Solid Resin Handles
A few months back, our wood handle maker sent us a catalog of materials he could order, to use instead of wood. He also indicated that olive wood, from old olive trees that have been uprooted as their no longer fruiting, was also possible, but very expensive. It's a beautiful wood, but because it's old, it's knotty and full of holes and defects, so there's a very high rate of discards.
Our black wood handles are painted black, which isn't great for longevity, because that paint can flake off if you had the wood handle on the portafilter bar (maybe you're not quite awake). I've been searching for a black through-and-through material to make our black handles out of, so that'd stay nice looking, permanently.
A number of handle samples arrived today, in solid resin. Despite not being wood, this is a quite expensive material. It's heavy, polished, and feels great in the hand. These are made on a lathe, like wood is, so there is no seam. They are not moulded.
On the bottom left of the photo I opted for a conservative choice, of black resin with just a small amount of sparkle. The bottom right is a much crazier mix of dark and light greys.
On the top row are two “fashion” colors. I surprised myself in really liking the top right, but I know it's a contentious choice.
On the top left is the olive wood handle. I really like it: it's an ecological choice, since it's essentially reclaimed, and a hardwood to as well. It's very lightly finished so that it doesn't shine of lacquer but still feels smooth in the hand. I don't yet have pricing for that, or even if it's possible to make a large quantity order with olive, but I've asked.
Here are some other solid resin colors that arrived, that I didn't mount on a machine for a photo.
and here all the olive handles we received. You can see a typical wood defect on the far right one.
I'm also talking to a wood turner based on southern Germany, who has a chemical process for changing oak wood into solid black (called “smoked oak”) and they're also making light wood samples for me out of maple.
Besides the possibility of changing our black handle, I'm interested to see if we can “up our game” and offer both a more attractive standard handle (in both black and light wood) as well as optional woods and colors for those who might like that.
Very much looking for to hear your thoughts.
-john
Update: the solid resin handles are available here now: https://decentespresso.com/c?filter=resin
Updated 2021/12/24