sure might be by Denny.

Kathy

[Sharon of the Dell]

Years ago my husband helped build a house for a couple in their 70's. The man said he had rheumatoid(sp) arthritis. He told my husband that his fingers were starting to get out of shape. He started drinking aloe vera juice about a year earlier.When we met him his hands were almost back to normal. He swore to God the juice worked and wanted everyone he met to know about it. Him and his wife are the only people I know that drank it for that purpose so I don't know if it was a fluke or not. But when ever I hear about people with crippling arthritis I like to tell them about it because of this couple.Maybe a good idea to check with a doctor though. When we have drank it we felt better in general. It tastes better mixed with juice though.

[Joy]

Flexcut knives have a larger handle that might lessen the need to grip so hard. Then he could use the soft vet tape to enlarge and customize it even more. I hope he finds.