d.i.y.: grooming tool

so satisfying

Winter fur be gone! Now this is not an original idea. Lots of people have made these, but this tool is awesome and everyone should have one! I figured one more basic tutorial wouldn't hurt, plus a giveaway!

this is my bad/crabby side: not amused at taking ugly photos of me

This tool is a basic hacksaw blade with a wood handle. Before I used it I was concerned about the teeth being too sharp, Major not liking it, etc. But no worries, unless you literally try to saw on your horse (not advised!) this won't do any damage. Major is too sensitive to use the standard metal curry, but he loves this tool.

needed tools

Basic tools needed are:
hacksaw blade (I bought 18 TPI (teeth per inch) 10 inch blades, about $3)
wooden pieces (I used a stir stick from the paint department!)
glue (E6000 is the best)
duct/sturdy tape
hacksaw or something to cut the wood (utility knife will work too)
not pictured: pliers

First thing is to figure out the length you want. My blades were 10 inches (what they had in stock). I felt that 10 inches is too long for the tool, 8 inches seems about right (if you bought a 12 inch blade you could make two six inch ones!). To shorten the blade grab either side with a plier and just bend it back and forth a couple times, the blade will snap nicely!

use pliers to bend/break the hacksaw blade

Now one end is smooth and the other jagged. I bent off the rough corner, then did a fancy sanding job…using the concrete. It works great!

"sand" the rough corner/edge off on the concrete

Now trim your boards a little longer than the blade. I used a hacksaw and miter box, but honestly, this isn't precision work at this point, and scoring/cutting with a utility knife would work too. I did a rough sand of the corners and edges of the boards.

trim the boards to size (8 inches each in my case)

do a rough sanding of the wood

Test your blade sandwich. You want it to stick out about 1/8 inch. Now for the glue: run a bead of glue along the board, one for the blade and the other higher up. Place the blade with the correct amount sticking out, run a bit more glue on it, then sandwich the whole thing. Use the fancy clamps (binder clips) to hold it together. Smashing it under a brick would work too.

how far the blade should stick out

glue on the first board

glue on placed blade

fancy clamps to hold it all together

Now wait for it to dry. Go eat some dinner or something (full disclosure, I had cereal for dinner!). After the glue is dry you can clean it up a bit if some oozed out, but I didn't find I needed to. Now your tool is technically complete, but I didn't like the feel of the wood handle, and wanted to make it a little sturdier.

done, but tape does help the handle

Use some duct tape (of whatever variety you have laying around) to wrap the handle a couple times till smooth. Then you can accessorize with color if you want (orange of course!). DONE.

add tape to top and edges

final accessory tape not needed but AAO (always add orange)

Very satisfying, simple project. Even more satisfying is grooming off all the dirty winter hair to reveal shiny spring fur!

getting shiny!

love the texture and color

This is not an artisan tool, but mine has worked for me for two seasons. Now, since I already have one of these, and don't need two, who wants this one? Giveaway time: Comment below and I'll pick one random name and send you the tool I just made (sorry about the orange!). Just let me know if it works for your horse!